The success story of ‘Midnight in Paris‘ is continuing. It has now taken $50 million at the U.S. box office – and is now Woody Allen’s top-grossing film of all time at the US box office. It had overtaken both Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Match Point‘s gross of $23.2 million in late June and has since beaten the $40.1 million earned 25 years ago by Hannah and Her Sisters.

Sony Pictures Classics have now announced their plans for a wide US re-release of ‘Midnight in Paris‘ as of August 26 (likely to expand to 900-1000 theatres as opposed to the current 400). The re-release will be accompanied by new TV ads. It seems like the studio to get the best out of the movie – both in terms of profit and Oscar buzz.

• Sources: Hollywood Reporter and IndieWire.com

Also ‘Midnight in Paris‘ was released in theatres in German speaking territory (Germany, Austria & Switzerland) yesterday.

Marion Cotillard’s upcoming movie, the Woody Allen-directed ‘Midnight in Paris‘ will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 11 in the Lumière theatre, in the presence of the Jury presided by Robert De Niro.

“Midnight in Paris is a wonderful love letter to Paris”, declared Festival director Thierry Frémaux. “It’s a film in which Woody Allen takes a deeper look at the issues raised in his last films: our relationship with history, art, pleasure and life. His 41st feature reveals once again his inspiration.”

Mars Films is distributing the movie in France and the great news is that they’re releasing it in 400 cinemas across France the very same day. The festival together with Canal+ and the national federation of French theaters plan to make the Opening Ceremony available as live feed to any theatre in France requesting it.

Source: Deadline.com

In the US the distribution will be handled by Sony Pictures Classic as reported earlier this month – but they have not yet set a release date. This is what they have to say about the movie:

“Midnight in Paris is Woody Allen at his most magical,” said SPC’s Michael Barker and Tom Bernard in a joint statement. “We couldn’t be more pleased to be back with Woody, Letty and their entire team, as well as our friends at Mediapro.”

Visit IFC.com to see the first official still from ‘Midnight in Paris‘ (it’s of Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams).

Despite previous denial, the US release date for ‘Nine‘ has indeed been pushed back. It will now open in New York and Los Angeles on December 18 before going wide on Christmas, December 25.

Source: Variety

It has been announced today, that ‘Inception‘ – directed by Chris Nolan and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine – will be released in IMAX theatres as well as in traditional theatres on July 16, 2010:

“Chris Nolan and IMAX have proven to be ideally suited to each other, and we’re very excited to bring them back together again for Inception,” said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. Picture’s president of domestic distribution. “With the rapidly growing IMAX network, our IMAX audience base for this release will be significantly larger than it was for The Dark Knight, which will add to the film’s event status.”

Read more enthusiastic quotes about this news from people representing Warner Bros. and IMAX here.

Thanks to jannaclaire who uploaded the clip to YouTube we can all enjoy the brief sneak preview at ‘Nine‘s Behind the Scenes that ET aired yesterday. There are some new shots of Marion. Edit: Caps have since been replaced by HQ ones from official Rehearsal Montage.

There were some rumours that ‘Nine‘ would be pushed back. However, The Weinstein Company has officially issued the following statement to HitFix.com:

“The rumors are untrue. ‘Nine‘ is opening limted on November 25 and will continue to expand through Christmas.”

007 Nine – 2009 > Screencaptures > Rehearsal Montage Watch on YouTube
001 Nine – 2009 > Stills uploaded HQ still

Thanks to our forum member Nadine for the information. Apparently, the release date for ‘Le dernier vol‘ (The Last Flight) in France and French-speaking Switzerland has been pushed back to December 16, 2009. It now no longer faces direct competition from ‘Twilight: New Moon‘ – however ‘Avatar‘ opens in the same week.

There’s also a new synopsis, at least it’s a re-written version of the one we’ve posted back in March (translation by myself):

French Sahara, 1933
Having embarked on a search for the man she loves, who disappeared while attempting to fly from London to Cape (South Africa) by plane, the adventurer and aviator Marie Vallières de Beaumont is constrained to land her biplane close to an outpost of the French “Meharists” (French Foreign Legion) in the middle of the Sahara desert.

Faced with the young woman’s determination Antoine Chauvet, a lieutenant in conflict with his hierarchy, decides to help her in this hopeless quest – in a place called Ténéré (south central Sahara) which is both grandiose and hostile.

In this desert, which doesn’t lie, and in the abandonment the place imposes, Marie and Antoine are going to discover a truth they hadn’t expected.

Original French Synopsis:

Sahara Français, 1933
Partie à la recherche de l’homme qu’elle aime, disparu lors d’une tentative de traversé Londres/Le cap en avion, l’aventurière et aviatrice Marie Vallières de Beaumont est contrainte de poser son Biplan prés d’un poste avancé de « méhariste » français en plein désert Saharien.

Confronté à la détermination de la jeune femme, Antoine Chauvet, lieutenant en conflit avec sa hiérarchie, décide de l’aider dans cette quête désespérée, dans un lieu aussi grandiose et hostile que le Ténéré.

Dans ce désert qui ne ment pas, et dans l’abandon qu’il impose, Marie et Antoine découvriront une vérité à laquelle ils ne s’attendaient pas.

Also there’s a tentative theatrical release date for ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ (France): October 20, 2010.

I replaced two of the ‘Le dernier vol‘ (The Last Flight) stills we recently got from the Figaro magazine with beautiful HQ pictures. Enjoy!

The release date for the film in France and French speaking Switzerland is now November 18, 2009. Unfortunately, I leave for a 3 week holiday the same day so I really really hope it will still be playing in a city nearby when I get back.

002 Le dernier vol (The Last Flight) – 2009 > Stills

Finally! ‘Public Enemies‘ can be seen in US theatres as of today! Be sure to head out and watch Marion’s first movie since ‘La Vie en Rose‘ (2007). The movie will open in the UK July 3, in France July 8, in Australia July 30, and in Germany August 6 (see more dates).

Check out the many features on the movie’s official site! And read some new interviews:

• Stormy role’s French twist, Journal Sentinel, June 27
• Marion Cotillard is ready for her close-ups, Twincities.com, June 30

Next, Marion Cotillard’s scheduled to promote ‘Public Enemies‘ in her home country France. First, she’ll attend the movie’s premiere in Paris tomororrow.

On Friday she’s the star guest of Radio RTL. In the morning (9.00-9.30 am) she’ll be interviewed during a programm called Laissez-vous tenter and in the afternoon she’ll participate in the programme La tête dans les étoiles together with Laurent Boyer. And in the evening there will be a screening of the movie in Lyon.

As previously announced, there’ll be a TV interview titled Marion Cotillard, la rencontre (20 minutes) airing on Canal+, Sunday 11.55 am.

I’m in and out of town this and next week but I’ll try to update the site as much as possible.

Cinematic Happenings Under Development has a report on how the producers of ‘Nine‘ are hopeful the film will be part of next year’s awards season. To increase the film’s chances they set a new release date for Rob Marshall’s musical: November 25, 2009.

Michael Tolkin wrote the original script draft but, in final Oscar-bait form, it was rewritten by the late Anthony Minghella shortly before his death.

Now the film has moved up to November 25 from December 11; that’s a big Thanksgiving weekend thumbs-up from The Weinstein Company. And why not? The last time Marshall unleashed a musical (Chicago) it took home many dollars and awards for Harvey & Co.