Miramax's future is looking bleaker by the day with major delays announced in its 2005 schedule. Dear Frankie, the story of a woman who writes letters to her son posing as his father, was due to be released in two weeks time, but is now delayed until March 4. Meanwhile, An Unfinished Life, a drama starring Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez, was due for release at Christmas but the date is now undecided. The production company that spearheaded a renaissance in US independent cinema in the 1990s announced last month that 65 of its 485 staff would be fired.
Is Luc Besson's ambitious cinema city also heading for trouble? Arguably France's most successful director, Besson is determined to build a 42,000 sq m studio complex outside Paris to boost the Gallic film industry. However, he has just sacked the building contractor and the architects and is looking for new funds for a project that is estimated to cost around 100m euros (£68m).
Catherine Deneuve, popular queen of French cinema, is to play an actual queen in her latest film. She is currently shooting the French comedy Palais Royal! on locations around Paris, London and Belgium. Her son is played by Lambert Wilson, best known in Britain as the Merovingian in the Matrix sequels.
The 30th Deauville festival, dedicated to American films, is starting today. Films in competition include Catwoman, the Michael Mann thriller Collateral and Todd Solondz's Palindromes. Steven Spielberg will be honoured with a retrospective of all his films, while George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola are expected to attend.
