Fresh off news confirming its appearance at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, we now have a few new stills from Lee Daniels' "The Paperboy," his forthcoming film featuring the leading trio of Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and Matthew McConaughey.
An adaptation of a Pete Dexter novel, the '60s-era thriller follows respected journalist Ward James (McConaughey) and his brother Jack (Efron), a college dropout, as they investigate the possible wrongful conviction of a death row inmate who was found guilty of killing a sheriff. Kidman has already been touted by producer Cassian Elwes as a performance to watch out for playing the convict's correspondent love interest who Efron's character falls for.
The film also co-stars John Cusack as the inmate; David Oyelowo as Yardley, who teams with Ward James on the investigation; and Scott Glenn as the James brothers' father and the newspaper's Editor-in-chief. And here's a fun fact: the project was developed by Pedro Almodóvar for nearly a decade as his potential English-language debut. And while he eventually moved on, the script we saw last year was credited to both Almodóvar and Daniels, so perhaps it will have some of the former director's edge? We'll soon find out.
"The Paperboy" will play In Competition at Cannes. The festival runs from May 16-27. [Allocine via UpAndComers]