The official line-up for the Cannes Film Festival 2013 is announced as we write this, but it was announced that “Only God Forgives” by Nicolas Winding Refn will be part of the competition at the prestige festival. The festival runs from May 15 until 26. Let’s hope Ryan is able to attend, since he is expected to start production on his directorial debut in May as well.

“The Place Beyond the Pines” will be released March 29th, 2013 according to Box Office Mojo. Collider is reporting the following:

The Toronto Film Festival is widely considered to be the place where a majority of the buzz for so-called “awards films” begins, and this year one of the biggest surprises was Derek Cianfrance’s (Blue Valentine) crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines. The pic stars Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper and centers on the intense feud between a professional motorcycle rider turned bank robber (Gosling) and a rookie police officer (Cooper). The film premiered to an enthusiastically positive response at TIFF, with heavy praise given to the film’s scope and impact; our own Matt Goldberg called it an “epic family saga” in his positive review.

Focus Features acquired the film for 2013 distribution, and many figured the drama would be poised for an awards season release sometime in the fall. Now Box Office Mojo reports that we’ll see the pic much sooner than expected, as The Place Beyond the Pines has been dated for a limited release on March 29th, 2013. This is great news for those of us eager to see what everyone was buzzing about back at TIFF, but it’s a little surprising that Focus is dropping this one so early in the year.
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Deadline is reporting that Ben Affleck is in early talks to join the upcoming movie “Focus“. As we reported back in April it was first announced that Ryan and Emma Stone were eyed for the project.

EXCLUSIVE: As Warner Bros prepares to open Ben Affleck’s Oscar-season entry Argo, the studio is in early talks with Affleck to star in Focus. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa wrote the script and will direct. Denise DiNovi is producing. All of this is subject to finding the right female lead, but it all sounds promising and Warner Bros is eager to move quickly and get this into production. Focus tells the story of a veteran con man who gets involved with a newcomer to the grifter business. They become involved romantically but that becomes perilous in a business where they lie and cheat for a living. The complications of the encounter haunt them when they meet up again in the future.

I first wrote about Warner Bros’ purchase of the project in April, when the first notion was for the directors of Crazy, Stupid, Love to bring back that film’s leads, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. DiNovi produced that film as well. The Gosling-Stone configuration fell by the wayside awhile ago, but the studio is ready to go with Affleck and they have begun the search for the female lead.

Affleck is repped by WME as are Ficarra and Requa.
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“Drive” director Nicolas Windig Refn talked about not doing “Drive 2” but he did reveal Ryan’s character might return in another movie. Ryan and Refn already working together again on “Only God Forgives, which is expected to release next year. “Logan’s Run” is currently in pre-production with both Ran and Refn attached to it.

Nicolas Windig Refn’s ‘Drive’ was without one of the movies of last year, with its stylish direction and central performance from Ryan Gosling enthralling audiences and critics alike.

So when we got the chance to speak to Nicholas, at the premiere of the English language remake of his 1996 film ‘Pusher’, we were eager to ask the director and producer if he would return to his previous subject and make a ‘Drive 2′.
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“The Place Beyond the Pines” is one of the ‘hottest’ titles at the Toronto International Film Festival. THR is reporting that The Weinstein Co. is making a big push for the movie.

TORONTO — In talks that could lead to the first major acquisition deal of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, The Weinstein Co. is aggressively pursuing Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines.

The drama — starring Bradley Cooper, Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes — made its world premiere Friday night at the festival. Buyers turned out in force to see the film, one of the most-hyped acquisition titles of the festival.

A source close to the dealmaking tells The Hollywood Reporter that The Weinstein has put in a bid for the film and a deal could be imminent. If so, TWC would make a natural home for the movie, having released Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine, also starring Gosling, in 2010.

WME and CAA are co-repping domestic rights to Beyond the Pines, a multi-generational drama about family and the cycle of violence, from producers Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Sierra/Affinity, Jamie Patricof, Alex Orlovsky and Lynette Howell.

Buyers had been offered a chance to bid on Beyond the Pines sight-unseen. TWC was among those making a pitch, but dealmaking stepped up upon the film’s premiere.

However, many buyers at Friday’s screening stressed that they wanted to gauge the film’s reviews before making an offer.
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Christina Hendricks, who will star in Ryan’s directorial debut “How to Catch a Monster“, talked to Vulture about the movie.

When it was announced that Ryan Gosling would be directing his first movie, a fantasy film that he wrote, and he had cast Christina Hendricks in the lead role, the project quickly became Vulture’s new favorite movie before even a frame of footage had been shot. “That’s a good place to start!” enthused Hendricks when we caught up with her today at the Toronto Film Festival. So how did the movie come about? Did Gosling ring her up and say simply, “Hey girl, I’ve got a script for you?”

“I don’t think he said ‘Hey girl,’ but the rest of it’s true,” laughed Hendricks, who says it was “crazy flattering” to get the offer. “His first big film, and he could have gotten anyone!” she said. “It was very heartwarming and the biggest compliment ever.”
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