This completely evaded our radar at the time, but Stephen Dorff evidently revealed to Pete Hammond last month that Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere,” in which he stars alongside Elle Fanning, will skip the Cannes Film Festival this year.
The film was hotly-tipped to premiere at the fest and was said to be a sure thing in recent line-up predictions, but with Coppola’s baby due right around the time the festival runs, Dorff noted that the film will likely pass the Croisette for the Venice-Toronto route, like 2003’s “Lost In Translation.”
It remains to be seen whether or not the situation will change, but if so, the lack of Coppola will be a big blow, not only for the festival, but also to the filmmaker herself, who surely would have loved to return and prove herself to the very crowd who jeered and booed their way through the credits of her last film, “Marie Antoinette.” Then again, that Cannes crowd is tough and once you’ve been burned….
“Somewhere” centers on a hard-living Hollywood star (Dorff) whose transient life at the Chateau Marmont is turned on its head when his estranged, 11 year old daughter (Fanning) drops in for an unexpected visit. Michelle Monaghan and Chris Pontius co-star with cameos from an eclectic bunch, including Benicio Del Toro, indie-rockers Rooney, Erin Wasson, Laura Ramsey, Caitlin Keats, Playboy models Karissa and Kristina Shannon and Italian actresses/models Nino Frassica, Simona Ventura, Valeria Marini and Laura Chiatti. Phoenix front-man Thomas Mars, who is incidentally the father of Coppola’s upcoming child, will be scoring.
New photos from the film’s production shot by Coppola stable photographers Melodie McDaniel and Andrew Durham have also been dug up over at I Heart Sofia.
Big thanks to the anonymous Playlist reader for the tip.