Olivier Assayas is back on the Croisette of the Cannes Film Festival, albeit at the Cannes Market.  And the French auteur’s next project is easily one of the buzziest packages at the festival so far.  Variety reports Assayas’ next film will be “The Wizard Of The Kremlin,” which sees the director reunite with “Irma Vep” star Alicia Vikander for a political thriller in the vein of “Carlos” and “The Wasp Network.”

READ MORE: Cannes Film Festival 2024 Preview: 22 Must-See Films To Watch

Based on Giuliano da Empoli‘s 2022 book of the same name, “The Wizard Of The Kremlin” centers on the life and rise to power of Vladimir Putin’s infamous advisor and spin doctor Vadim Baranov.

Continue reading ‘The Wizard Of The Kremlin’: Olivier Assayas’ Next Film Stars Paul Dano, Alicia Vikander, Jude Law, Zach Galifianakis & Tom Sturridge at The Playlist.

Next year, CHANEL dedicates its Summer 2023 Ready-To-Wear show at the Grand Palais Ephémère in Paris to actress Kristen Stewart. No surprise there, as Steward has been a brand ambassador for the French fashion house since 2013 and is the face of CHANEL’s S/S 2023 collection. But Forbes had some great news for moviegoers in their coverage of CHANEL’s plans: Stewart and filmmaker Olivier Assayas have a new project together lined up.

Continue reading Kristen Stewart & Olivier Assayas Have A New Project Together In The Works at The Playlist.

Over the past decade, Alicia Vikander has swiftly become one of moviemaking’s most sought-after actresses. And her resumé shows off her range: she’s just as comfortable in a blockbuster like “Tomb Raider” as she is in art films like “Ex Machina” or Oscar bait like 2015’s “The Danish Girl.” But Vikander’s talent as an actress couldn’t prepare her for the loneliness that came with her rapid rise to stardom.

Continue reading Alicia Vikander On The Darker Side Of Fame: “At My Height Of Fame, I Was The Most Sad” at The Playlist.

You’d think it’d be near impossible for Olivier Assayas to add any more meta-textual layers to his 1996 masterpiece, “Irma Vep,” which followed a fictional film crew in their attempts to remake the (real) 1916 movie serial “Les Vampires” by Louis Feuillade. Assayas’ solution? To remake his own remake, but this time as a limited series.

READ MORE: ‘Irma Vep’ Review: Olivier Assayas Reckons With The Ghosts Of His Filmmaking Past In Meta New HBO Series [Cannes]

Instead of Maggie Cheung (who played herself in the ‘96 movie), the series sees Alicia Vikander as Mira, an American star dissatisfied with her career and eager for a new (non-English language) challenge.

Continue reading ‘Irma Vep’ Trailer: Alicia Vikander Is A Movie Star In Olivier Assayas’ Meta-Remake For HBO at The Playlist.

CANNES – To be frank, it’s hard to explain Olivier Assayas‘ impressive new limited series “Irma Vep” with a simple logline. It’s primarily about a modern-day movie star, Mira (Alicia Vikander), who is starring in a new limited series inspired by the classic French silent film “Les Vampires” which also inspired a 1997 film, “Irma Vep.” In the HBO series, the director (Vincent Macaigne), is remaking his own movie of “Irma Vep” into a limited series, just like Assayas is in real life.

Continue reading Alicia Vikander & Olivier Assayas & Their Very Personal Connections To ‘Irma Vep’ [Cannes] at The Playlist.

When cinema is your life, cinema can hurt. “Time doesn’t heal,” Tom Sturridge says about the scars that mark us in Olivier Assayas’ beguiling and fascinating new HBO limited-series version of “Irma Vep.” “Time just buries pain, but the wounds remain.” This eloquent twist on a platitude could perfectly encapsulate Assayas’ director’s statement. Creating filmic art can be a vulnerable, agonizing endeavor; sometimes, the battles to make them and fulfill a creative vision produce traumas and ghosts that can haunt for years.

Continue reading ‘Irma Vep’ Review: Olivier Assayas Reckons With The Ghosts Of His Filmmaking Past In Meta New HBO Series [Cannes] at The Playlist.

1996s “Irma Vep” saw Olivier Assayas contribute to a rich tapestry of meta cinema stretching back to Federico Fellini’s 1963 masterpiece “8½.” Itself drawing upon François Truffaut’s metafictional “Day For Night” as a direct source, the film followed René Vidal, an over-the-hill film director whose recent output has descended into alienating pseudo-intellectualism, and his attempt to remake the classic French film serial, “Les Vampires.” Introducing veteran of Hong Kong cinema, Maggie Cheung, to a western audience, playing herself as an actress cast in the fictional director’s film as Irma (keeping up?), Assayas’ film contemplated the nature of the creative process, using its verité aesthetic to capture the mania of a film set while also providing a broader meditation on the state of modern French cinema. 

Continue reading ‘Irma Vep’ Trailer: Alicia Vikander To Star In HBO Limited Series Based on Olivier Assayas’ Cult Classic at The Playlist.

Swedish Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander (“Ex Machina“) is leading a series remake of “Irma Vep” that hails from A24 Films, HBO, and director Olivier Assayas (“Carlos“). The project is a remake of the French film “Les Vampires,” which got a cinematic remake, also directed by Assayas, starring Maggie Chung back in 1996.

Continue reading Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter Scoring Alicia Vikander’s ‘Irma Vep’ Remake Series at The Playlist.

After collaborating in back-to-back films with Olivier Assayas, actor Kristen Stewart hasn’t teamed up with the filmmaker since 2016. But apparently, the two are working together again for the upcoming remake of “Irma Vep.”

READ MORE: ‘Irma Vep’: Adria Arjona, Carrie Brownstein, Jerrod Carmichael & Others Join Alicia Vikander In HBO’s Series

According to The New Yorker, Kristen Stewart is set to have a “small” role in the upcoming “Irma Vep” remake series, which is slated to arrive on HBO eventually.

Continue reading ‘Irma Vep’: Kristen Stewart To Reteam With Olivier Assayas For A Role In The Upcoming HBO Series at The Playlist.

There are two types of film fans when it comes to the career of Kristen Stewart. There are the folks that remember her mainly for her work in the “Twilight” franchise (probably the larger contingent). Then you have the people that are more impressed by Stewart’s post-“Twilight” filmography, which consists of auteur dramas and indie darlings. Perhaps there’s a third group (the smallest, by a mile) that really dig her in “Charlie’s Angels.” One thing is for sure, Kristen Stewart has made a ton of films in her career.

Continue reading Kristen Stewart Says Choosing Projects Is A “Crapshoot” & Admits She’s Only Made “5 Really Good Films” In Her Career at The Playlist.

One of the more exciting remake announcements of the last couple of years is the new “Irma Vep” TV series that is coming to HBO from A24 and filmmaker Olivier Assayas. The critically-acclaimed feature from 1996 is getting expanded into a TV series, written by Assayas, with Alicia Vikander on board to star in the lead role. And now, if that wasn’t exciting enough, we now know some of the supporting cast that will appear in “Irma Vep,” featuring some of the most talented folks around.

Continue reading ‘Irma Vep’: Adria Arjona, Carrie Brownstein, Jerrod Carmichael & Others Join Alicia Vikander In HBO’s Series at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

This week’s very busy round-up of new movies on disc and digital includes Sunday night’s big winner, four new additions to the Criterion Collection, one of the best comedies of the ‘90s, and three showcases for one of the brightest stars of the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Continue reading The 14 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Synchronic,’ ‘Memories of Murder,’ ‘Nomadland’ & More at The Playlist.

After winning an Oscar and making a name for herself on the big screen, it appears that Alicia Vikander is ready to conquer your TVs as well. Last month, it was announced that the actress would star in a remake series based on “Dial M for Murder.” And now, she’s not done with TV and remakes, as she is set to star in HBO’s upcoming series adaptation of the feature film, “Irma Vep.”

READ MORE: Alicia Vikander To Star In Terence Winter’s ‘Dial M For Murder’ Anthology Series

According to HBO, Vikander is set to star as the title character in the upcoming series “Irma Vep.” In the show, the actress will play Vep, an actress as well, who is starring in a remake of the 1915 French film serial “Les Vampires,” however, as the filming continues, she begins to lose track of where the character ends and she begins.

Continue reading Alicia Vikander To Star In Olivier Assayas’ ‘Irma Vep’ Series Remake For HBO & A24 at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage, and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This weekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching. 

They’re starting to schedule film festivals again, for some reason, so it’s a fine week to check out some festival selections from home, including the latest from Olivier Assayas (Venice, TIFF, and NYFF 2019) and Céline Sciamma (Cannes, TIFF, NYFF 2019), the Audience Award winner from Sundance 2018, and a music documentary from Slamdance 2019.

Continue reading The 8 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Wasp Network,’ ‘Tommy Boy’ & More at The Playlist.

When Terrence Malick won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2011 with “The Tree of Life,” it was one of the few times award juries actually recognized one of the best movies of the year. The runner-up? One of 2011’s best movies, Lars von Trier‘s visceral exploration of depression in “Melancholia.” Turns out that von Trier’s film was actually the jury’s favorite, until the Danish director gave a press conference with an anti-Semitic joke that made him lose the award.

Continue reading Olivier Assayas Says Lars Von Trier’s Anti-Semitic Joke Caused ‘Melancholia’ To Lose The Palme D’Or In 2011 To ‘The Tree of Life’ at The Playlist.

Not all film festivals go perfectly. Sometimes, a film festival premiere is more of a test screening than a huge, earth-shattering debut. And that was exactly the case with Olivier Assayas’ recent film “Wasp Network,” when it premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival. The film didn’t have the most welcome reception upon its debut, giving the filmmaker the motivation to go back and edit it to how he wanted.

Continue reading Olivier Assayas’ ‘Wasp Network’ To Debut On Netflix Next Month at The Playlist.

Over the past several years, we’ve begun to see quite a few film directors make the transition over to TV productions. For many, it’s the creative freedom that folks are enjoying in the realm of TV series that is enticing the auteurs to make the leap. And it appears that Olivier Assayas is the latest filmmaker to take a chance on a new TV series, as he is working on a new show based on his previous film, “Irma Vep.”

READ MORE: Olivier Assayas Says His Issue With Modern Blockbusters Is Their “Contempt For The Audience”

According to a new interview with NY Times, where Assayas gave some information about what he’s doing right now during quarantine without the Cannes Film Festival to keep him busy, the filmmaker explained that he’s in the middle of writing a new TV series based on his 1996 film, “Irma Vep.”

“These days I’m writing for A24 a serial based on my 1996 feature ‘Irma Vep,’” said Assayas.

Continue reading Olivier Assayas Is Writing A New ‘Irma Vep’ TV Series For A24 at The Playlist.

Earlier, we showed that Olivier Assayas, a world-class filmmaker in his own right, has some nuanced opinions about the current state of the film industry, particularly when it comes to the big debate over what constitutes real “cinema.” Well, his opinions go a bit deeper than just that, as he also explained the overall thoughts on the studio system and how Netflix plays a role in film distribution.

Speaking to Le Monde, Assayas was asked about blockbusters and why he feels they seem to dominate theaters nowadays.

Continue reading Olivier Assayas Says His Issue With Modern Blockbusters Is Their “Contempt For The Audience” at The Playlist.

It’s only fitting that we finish 2019 with yet another article about the big debate over whether or not superhero films are “cinema.” Of course, this discussion is now seen through the prism of what Martin Scorsese’s definition of “cinema,” which seems to include most films other than superheroes and ‘Fast & Furious‘-style films. Well, with mere hours left in the year (and decade), leave it to Olivier Assayas to provide perhaps the most well-rounded and honest critique of superhero films and why he doesn’t necessarily agree with the “Goodfellas” director.

Continue reading Olivier Assayas Provides A Rational Answer To Marvel/Scorsese Debate & Why He’d Shoot A Low-Budget ‘Wonder Woman’ Film at The Playlist.

A world premiere screening at the Venice Film Festival is supposed to be an incredible experience for any filmmaker. However, in the case of acclaimed director Olivier Assayas, the recent debut of his film, “Wasp Network,” wasn’t exactly what he had planned. And according to a new interview with Deadline, the filmmaker is prepared to make the necessary changes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

According to Assayas, he’s going to take “Wasp Network” back to the editing bay after initial reviews from Venice weren’t exactly what he anticipated.

Continue reading Filmmaker Olivier Assayas Is Re-Editing ‘Wasp Network’ After Unfavorable Venice Reviews at The Playlist.

No matter the venue, whether it’s the Venice Film Festival or you friend’s basement, if there’s a chance to check out a new film from filmmaker Olivier Assayas, you jump on it. Luckily for the safety of film fans worldwide, there’s no need to go to someone’s basement to check out “Wasp Network,” the latest from the director. Instead, you just have to be in Venice.

Continue reading ‘Wasp Network’ Exclusive Clip: Olivier Assayas’ Latest Film Debuts At Venice And Stars Edgar Ramirez, Penelope Cruz & More at The Playlist.

This year’s New York Film Festival is packed with screenings of some of the year’s best films. But the event, which is brought to you by the Film at Lincoln Center, isn’t just known for its screenings. Instead, each year, NYFF brings some of the best discussions, Q&As, and masterclasses that you’ll find anywhere in the world. And in 2019, that’s no different.

Today, NYFF announced it’s lineup of short films, special screenings, and discussions for 2019.

Continue reading NYFF 2019: Film At Lincoln Center To Feature ‘Joker’ Screening/Q&A, Olivier Assayas Masterclass, Talks With Coppola, Scorsese & Almodóvar, Plus More at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Olivier Assayas is one of the best in the world, without a doubt. The French writer-director has a filmography filled with quality projects, including recent entries like “Personal Shopper,” “Carlos,” “Clouds of Sils Maria,” and “Something in the Air.” But for decades, Assayas has been delighting film fans with his incredible works. And his most recent, “Non-Fiction,” is finally hitting theaters in the US after a successful run during last year’s fall film festival circuit.

Continue reading ‘Non-Fiction’ Exclusive Clip: Juliette Binoche & Others Debate The Merits Of Adult Coloring Books In Filmmaker Olivier Assayas’ Latest at The Playlist.

TELLURIDE – Over his 30-year career, Olivier Assayas has consistently demonstrated that he’s a filmmaker full of surprises. He’s written and directed thrillers, supernatural dramas, romances, and gut-punching serious dramas, but despite all his genre-hopping, he’s never really made a straight-out comedy. Obviously, nothing the French filmmaker touches is ever singularly one genre and that’s one reason why his latest effort, “Non-Fiction,” turns out to be a comedy with some sophisticated thoughts on media, relationships and the current state of the world.

Continue reading Juliette Binoche Can’t Contain Her Glee In Olivier Assayas’ ‘Non-Fiction’ [Telluride Review] at The Playlist.

Olivier Assayas is one of those filmmakers that we will give a shot, no matter the film. Over the years, he’s put together an incredible filmography of acclaimed titles, such as “Personal Shopper,” “Clouds of Sils Maria,” “Carlos,” and “Summer Hours.” And just recently, his latest film, “Non-Fiction” debuted at the Venice Film Festival and is receiving pretty great reviews.

Continue reading Penélope Cruz, Gael Garcia Bernal & Wagner Moura Join Filmmaker Olivier Assayas’ ‘The Wasp Network’ at The Playlist.