Cannes 2012 Film Festival Selection - Killing Them Softly, Lawless & More

Cannes Film Festival bosses Thierry Fremaux and Gilles Jacob have revealed the full official selection of films to play at this year's 65th annual extravaganza on the South of France. The big news coming out of the Paris press-conference reveal is that two of our most anticipated forthcoming films; John Hillcoat's 'Lawless' (formerly The Wettest County in the World) and Andrew Dominik's 'Killing Them Softly' (formerly Cogan's Trade) will debut on the Croisette. With their ensemble casts, intriguing concepts and exciting talent behind the camera, we had our fingers crossed tightly that they might debut in Cannes and our prayers were answered this morning. 'Killing Them Softly' is based on George V. Higgins€™ obscure novel €œCogan€™s Trade€ and casts Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, €œa professional enforcer who investigates a heist that went down during a mob-protected poker game€ believed to have been perpetrated by two junkies played by Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn. Described as a more serious €˜Ocean€™s Eleven€™ and featuring a more sinisterly dark and humorous tone than his criminally under-rated 2008 western 'The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford', Andrew Dominik€™s movie co-stars Ray Liotta (the hustler Mark €œMarkie€ Trattman in charge of the game), Richard Jenkins (a lawyer in the know), James Gandolfini (a washed up hitman), Vincent Curatola (as an ex-convict seeking revenge) with additional roles for Sam Shephard and Bella Heathcote. 'Lawless' meanwhile is the newest collaboration between Australians Nick Cave (script writer) and John Hillcoat (director) who together made 'The Proposition' and 'The Road'. The movie centers on the Bondurant brothers Forrest (Jason Clarke), Howard (Tom Hardy) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf) €“ a family bootlegging gang who find their moonshine dynasty in Franklin County, Virginia threatened by the authorities wanting a cut during the 30€s Prohibition era. Gary Oldman supports as the brothers€™ employer and Hillcoat€™s muse, Guy Pearce, brought over from his previous films is a violent deputy hot on their heels. Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikoswksa are Hardy and LaBeouf€™s love interests, respectively. We already knew that Wes Anderson's 'Moonrise Kingdom' would open the festival. The ensemble film stars Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and Harvey Keitel. Revealed just hours before the official announcement was the news that David Cronenberg's new thriller Cosmopolis will debut at the Croisette. We always figured the movie would debut there as it had a May 25th release date already set in France and after viewing the recently released full-length trailer, it sure looks to be a return to Cronenberg's wacky psycho-sexual best. The news was revealed via the festival's signature stamp "Competition Officielle Festival de Cannes" and golden palm logo playing before the trailer. Also revealed before the festival was a special restored screening of Sergio Leone's epic gangster classic Once Upon A Time In America which will put 40 minutes of footage back into the film for an incredible 269-minute run time. Plus, Claude Miller's final film "Thérèse D" starring Audrey Tautou will close the festival. The director, a former Jury Prize winner in 1998 at the festival, passed away on April 4th and the selectors have chosen his film to close the festival as a nice tribute. Based on Francois Mauriac's novel, Tautou plays a young intellectual woman in the 1920s France who becomes bored with the domestic rural life she has married into and plots a way of poisoning her husband. Here's the full list of films to play in Cannes 2012 which runs from May 16-27th. In Competition: "Amour" (dir. Michael Haneke) "The Angel's Share" (dir. Ken Loach) "Baad EL Mawkeaa (Apres La Bataille") (dir. Yousry Nasrallah) "Beyond The Hills" (dir. Cristian Mungiu) "Cosmopolis" (dir. David Cronenberg) "Holy Motors" (dir. Leos Carax) "The Hunt" (dir. Thomas Vinterberg) "In Another Country" (dir. Hong Sang-Soo) "Im Nebels (Dans La Brume)" (dir. Sergei Loznitsa) "Killing Them Softly" (dir. Andrew Dominik) "Lawless" (dir. John Hillcoat) "Like Someone In Love" (dir. Abbas Kiarostami) "Moonrise Kingdom" (dir. Wes Anderson) "Mud" (dir. Jeff Nichols) "On The Road" (dir. Walter Salles) "Paradies: Liebe" (dir. Ulrich Seidl) "The Paperboy" (dir. Lee Daniels) "Post Tenebras Lux" (dir. Carlos Reygadas) "Reality" (dir. Matteo Garrone) "Rust & Bone" (dir. Jacques Audiard) "Taste Of Money" (dir. Im Sang-Soo) "Vous N'Avez Encoure Rien Vu" (dir. Alain Resnais) Opening Film: "Moonrise Kingdom" (dir. Wes Anderson) Closing Film: "Therese D." (dir. Claude Miller) Un Certain Regard: "Miss Lovely" (dir. Ashim Ahluwalia) "La Playa" (dir. Juan Andres Arango) "Les Chevaus De Dieu" (dir. Nabil Ayouch) "Trois Mondes" (dir. Catheron Corsini) "Antiviral" (dir. Brandon Cronenberg) "7 Days In Havana" (dir. Benicio Del Toro, Laurent Cantet, Gaspar Noe etc) "Le Grand Soir" (dir. Benoit Delepine & Gustave Kervern) "Laurence Anyways" (dir. Xavier Dolan) "Despues De Lucia" (dir. Michel Franco) "Aimer A Perdre La Raison" (dir. Joachim Lafosse) "Mystery" (dir. Lou Ye) "Student" (dir. Darezhan Omirbayev) "La Pirogue" (dir. Moussa Toure) "Elefante Blanco" (dir. Pablo Trapero) "Confession Of A Child Of The Century" (dir. Sylvie Verheyde) "11.25: The Day He Chose His Own Fate" (dir. Koji Wakamatsu) "Beasts Of The Southern Wild" (dir. Benh Zeitlin) Out of Competition "Une Journee Particuliere" (dir. Gilles Jacob and Samuel Faure) "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" (dir. Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath) "Dario Argento's Dracula" (dir. Dario Argento) "Io E Te" (dir. Bernardo Berolucci) "Hemingway & Gellhorn" (Dir. Philip Kaufman) "Ai To Makoto" (dir. Takashi Miike) Special Screening: "Der Mull Im Garten Eden" (dir. Faith Akin) "Mekong Hotel" (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul) "Villegas" (dir. Gonzalo Tobal) "A Musica Segundo Tom Jobim" (dir. Nelson Pereira Do Santos) "Journal De France" (dir. Claudine Nougaret & Raymond Depardon) "Les Invisbles" (dir. Sebastien Lifshitz) "The Central Park Five" (dir. Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon) "Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir" (dir. Laurent Bouzereau)