As the Cannes market heats up before the Cannes Film Festival starts next Friday, another film goes up for sale on the Croisette. Variety reports that Village Roadshow Pictures joins the market now with the epic romance “Eternal Return.” And the film has three intriguing actors as its leads: “Aladdin” breakout actress Naomi Scott, the legendary Jeremy Irons, and “Game Of Thrones” alumnus Kit Harington.
So what’s “Eternal Return” about? Harington plays Virgil, a cartographer who knows how to map imaginary places. In a bid to win the heart of Scott’s Cass, Virgil joins up with Irons’ renaissance man Malcolm to travel back in time and make Cass believe in love again. Yaniv Raz, the director of “Dr. Bird’s Advice For Sad Poets,” writes and directs the film.
“Eternal Return” is the first of many projects Village Roadshow exec Steve Mosko has developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. He leads the charge here on the production team, with Jillian Apfelbaum, Tristen Tuckfield, and Nic Gordon also producing. Scott also co-produces with Jordan Spence through New Name Entertainment.
Mosko sees “Eternal Return” as a spearhead in his plan to transform Village Roadshow Pictures from a passive film financier to an active creative studio. “We want to be nimble,” Mosko said to Variety about the film’s sale. “Despite what the consumer might think, this company hadn’t produced a movie for 25 years. We shot four this year, and have a ton of amazing stuff on the runway.” Apfelbaum also express interest in having Village Roadshow Pictures recruit filmmakers to make movies for them at Cannes this year. “We offer optionality to our filmmakers,” Apfelbaum said. “When the time comes, we can sell directly to streamers, to studios, or co-finance these projects.”
So how is Village Roadshow Pictures changing their brand? Well, they’ve teamed up with former NBA star Kevin Garnett for Black Noir Cinema, which aims to bring the singular vision of Black movies back into the mainstream. First up there: Pam Grier‘s “Cinnamon,” which will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival next month. Other upcoming VRP pics include John Waters‘ adaptation of his “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance,” his first film in ages. There’s also a new “Night Of The Living Dead” movie VRP has with MGM. And Village Roadshow wants to toy with its back catalog too, with a reboot of the Sarah Jessica Parker flick “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and the 1996 Farrelly Brothers bowling comedy “Kingpin.”
As for “Eternal Return,” it’s Yaniv Raz’s first film since 2021’s “Sad Poets.” Now word yet on when this film will start shooting. Let’s see how it does on the Cannes market first.