LAS VEGAS – Warner Bros. is still the grand old lady of Hollywood and the studio brought out a slew of stars for its annual CinemaCon presentation.  They also, unlike some of their sister studios, pretty much went through their entire slate for 2015 and dipped a toe into 2016.  What really got us percolating, however, were the first signs of a Johnny Depp comeback.

Depp, who hasn't had a real hit since 2011's “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” wasn't physically in The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, but his appearance in an extended preview for Scott Cooper's “Black Mass” was revelatory.  “Mass” is a biopic about the notorious Boston mafia boss Whitey Bulger who spent 16 years on the run from the FBI.  The footage begins with Depp as Bulger at what appears to be a card game or dinner.  He begins to joke around with John Morris (David Harbour). Within minutes, he's flipped the tables and has provoked the fear of God in Morris.  In this scene especially, Depp is almost unrecognizable.  In fact, it's hard to remember a performance from Depp where you didn't catch a hint of his mannerisms or quirks.  We don't mean to over hype it, but it was simply that impressive.  Of course, the movie may not necessarily lives up to Depp's work (we're still concerned about that semi-early Sept. 18 release date), but we're definitely adding him to the list of early contenders for best actor.

The only other real news, at least for prestige movie fans, was something that probably went under most attendees” radar.  For some reason Jeff Nichols' “Midnight Special” wasn't even mentioned during the presentation.  Slightly odd since a film opening on the same day (“Creed”) and three movies opening after it were all previewed.

As for the laundry list of other films Warner's wanted the nation's theater owners to get excited about…

“Hot Pursuit”
Release date: May 8
Who was there: Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara
Footage: Listen, this falls into the category of a Cameron Diaz summer comedy. Either you're going to fall for the leading ladies chemistry and chuckle a few times or you won't.  Hey, at least it looks better than “Tammy,” right?
Verdict: LIKED

“Mad Max: Fury Road”
Release date: May 15
Who was there: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
Footage: Newsflash: Tom Hardy barely spoke on stage! We know, that's not so shocking, but at least he showed up.  As for “Mad Max,” not much can diminish the anticipation at this point.
Verdict: LIKED

“San Andreas”
Release date: May 29
Who was there: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Carla Gugino
Footage: The studio provided an extended preview which showcased the intense CG director Brad Peyton has used to depict a 9.0 earthquake hitting the entire state of California.  It seems less cheesy than a Roland Emmerich film and there was one crazy shot of Gugino running up the stairs of an office building to the roof where she turns to witness numerous downtown LA buildings collapsing before her eyes. No matter what the story we're pretty sure it's going to be an impressive spectacle in 3D.
Verdict: LIKED

“Entourage”
Release date: June 3
Who was there: Kevin Dillon, Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferrara
Footage: If you want to see Ari (Jeremy Piven) get really angry at everyone, Ronda Rousey beat up Turtle (Ferrara) and a movie whose whole main plot seems to be that Vince (Grenier) needs a hit, well, this one's for you.
Verdict: NOT FOR ME

“Magic Mike XXL”
Release date: July 1
Who was there: Channing Tatum, Matt Boomer, Adam Rodriguez, Kevin Nash, Joe Manganiello
Footage: This new extended preview starts off telling the audience how much they don't want to show you the best scenes from the movie while cutting back to hilarious moments where Tatum and Manganiello's characters can't help pulling out a sexy dance move in real life. The rest of the footage highlights the fact the boys are heading to a competition in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Jada Pinkett Smith is trying to either whip them into shape, keep them focused or some combination of the two.  Oh, and did we mention the hashtag #ComeAgain?
Verdict: LIKED

“The Gallows”
Release date: July 10
Who was there: No one
Footage: The same teaser trailer that's already online.  It's effective!
Verdict: LIKED

“We Are Your Friends”
Release Date: TBD
Who was there: No one
Footage: Basically, the plot centers on Cole Carter (Zac Efron), a Los Angeleno trying to make it big as an EDM DJ. Director Max Joseph's passion for electronic music is evident, but we're not sure the story is as fresh as the world its set in.
Verdict: LIKED FOR THE STYLE AND THE MUSIC, MIXED ON THE ACTUAL STORY

“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
Release date: Aug. 14
Who was there: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer
Footage: Guy Ritchie's latest reboot seems stylish and action packed, but the more we hear Hammer speak in his character's Russian accent the more we shudder.
Verdict: WORRIED

“Black Mass”
Release date: Sept. 18
Who was there: Director Scott Cooper
Footage:  As noted earlier, the first footage of Cooper's anticipated biopic on notorious criminal mastermind Whitey Bulger did not disappoint.
Verdict: LIKED

“The Intern”
Release date: Sept. 25
Who was there: No one
Footage: Nancy Meyers latest finds Anne Hathaway as a thirtysomething CEO of a incredibly successful startup.  Her young company starts a senior intern program focused on bringing in actual seniors to give feedback and lend their life experience. Robert De Niro becomes the prime intern and forms a bond with Hathaway's character. Simply, the more the trailer goes on the more it feels like you've seen the entire film.
Verdict: NOT A FAN

“Pan”
Release date: Oct. 9
Who was there: No one.
Footage: New, extended trailer. Focuses on the spectacle of Neverland.  Jackman looks fantastic as Blackbeard, but, even after this new preview, we're slightly worried the prequel aspect of its story just won't work.
Verdict: MIXED

“Creed”
Release date: Nov. 25
Who was there: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, director Ryan Coogler
Footage: Best part about the new trailer is that it doesn't dwell on Stallone's involvement as Rocky Balboa. As Stallone said to the audience, “This isn't Rocky 7.” Jordan's Adonis Creed is front and center. It's his journey, but he's just looking for some guidance.  Really well cut trailer from WB. Feels like a big hit.
Verdict: LIKED

“In The Heart of The Sea”
Release date: Dec. 11
Who was there: No one.
Footage: Much of this had been seen before, but the studio did screen an extended trailer which showcased more of the whale and its path of destruction.  This one still seems like an awards player, but we'll admit some of the obvious CG has us concerned.
Verdict: LIKED

“Point Break”
Release date: Dec. 25
Who was there: Theresa Palmer, Luke Bracy
Footage: Bracy plays an FYI agent who infiltrates a criminal gang who use their extreme sports skills for their heists.  The film is claiming no special effects and the extended footage screened focused on one scene where Bracy's character and three members of the group he's trying to take down jump as human gliders from the top of a mountain.  It's eye-popping stuff, but, dude, the story and Bracy's performance appear weak.
Verdict: MIXED

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”
Release date: March 25
Who was there: No one
Footage: Sure, it was just the teaser trailer that was leaked and then released online last week, but it still looked pretty on the big screen.  Haters gonna hate, but we're still more intrigued in this one than we thought we'd be.  Maybe we should all trust in Oscar-winner Chris Terrio?
Verdict: LIKED

Which upcoming WB movie are you most intrigued by? Share your thoughts below.

Xavier Dolan just can't stay away from the Cannes Film Festival.  Last year's Special Jury prize winner for “Mommy” thought he should have won the Palm d'Or and now he'll be part of the jury deciding that prestigious honor.  Oh, my.

The Cannes Film Festival announced the Jury today which also includes Guillermo Del Toro, Jake Gyllenhaal Sienna Miller, Rossy de Palma, Sophie Marceau, Rokia Traore and Jury presidents Joel and Ethan Coen.  That's quite a Hollywood contingent for Cannes most important clique.

Almost always political and rarely unanimous, the Cannes Jury was led by Jane Campion in 2014.  That group selected “Winter Sleep” as their Palm d'Or winner while many believed “Leviathan” or “Foxcatcher” deserved the honor.  

The Festival also announced its Director's Fortnight selections this morning.  This is the section of the festival where “Blue Ruin” made its debut over the past few years.  There are usually often one or two buzzed about Sundance premieres that cross the Atlantic for an international audience. This year “Dope” earns that honor.

Here are all of this year's Director's Fortnight films:

FEATURE FILMS
In The Shadow Of Women (Opening Night)
Peace to Us in Our Dreams, dir: Sharunas Bartas
Songs My Brothers Taught Me, dir: Chloé Zhao
The Here After, dir: Magnus von Horn
Mustang, dir: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Green Room, dir: Jeremy Saulnier
Much Loved, dir: Nabil Ayouch
The Brand New Testament, dir: Jaco Van Dormael
Les Cowboys, dir: Thomas Bidegain
Arabian Nights, dir: Miguel Gomes
My Golden Years, dir: Arnaud Desplechin
Allende Mi Abuelo Allende, dir: Marcia Tambutti
A Perfect Day, dir: Fernando León de Aranoa
Fatima, dir: Philippe Faucon
El Abrazo De La Serpiente, dir: Ciro Guerra
Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War Of The Underworld, dir: Takashi Miike (Special Screening)
Dope, dir: Rick Famuyiwa (Closing Night)

SHORT FILMS
Rate Me, dir: Fyzal Boulifa
Quintal, dir: André Novais Oliveira
Quelques Secondes, dir: Nora El Hourch
Pueblo, dir: Elena Lopez Riera
Provas, Exorcismos, dir: Susana Nobre
Pitchoune, dir: Reda Kateb
Kung Fury, dir: David Sandberg
El Pasado Roto, dirs: Martín Morgenfeld & Sebastián Schjaer
Calme Ta Joie, dir: Emmanuel Laskar
Bleu Tonnerre, dir: Jean-Marc E. Roy & Philippe David Gagné
The Exquisite Corpus, dir:

The 2015 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 13-23. Look for complete coverage on HitFix and In Contention.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4909778752001

LAS VEGAS – Paramount Pictures presentation at the 5th Annual CinemaCon convention featured a former California governor and a hilarious bit from an infamous male model, but it was Tom Cruise appearing on behalf of “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” that really got the world's theater owners jazzed.

“This is very exciting,” Cruise says. “'Mission' was the first movie I ever produced. The dream was to be able to allow us to make more. Here we are at number five almost 20 years later.”

Cruise was on hand along with co-stars Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson to introduce two extended clips for the fifth “Mission: Impossible” flick.  After a quick set up where Cruise noted everything director Christopher McQuarrie (stuck in the editing room) wanted the audience to know the screening began.

The first scene is close to the beginning of the picture and finds an unconscious and shirtless Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) awaking in a dark, but large interrogation room.  Hunt is handcuffed with harms behind a large pole and he's very unclear of what exactly is going on.  Ferguson's character arrives and pulls out some syringes.  Before she begins to question him, an apparent colleague (Sean Harris?) crashes the party with a group of armed guards.  Harris' character is known as Dr. Bones (or something similar) and he pulls out some nasty tools to inflict some pain on Hunt to get the answers he needs.  As you can guess, Ferguson's character is not who or what she seems and she soon helps Hunt escape.  What was most impressive about this scene was Ferguson's slick fighting skills (she apparently did most of her own stunts) and Cruise's ability to hike himself over a 10 foot plus pole like something out of an evil CrossFit exercise.

The second clip finds a groggy Ethan and Benji (Pegg) jumping into a car to avoid capture in Morocco.  They are soon avoiding a throng of motorcycle driving henchmen through the streets of what we believe was Marrakech.  It turns out fellow IMF agents Brandt (Jeremy Renner) and Luther (Ving Rhames) have been looking for their colleagues and there is a funny bit over their choice to pick a range rover as transpiration because it's just a wee bit too big and too slow to keep up.  The scene ends on a literal cliff hanger as Ethan is forced to drive the car backwards off the edge of an elevated road and into the air.

These two moments were then followed by an extended trailer which gave some hints on the tone of the latest “Mission” adventure.  McQuarrie and cinematographer Robert Elswit (“There Will Be Blood,” “Ghost Protocol”) have given “Rogue Nation” a darker and more sophisticated look than the last few films. In fact, the series hasn't looked this Bond-ish since the first De Palma directed movie.  

Of course, the trailer ended with the already iconic shot of Hunt hanging on to the side of a military airplane as it takes off. Word is quickly spreading among moviegoers that this was not a CG created image and Cruise actually hung on to the side of the plane.  After the footage played, Rob Moore, Paramount Pictures Vice Chairman, brought Cruise back out to discuss the stunt.  Raw video footage of the first take off, which finds Cruise only hanging on to the plane by one harness, played on the CinemaCon big screen while the actor discussed what occurred.

“I'm an aerobatic pilot, I always wanted to do that,” Cruise says of the stunt. “We started to figure out how to do it. Being a pilot and the speed down the runway, it had to have a steep angle of attack and steep climb out.”

Cruise also says he went through wind test to figure out how keep his eyes open.  This meant getting special contacts made so he could look toward the camera and into the wind (“I have to perform”).  The weather was also a factor as they shot the scene during the English Winter.

“Just very very cold,” Cruise says. “I can't wear pads because of the wardrobe. We were worried about that temp and any particles on the runway [hitting me]. The second take I thought [a particle] broke my ribs. Bird strikes – we were worried about.  It's really all about character and story. We tried to clear out as many birds. We tried to clean up as many as we could.”

And here's the kicker which is even more eye-brow raising once you watch the raw video of the stunt (and you can guarantee Paramount will release it online at some point).

“We had to do it eight times,” Cruise reveals. “There is the other door. We have to get all of those shots. I'm on a harness just right on the side so we can have the vibration of my body against the airplane.”

As the video plays with the plane still on the ground, Cruise gives a thumbs up. Recalling the moment, Cruise notes, “I'm actually scared [expletive].  [I said] don't stop no matter what.”

Once the plane aims upward Cruises feet fall off the wing and only his fingers and the support rope are holding him in.  It's incredibly impressive in the context of the raw footage.  Moreover, you immediately want to know how think a book of waivers Cruise had to sign with the film's bonding company to even do the stunt once.  Yep, it's that crazy.

“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” opens nationwide on July 31.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4909771812001

Nothing is more frustrating than watching a film with so much potential make one disastrous mistake after another. That, sadly, is the disappointing reality of Lee Toland Kreiger's “The Age of Adaline.”

The movie's premise is easy to grasp: 29-year-old Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) was born at the turn of the century, but after a strange car accident in the 1930's she discovers she will not age a single day more.  Decades pass as her daughter ages beyond her, and she begins taking false identities to avoid being discovered by the press or, worse, government agents who might have suspicions about her status.  The latter might also want to make her a guinea pig to discover why she's become immortal (a story tangent the film quickly abandons).

By 2014, Bowman seems resigned to a life of loneliness until Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman of “Game of Thrones”) spots her across the room at a New Year's Eve party, sparking a romance between them.  Having spent decades in fear of outliving a potential lover, Adaline seems willing to finally break that vow the charming Ellis, especially as she realizes her only surviving relative, her daughter (Ellen Burstyn) won't be around much longer.  Things get complicated, however, when Adaline is introduced to Ellis' father William (Harrison Ford) and our heroine seems headed for something of a tailspin.  The problem is: will anyone care?

Krieger, who earned strong notices helping 2012's “Celeste & Jesse,” is a talent. The look of “Adaline” is simply gorgeous.  In fact, “Adaline” may be the most beautiful film Lionsgate has released since 2005's “Rize” and “High Tension.”  The movie is a love letter to San Francisco thanks to cinematographer David Lanzenberg and production designer Claude Paré (the best work of his career).  It features a beautiful score by Rob Simonson (“Foxcatcher”) and the superb costumes mark something of a comeback for Oscar-winner Angus Strathie (“Moulin Rouge”).  Unfortunately, the script and casting can't live up to the beautiful world Kreiger has assembled for this fairy tale.

“Adaline's” biggest mistake is it does not trust its audience enough.  The original screenplay by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz begins with 20 minutes of non-stop narration (it may be shorter, but it felt that long).  The effect is you no longer feel you're watching a movie, but some sort of news report (it's supposed to be Adaline remembering her life while watching an old news reel).  This might have worked for a shorter stretch, but it immediately rips you out of the film.  The same narrator is used to explain what is happening during the incident that prolongs Adaline's life. The reasoning here references something so out of left field that it instantly sucks any potential magic or suspension of disbelief from the proceedings.  Clearly, this is a piece that worked better on the page than on the screen.

The movie's second major problem is the casting of Huisman.  The Dutch actor's American accent is so inconsistent you'll wonder why they didn't have him re-dub a majority of his lines. Or, is this the best they could with his re-recordings? Huisman has shown flashes on “Thrones,” but he has so little chemistry with Lively that you have no clue why Adaline and Ellis are a match made in heaven.  This is even more apparent by Lively's flashback scenes with an actor who plays one of Adaline's previous heartbreaks, the relatively unknown Anthony Ingruber.  

There are other odd choices along the way. For insistence, the fact that Adaline would speak as though she was from the Victorian era or utter phrases only people from the 40s would say diminishes her credibility as a character.  If Adaline had lived for so many decades, she, like most of us, would consciously or subconsciously modify her vocabulary over time.  If she truly spoke as though she was stuck in time it would be hard for her to maintain any sort of cover or privacy.

Outside of her odd speaking manner, at times, Lively is actually quite good at conveying Adaline's wisdom, pain and sophistication. She's shined brighter (most notably in Oliver Stone's “Savages”), but she has to carry much of this film on her back and comes close to succeeding at times.

One of the most disheartening aspects of the movie is how it completely wastes a stellar performance by Ford.  There is one particular moment towards the end of the film where Ellis introduces William to Adaline.  Ford hasn't been as good as he is in this scene in at least two decades.  It's a stark reminder of powerful he can be with the right material and in the right context.  If only the rest of the movie could live up to that magic.

“The Age of Adaline” opens nationwide on Friday.

Not only is Denis Villeneuve heading to Cannes for the first time with “Sicario,” but the Canadian filmmaker may have his second lead for his next film, the untitled “Blade Runner” sequel.  

Alcon Entertainment announced today that Ryan Gosling is negotiating to star in the new “Blade Runner” opposite Harrison Ford who will reprise his role as Rick Deckard. The original 1982 film, directed by Ridley Scott, is a landmark film in cinematic and science fiction history.  Scott will return as a producer.

The only detail revealed about the new film so far is that it takes place several decades later and that Deckard will return..  Hampton Fancher, who co-wrote the original, and Michael Green have written a completely new screenplay for the movie based on an idea by Fancher and Scott.

Gosling's directorial debut, “Lost River,” finally hit American theaters and VOD earlier this month.  He'll be seen next in  Shane Black”s “The Nice Guys” opposite Russell Crowe, and in Terrence Malick”s “Weightless.”  He's currently filming Adam McKay's “The Big Short” with Christian Bale, Brad Pitt and Steve Carell.

Ford is currently recovering from a plane crash, but will be seen later this month in “The Age of Adeline” and is reprising yet another iconic role in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” this December.

Villeneuve is best known for directing the hit 2013 thriller “Prisoners,” but also earned critical acclaim for “Enemy” which was released in theaters this past year.  

Production on the “Blade Runner” sequel is set to begin a little over a year from now in the summer of 2016. 

Once again, the world is coming to Cannes and with it some of the more anticipated films of the year. Festival du Cannes President Pierre Lescure and General Delgate (aka Festival Director) Thierry Fremaux revealed this year's main competition and Un Certain Regard slates during a long and rambling press conference early this morning and a number of American auteurs are once again in the mix.

Todd Haynes' “Carol” with Cate Blancehtt, Gus Van Sant's “Sea of Trees” with Matthew McConaughey, Woody Allen's “Irrational Man” with Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone, Pixar's “Inside Out,” Denis Villeneuve's “Sicario” with Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin, Justin Kurzel's “Macbeth” with Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman's “A Tale of Love and Darkness” are some of the initial highlights from today's announcement that will perk the ears of American audiences.

The festival previously announced that George Miller's “Mad Max: Fury Road” would screen out of competition and the opening night film, Emmanuelle Bercot's “La Tête Haute.”

Some of the more intriguing international selections include Matteo Garrone's “The Tale of Tales,” Hsiao-Hsien Hou's “The Assassin,” Barbet Schroeder's “Amnesia” and Jacques Audiard's “Dheepan.”

This year, Oscar winners Joel and Ethan Coen will head the competition jury. Isabella Rossellini will head the Un Certain Regard jury.  

Fremaux noted that additional films will be added to the competition and out of competition slate next week. There are at least two more in-competition films that will be announced including the closing night selection.  

The wide ranging press conference also touched on the rumored ban on selfies on the red carpet to which Fremaux remarked, “They are not going to prohibit selfies on the red carpet and the steps. It's a process that's often ridiculous and grotesque. [It's] really a matter of timing. Really slow things down if everyone stops two meters to take a photo of themselves.”

He also noted there were few long films this year (although “The Chosen Ones” is one of them).  Moreover, it appears the harsh reactions to James Franco's “As I Lay Dying” and Ryan Gosling's “Lost River,” which were both screened in Un Certain Regard over the past two years, is why Portman's “Love and Darkness” is a special selection and not in Regard.  Whether that means the global press will keep their knives at home for Portman's directorial debut remains to be seen.

One additional note for awards season watchers, The Weinstein Company has two films in competition with “Carol” and “Macbeth.”  Lionsgate has a rare Cannes premiere with “Sicario.”  A24 is distributing the Amy Winehouse documentary “Amy.”  Sony Classics will release “Irrational Man” this summer.

The 68th Cannes Film Festival will run from May 13-23.  Look for full coverage from la Croisette on HitFix and In Contention.

A full list of this year's films is as follows:

Competition
“Dheepan,” (Working Title) Jacques Audiard
“A Simple Man,” Stéphane Brize
“Marguerite and Julien,” by Valérie Donzelli
“The Tale of Tales,” Matteo Garrone
“Carol,” Todd Haynes
“The Assassin,” Hsiao-Hsien Hou
“Mountains May Depart,” Jia Zhang-Ke
“Our Little Sister,” Hirokazu Kore-Eda
“Macbeth,” Justin Kurzel
“The Lobster,” Yorgos Lanthimos
“My King,” MaiWenn
“Mia Madre,” Nanni Moretti
“Son of Soul,” László Nemes
“Youth,” Paul Sorrentino
“Louder than Bombs,” Joachim Trier
“The Sea of Trees,” Gus Van Sant
“Sicario,” Denis Villeneuve

Midnight Screenings
“O Piseu (Office),” Hong Won-Chan
“Amy,” Asif Kapadia

Special Selections
“Amnesia” Barbet Schroeder
“A Tale of Love and Darkness,” Natalie Portman
“Panama,” Pavle Vuckovic
“Oka,” Souleymane Cisse
“Hayored Lema'Ala,” Elad Keidan

Out of Competition
“Irrational Man,” Woody Allen
“Asphalte,” Samuel Benchetrit
“Mad Max: Fury Road,” George Miller
“Inside Out,” Pete Doctor and Ronaldo De Carmen
“The Little Prince,” Mark Osbourne

Un Certain Regard
“Fly Away Solo,” Neeraj Ghaywan
“Rams,” Grímur Hakonarson
“Journey to the Shore,” Kurosawa Kiyoshi
“I Am A Soldier,” Laurent Lariviere
“The High Sun,” Dalibor Matanic
“The Other Side,” Roberto Minervini
“One Floor Below,” Radu Muntean
“The Shamless,” Oh Seung-Uk
“The Chosen Ones,” David Pablos
“Nahid,” Ida Panahandeh
“The Treasure,” Corneliu Porumboiu
“The Fourth Direction,” Gurvinder Singh
“Madonna,” Shin Suwon

In the summer of 1989, while Spike Lee's “Do the Right Thing” was sounding a thunderclap in cinemas, a troupe of largely black actors and comedians came together on a Fox sound stage in Century City to produce a sketch comedy show aimed at servicing a minority point of view that had been underrepresented by the medium. With producer Keenen Ivory Wayans at the helm, fresh off the success of his 1988 Blaxploitation parody film “I'm Gonna Git You Sucka,” eight individuals – a then-unknown Jim Carrey along with Kelly Coffield, Kim Coles, Tommy Davidson, David Alan Grier, T'Keyah “Crystal” Keymáh and Wayans' siblings Damon and Kim – filmed the first episodes of “In Living Color.” The show debuted on April 15, 1990, and 25 years later, Damon Wayans can't help but remember first and foremost that he had hair back then.

“I remember the pain of getting fired from 'Saturday Night Live' and feeling that I needed redemption,” he adds by phone, recalling his short-lived tenure on NBC's flagship sketch comedy show. “I was really passionate about doing stand-up and playing around doing characters on stage.”

In just its third year of existence in 1989, Fox had already shown a brief history of defying convention. Joan Rivers had briefly taken up residence opposite “The Tonight Show” on the late night battlefield and Arsenio Hall would follow soon after as the first black entertainer in the space. Meanwhile, sitcoms like “Married… with Children” stood out from the fray with unique content while variety series like “The Tracey Ullman Show” played with format. From the latter (via a series of animated shorts) sprang “The Simpsons,” which drew criticism from some parents and conservatives who felt its rebellious central character Bart Simpson was a poor role model for children. No sketch show that wasn't “Saturday Night Live” had been a lasting success, so the risk of “In Living Color” was right at home in the new network's programming.

Kim Wayans was working as an executive assistant at an oil corporation in downtown Los Angeles when she got the call from her brother to join the cast. “I thought it was great – I could stop working temp and start making some real money,” she exclaims.

Keenen also recruited brother Shawn as the show's in-house DJ SW1, a cultural answer to “Saturday Night Live's” house band at a time when hip-hop was taking hold outside its own niche. (Musical acts such as Leaders of the New School, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane and Queen Latifah would often close out episodes with live performances, while Heavy D & The Boyz provided the show with its catchy theme song.)

The rest of the team came largely from the worlds of theater and stand-up. Tommy Davidson, in fact, knew Keenen along with Damon, Carrey and Grier from the comedy club circuit.

“I had just come off of development hell and a failed pilot, so I turned it down initially,” he says. “And then my agent told me, 'Why don't you just audition for the show? If you don't get it you don't get it. What's it going to hurt?' So I auditioned and it didn't go well. I didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't an improv artist per se. But then they had a stand-up audition and once I did stand-up, it was over. There were 30 of the best comics in town and I kicked ass.”

Kelly Coffield, however, was fresh out of the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago with zero comedy experience when she auditioned. She went into it expecting nothing, thinking the series didn't approach her own skill set.

“I may have had a little bit of an easier time at the audition because I didn't really think there was anything at stake,” she says. “I was too ignorant to realize what it really even was that I was auditioning for. So I had a really great time. I just thought it was a hoot.”

Others weren't as versed in the business, however. T'Keyah “Crystal” Keymáh, for instance, recalls with some pain the experience of seeing her very personal audition piece, “Black World,” turned into material for the show without her name initially attached as a writer. She says she had to fight for a specialty writing credit on the sketch, which featured Keymáh as Crissy, a young girl pretending to live in a world dominated by people of color, free of prejudice and persecution.

“It didn't occur to me that that piece would ever be on the show,” she recalls of auditioning the character. “I could tell that they taped the audition and copied down what they thought I said or whatever, but I didn't consciously bring it to the show. But in that I see symbolism of people that will take something that they think is precious and steal it, rather than ask for it and be honorable. So that was my introduction 'In Living Color.'”

(Keenen refutes the notion that the sketch was stolen, reasserting in a statement that “Black World” was “written and performed by T'Keyah and she is credited; all you have to do is watch the episode.”)

One of only four cast members to stay with the series all five seasons, and the only female, Keymáh says she didn't have an agent during her time there. When the first season received a Primetime Emmy nomination for writing, “Black World” was one of the few pieces specifically mentioned in the press, she says, but hers was not one of the 17 names listed for the award.

“I spent a great deal of time in my dressing room crying,” she says. “But I took it all in. I learned a whole lot about television, about networks, about people and how to work as an ensemble and the politics of television. I learned the best way for me to conduct myself and to stand up for myself no matter what.”

***

“In Living Color” was ultimately a different show than “Saturday Night Live.” Rather than a week's preparation and a 90-minute live sprint, the product was crafted through editing. It was filmed in front of a live audience, though, with tapings often running into the wee hours of the morning. Most notable was its difference from NBC's goliath in creative bedrock philosophy.

“'Saturday Night Live' was more of a writer-driven show,” Damon says. “The writers had all of the power. 'In Living Color' was more character-driven. Keenen wanted the actors to feel good about what they were doing, so we would have them come in and pitch characters. 'Who do you want to do?' 'Oh, this is my aunt. She does this, this and this.' Then they would do it and Keenen would say, 'That's a character right there. Write this sketch.' And then we'd figure out, you know, what is the scenario for this character? So the actor would sit down with the writers and kind of gang bang the concept.”

Says Davidson, “It was like being in detention with all the class clowns. We'd walk around goofing off. On the downtime we'd be playing and talking about movies and singing, and Keenen would go, 'Write that down. Write that down. That's funny, but write it down. That's funny, but write that down.'”

However, it took some time to evolve to that place, according to Keymáh. “In the beginning, it was quite the opposite – we weren't encouraged to do anything,” she says. “Keenen would say, 'No, no, we've got this. We have a staff of writers. They're very talented.' And they went through writers like water. But later it became a bit of a mandate: 'If you want to get on the show, you've got to pitch characters.'”

Often characters “would be based on people we knew or people we had been in contact with,” Kim says. “And Keenan was always emphasizing to us that part of building a character is, in fact, giving the character truth and some heart.”

More to the point, Damon notes that truly relatable black point of view was not on television at the time, and had been largely absent from the small screen since NBC's “The Richard Pryor Show” over a decade before. “Like a real, honest-to-God, urban, this-is-what-they're-thinking-on-the-corner kind of show,” he says. “That voice and that void actually made our show super popular in ghettos around the world. Crime rate would go down when we came on, statistically. That's pretty cool, to know that people would rather watch us and laugh than go out and hurt somebody. The crime rate went right back up when it was over!”

Inevitably, a show staking out new terrain is bound to find itself in controversial waters, and “In Living Color” was no exception. Tension with the network began with a highly rated Super Bowl Halftime Show special in January of 1992. During the popular recurring sketch “Men On…,” with the Washington Redskins leading the Buffalo Bills 17 to zero, Damon and Grier ad libbed suggestions that actor Richard Gere and Olympic athlete Carl Lewis were homosexuals. Segments in other episodes made light of date rape and prison rape. Fox censors muted lines or cut segments from reruns altogether in response. But that's where Keenen and his team wanted to be, on the edge of primetime, network comedy.

“Their agenda was not the show's agenda,” Damon says of the censors. “And then a lot of it was sponsors. I think we had like 30 million people tune in to watch the halftime show, and a brand got offended. So they really came down on us after that. We brought them the biggest ratings they had ever had and we got penalized. So I think there was a breakdown. Because Keenen felt like, 'I gave you guys ratings. What are you tripping over?'”

***

Much of the content produced on the show, sketches like “The Adventures of Handi Man” (depicting the escapades of a handicapped superhero portrayed by Damon) or perhaps even “Men On…” (starring Damon and Grier as flamboyant homosexual critics) would draw even more fire in today's politically correct society, pressure-cooked by the proliferation of social media. “But it's not like we did it in the mid-'50s where people were just sort of calloused and didn't know anything about political correctness,” Coffield says. “We used to get letters from people basically saying, 'Thank you so much for including me in the fun,' because we were making fun of everything and everyone. We weren't pointing a finger at anybody; we were making fun of ourselves in the process. It was very inclusive in a way that 'Saturday Night Live,' in my opinion, has gone through periods of time – because that was the sense of humor of the particular cast or that was the tone of the writers' room or whatever – of being mean-spirited, pointing a finger at how stupid everyone is. And that's not that funny to me.”

Keymáh, however, saw things differently. She says she has always been conscious of what is in the media and “how it feeds us,” and particularly of any negative effects it might have. “I didn't want to ever add to that,” she says. “On 'In Living Color,' it was kind of a joke, but not really – I spent a lot of time complaining about scripts that were, in my opinion, over the line and stereotype and disrespectful to whatever group. At some point someone said, 'Well, if Crystal is offended, now we know it's funny!' So it became kind of a bar. But I wanted to put out thoughtful pieces, and sometimes I won. Sometimes they'd say, 'OK. OK.'”

She also jokes that she didn't realize until after she left “In Living Color” that everyone in television was not on a first name basis with their censors.

Much of the cast remained insulated from the disputes Keenen regularly engaged in with Fox executives. Damon in particular says that, given his own tendencies, he was grateful that his big brother could run that brand of interference. “There's a little bit of Homey D. Clown in me where I can get so passionate about something that I'll fly the plane into the building to protect my vision,” he says. “But Keenan is very strategic and plays a great game. He would tell the censors, 'Look, don't tell me I can't do something. Tell me how I can.' It was psychological warfare, because it put them in the position where they had to come with answers.”

Eventually, though, the fragile relationship was too frayed to sustain. Damon left after the third season to pursue a career in film. Keenen's involvement in the fourth was limited, and by the time the fifth and final season rolled around, everyone named “Wayans” had departed.

“My feelings, my sentiments, were definitely with the Wayanses,” says Coffield, who left in solidarity with them after the fourth season. “But the truth of the matter is, when Keenen left, so did the funny, in a particular way that I had a particular place in. It was very obvious that the kind of characters that I was interested in developing, there wasn't really a place at the table for them anymore. It was really, like, 'Well, that's a good character, but how about if she's completely flatulent?' I just saw it as being a very, very dry atmosphere in terms of having any kind of singular voice.”

Davidson, Grier and particularly Carrey and Jamie Foxx (who was introduced at the start of the third season) became the dominant personalities as the show transitioned into its final year. “It got limited with the cast members that the network was doing stuff with,” Davidson says. “It started turning into kind of a power thing of who do they want to see on TV this week, as opposed to what was funny gets on TV. We wanted more of an ensemble feel. So it was a tough thing to experience, when you're coming from a Socialist environment.”

***

Three years ago, around the time the entire cast reunited to be honored at the 10th annual TV Land Awards, there was an attempt to reboot “In Living Color” as two specials. New talent would be intermingled with some from the old team in an attempt to, once again, feed a starved point of view. Davidson and Grier were involved, as was Damon, with Keenen spearheading once again. But it was ill-fated. Davidson says Keenen was having trouble finding the right spark of talent that clicked on the level of that original cast, but Damon reveals further dispute with the network.

“I was going to do it and then Fox took these incredibly confrontational stances,” he says. “They wanted to own any new characters that I did. They only wanted to pay me $2,500 to do two specials. When I left I was making $75,000 per sketch – in 1992. So, you know, you want me to take a pay cut? And I wasn't asking for what I was making back then, but guys, you've got to give me some sort of incentive. I wrote like 10 sketches that were really funny, new characters. They go, 'OK, we own those new characters.' So I had to say, 'Get the f–k out of here.'

“It would have been good,” he continues. “They should bring it back. They just need to support it. Just look at the ratings 'SNL40' got. I won't say we'd get ratings like that, but I damn sure believe that there are a couple of generations of fans that would tune in to see it, especially if it's special in terms of not just a stroke session of how good we were, but how funny we still can be. I think people would love that.”

Or perhaps the legacy of “In Living Color” will be one refined to a particular era, the start of a decade that would ignite with pop cultural vibrancy, the rise of the independent film movement, the explosion of urban music in the suburbs, the introduction of a hip Presidential candidate booming saxophone on “The Arsenio Hall Show” and so on.

Davidson sees the show's legacy as “the institutionalization of color in the mainstream,” he says. “After 'In Living Color,' with 'Martin' and 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' and all these shows that just came along, 'Living Single,' all these beautiful things, America actually started looking like America on TV.”

Whatever the case, Coffield certainly got more than anyone out of the deal: She met her future husband, Steve Park, on the show. Park was a cast member during the third season, and though they didn't know each other well at the time, they reconnected on a play a decade later, sparks flew, and now they have two children together.

“For our paths to cross again as they did, being cast as this husband and wife, it was so fun,” she says. “Maybe it was because we had this very intense experience together, no matter how well we knew each other, and then when we re-met, it just seemed so much deeper than what you typically feel when you've just met somebody for the first time. It's the greatest thing in my life.”

Damon Wayans was the second major cast member from “In Living Color” to leave the show, after Kim Coles. He departed following the third season to pursue a big screen career, starring in films like “The Last Boy Scout,” “Blankman” and “Major Payne.” But during his time with the show, he left an unmistakable signature that can be felt across a number of colorful characters.

Think of “In Living Color” and you're bound to have the image of an angry, put-upon clown flash through your head (Homey D. Clown), or perhaps a pair of flamboyant critics giving the weekend's latest release “two snaps up” (“Men On…”). These were some of Wayans' trademark sketches, coming at a time when, as he says in our extended feature on the series' 25th anniversary, he was eager for redemption after being fired from “Saturday Night Live.”

Here are the beginnings and inspirations for those sketches and more, in his own words.

***

On Homey D. Clown

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QhuBIkPXn0]

One of the most iconic characters produced by the “In Living Color” laboratory was Homey D. Clown. An ex-con forced to work as a clown as stipulated by his parole agreement, Homey had his share of anger issues and took out his hatred of the system and “the man” on unsuspecting (often times spoiled) brats looking to have a good time at a birthday party or other such gathering.

“Oh Homey's always gonna be funny. Homey would be great now. There's just so much stuff that's not being dealt with in terms of black voices, because it was his subconscious voice. I used to do a character in my act, The Angry Black Comic. I actually did it on 'Saturday Night Live.' His thing was, 'Good evening, white people. On my way down here tonight I killed three white people. Oh, you ain't laughing? Then you would have been dying,' you know?

“And then, Paul Mooney, he was the angriest black man in the world and he prided himself on that. Like, he wouldn't even pitch ideas for sketches in front of white people. 'Not in front of the white people, Homey. One on one, me and you, Keenen, and I'll tell you everything. Not in front of the white people.' And he would say 'Homey,' you know, 'Homey this, Homey that. Oh Homey, Homey. Not in front of the white people, Homey.' So this guy, Sandy Frank – these are writers – and Matt Wickline said, you know, this is funny. The clown who won't perform. So they wrote Homey D. Clown and I put the angry black man voice on Homey D. Clown because I just thought it was appropriate, and the rest is history.”

On Anton Jackson

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQz1H71wRKc]

Anton Jackson was a Damon Wayans creation that ended up with a life outside of “In Living Color.” The character appeared briefly in one of the early scenes of the 1992 film “Mo' Money,” which starred Wayans and his younger brother Marlon. He also popped up as a witness in the O.J. Simpson trial in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch when Wayans returned to host in 1995.

“Anton was actually a combination of people. I had an uncle named Gene who was a heroin addict and I remember he came by my house high on the heroin. He had white stuff all over his pants and my mother's like, 'Eugene, what the hell is on your pants?' And he said [Anton Jackson voice] 'Oh, I just came from seeing the twenty-five cent movie. You'd be surprised what they show for twenty-five cents!' He was at the porno house watching movies and had jerked off!

“And then my sister's boyfriend, when she was dating this guy, he was speed-balling. That's when you mix heroin and cocaine, right? And you shoot yourself with it. He actually sounded a lot like my uncle Gene and he was trying to impress my mother when he first met her. He looks at my mother, he kisses her hand and he goes, 'Now I see where Deidre gets her big ass from.' So romantic. He was trying to be Don Juan!”

On “The Adventures of Handi Man”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkQQGsOegv0]

Handi Man might have been a bit of a precursor to Wayans' work in the 1995 film “Blankman.” A superhero for the handicapped, it seems like the kind of sketch that wouldn't fly at all today, given its perceived insensitivity. But it had very personal beginnings nevertheless.

“I was born with a club foot and I used to talk about it on stage; you've got to turn the camera on yourself. So I decided, 'I'm gonna start talking about my club foot and the pain of having this, you know, orthopedic shoe that I had to wear as a kid.' The joke that started Handi Man was I was saying I got into a lot of fights as a kid, because I had to defend my shoe. And I said, 'I guess you don't find too many handicapped bullies.' And then I would tell a little bit about, like, 'Uh oh, here come the Crips,' and you have these handicapped guys roll up and go [standard un-PC mentally disabled voice] 'Give me your lunch money.' So that was the birth of Handi Man, and then talking about how it's like they need a superhero. You never find a handicapped superhero. And then I start doing Handi Man on stage.”

On “Men on…”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHNJMHPg5Hk]

Probably the most enduring sketch of the entire series has to be “Men on…,” a parody of “Siskel & Ebert” featuring two homosexual hosts, Blaine Edwards (Damon Wayans) and Antoine Merriweather (David Alan Grier) critiquing everything from films (usually) to art to even fitness and vacation, with an iconic lead-in courtesy of The Weather Girls' 1982 classic “It's Raining Men.” It's an interesting note in Damon Wayans' filmography, considering he was let go from “Saturday Night Live” for going off-script and making a character flamboyantly gay.

“Everything's underneath the bullying umbrella now, so anything you say about gay people is, you know, 'bullying.' And it's like, have gay people lost their sense of humor? It's just something different about a guy acting like a girl. That's funny. I'm not saying you go embarrass somebody to the point of them killing themselves, but come on, it's funny. And the point of view is funny. Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merriweather thought everybody was gay and were just hiding it, and they were there to bring them out of the closet. That was the idea behind 'Men on…,' and I think people would laugh because we would have so much fun with it. It's all about presentation and how you deal with it. If you're mean-spirited about what you're doing, it comes off bad. But I think people would embrace it.”

As Kim Wayans says in our extended feature on the 25th anniversary of “In Living Color,” her brother Keenen was always encouraging on-screen talent to draw on real-life circumstances and relationships to inject truth into their work. That was, as Damon Wayans explains, the big difference between “Saturday Night Live,” a writer-driven show, and “In Living Color,” a character-driven show where actors were eventually encouraged to pitch characters and concepts and work them out with the writers.

It's no surprise, then, that some of these characters would have personal connections with the performers. As you can see in anecdotes from Kelly Coffield, T'Keyah “Crystal” Keymáh and Kim Wayans, quite a few of them in fact came from other corners of their lives, be it someone they knew or something that would just organically spring to life in the day-to-day camaraderie of the show.

Learn more about the inspirations behind classic characters like Benita Butrell, LaShawn, Velma Mulholland and more below.

***

Kim Wayans on Benita Butrell

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNTtW7mXu8]

One of Kim Wayans' most indelible creations was Benita Butrell, a neighborhood woman breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience about passersby, always ending on a note of hilarious disparagement. But “nobody better say anything bad about Mrs. Jenkins!”

“Benita was based on a lady in my neighborhood, in the Robert Fulton Projects in New York City. It was actually a couple of ladies in my neighborhood that I grew up with. They were just quite colorful characters, just sitting around, yapping about everybody's business and smiling in your face. And the minute you turn your back, they had something to say about you, too!”

T'Keyah “Crystal” Keymáh on LaShawn

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSXj007ni1Q]

T'Keyah “Crystal” Keymáh had a handful of recurring characters, and one that stuck out in particular was LaShawn, a customer service worker who won't take any guff from anyone. But as Keymáh explains, there was more depth to her creation than merely that.

“LaShawn is one of the characters I transitioned from one of my solo stage shows, which I've done in a thousand theaters and I've done on television. One of them is called 'Some of My Best Friends' and it's about a group of people that you might dismiss at first glance, but then the more you talk you say, 'Oh, this is a human, too.' One of the characters from that show was called Latisha and I wanted to do someone like her on the show, so I did LaShawn and called her Latisha's cousin.

“I've seen a lot of people since do similar characters, which made me kind of feel bad because it seems like they took the negative aspect of her, someone in a low paying job with a smart mouth, and kind of ran with that. But for me she's someone making something of herself, even if she doesn't quite have the tools to do it. This is the best that she can do and she knows that, and she won't take any mess off of anyone.”

Kim Wayans on Li'l Magic

[hulu id=fvfeo1z1zf9otanijjbanw width=890 height=500]

Alongside David Alan Grier in drag as a driven stage mother, Kim Wayans delivered the spark of Li'l Magic. A bright and bubbly little girl desperate to entertain, the character was probably the most personal one she created in her time on the show.

“She's so close to my heart because I was Li'l Magic. I was a desperate little wannabe child actress who was in every community production in my neighborhood. Anytime there was something going on in school, I was front and center with my homemade costume – because I couldn't afford to buy the real costumes so I would just make stuff. I would take my mother's curtains, bedspreads, whatever. By any means necessary. And then I'd show up and I'd be in these shows that I wasn't supposed to be a part of and it would drive the teacher insane. But it was pure comedy, you know? That's how I discovered that I had this comedic knack. I wasn't actually trying to be funny. I was just, you know, a desperate little child trying to participate in shows that I couldn't afford to be in.”

Kelly Coffield on “The Dysfunctional Home Show”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR3lsn38c3o]

Jim Carrey and Kelly Coffield would often get paired up, being the only two white cast members. And one of the gems they cranked out was “The Dysfunctional Home Show,” about an alcoholic, depressed old man who hosts a housekeeping show with his equally hateful wife. “Pork and beans!”

“I would get very tied into what Jim had already established as a character. I would end up doing kind of an accompaniment to a lot of characters that he had come up with. Like suddenly Fire Marshall Bill has a wife. And so you have to kind of imitate Jim, sort of doing this outlandish thing. In the case of that, though, he had written that show. He wrote a lot with Judd Apatow, actually, who was a great friend of his and he and Judd came up with a lot of stuff and then he'd bring it in and maybe the writers would work on it a bit with him. He was constantly writing, constantly, constantly writing. So he wrote that character. It was really just so much fun, to be more disgusting and inappropriate than he was. Like that was the whole point, is I wanted the mother to be worse than he was, just so horrible that you actually felt sorry for him.”

Kelly Coffield on Velma Mulholland

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHpQ4VE2_MI]

A lot of Coffield's work on the show seemed to have roots in her theater training, odes to classic film and television throughout. One such character was Velma Mulholland, a film noir, femme fatale-type filmed in grainy black and white finding herself out of place in a modern, colorized world.

“It was really Damon [who pushed for that]. I mean so much stuff came from us sitting around and just horsing around at the table or being out somewhere together. We would just all pile into somebody's car and then we would show up at some restaurant and we'd all have lunch together and just be endlessly entertained by one another. And Damon, I was talking to him and I was like [Velma voice], 'Listen, buddy, I'll tell you what.' And he's like. 'You really ought to make a character and write something.' That was the first thing I ever actually just wrote and handed in and said, 'I want to do this.' And I think it was really because of his encouragement and support.

“The black and white effect was fascinating to people, also. I remember Frank Oz calling the producers and asking how they did it. Everyone's seen it done on film but nobody had seen it done on video. They turned me into a blue screen. I literally looked like a Smurf. Every single costume I wore, every hat they made, every prop that was my personal prop, like a purse or a pair of gloves or whatever it was, every single thing was a shade of blue. And I honestly think I've been referred to as 'the black and white lady' on 'In Living Color' more than I have 'the white lady' on 'In Living Color.' People love Velma Mulholland.”

The Sundance Institute announced that Sundance NEXT FEST is returning August 7-9 and will make its base of operations at the Ace Hotel for the second year in a row.  The weekend long event, which specifically showcases films from the main festival's NEXT selections,  was first held in 2013 in West Hollywood, but the festival smartly moved it into the middle of the burgeoning and revitalized downtown LA scene last summer.

No films have been announced yet, but last year's programming included the public premiere of “Life After Beth” with a solo acoustic performance by Father John Misty, a screening of “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” with a live performance by Warpaint, and a screening of “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter” followed by a conversation between the filmmakers and Werner Herzog.  

Some of the NEXT films that created buzz this past January included NEXT Audience Award winner “James White,” “Nasty Baby” with Kristen Wiig and Hollywood-set “Tangerine.”

It's not the greatest historical note to kick a festival off with, but the opening night film at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival will be the first directed by a woman since 1987.

Emmanuelle Bercot, best known for 2001's “Clément” and co-writing 2011's “Polisse,” returns to Cannes with “La Tête haute” (“Heads Up”) which follows the lifestory of Malory from the age of 6 to 18.  This “Boyhood”-esque tale features different actors playing Malory, but Rod Paradot portrays him for a majority of the film.  Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Magimel, Sara Forestier round out the cast.

Diane Kurys was the last woman to helm a opening night film, “A Man in Love,” 28 years ago.

Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Festival remarked, “The choice of this film may seem surprising, given the rules generally applied to the Festival de Cannes Opening Ceremony.  It is a clear reflection of our desire to see the Festival start with a different piece, which is both bold and moving. Emmanuelle Bercot's film makes important statements about contemporary society, in keeping with modern cinema. It focuses on universal social issues, making it a perfect fit for the global audience at Cannes.”

“La Tête haute” will open Cannes on Wednesday, May 13.  That's the same day it will be released in French cinemas and moviegoers will be able to watch the Festival's Opening Ceremony before the premiere.

Bercot won the Award of the Youth in 2001 for “Clément” and “Les vacances” tied for Best Short Film in 1997.

The Festival previously announced that George Miller's “Mad Max: Fury Road” will screen at the festival on May 13.

The 68th Festival de Cannes will take place between May 13-24, 2015.

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It was kind of written on the wall with all the Shailene Woodley love going around. And after “The Fault in Our Stars” co-led the way with nominations, with “The Hunger Games” more or less on its way out, it seemed obvious the young adult adaptation was bound to walk away the demographic's favorite. So…that happened.

The film joins “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “The Avengers,” and four out of five “Twilight” movies as winners of MTV's top movie prize over the last several years. The book's author, John Green, accepted the prize at the end of a rather flat show on the whole and acknowledged at the top, “I had nothing to do with the making of this movie, but I was the first at the microphone.” He went on to thank his friend, author and online personality Esther Earl, whose story inspired his novel.

“Esther taught me that a short life can also be a good life,” Green said. “And she taught me that people who are living with a disability are not defined by those disabilities and that the lives of people who are living with illness or disability are just as interesting and complicated and beautiful as any other lives.”

The film also won the Best Female Performance prize (Shailene Woodley, who also accepted the Trailblazer Award) and Best Kiss (Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley).

Check out the full list of MTV Movie Awards winners here and re-live the excitement (or rather, lack thereof) at our live blog here.

Bradley Cooper had a pretty great 2014, eh? Warner Bros. slid “American Sniper” into the awards season last year and America turned out in droves to see the film, which went on to become the top domestic grosser of the year (beating out the likes of “The Hunger Games” and Marvel's powerhouse offerings – that's impressive). Cooper also picked up an Oscar nod for Best Actor and threatened to steal the prize from frontrunners Eddie Redmayne and Michael Keaton. He'll have to settle for an MTV Movie Award…and all those checks that will continue to land in his mailbox as producer of the film, of course.

Cooper won the Best Male Performance award Sunday night, which is sort of a surprise and sort of not. After all, as mentioned, it was the top grosser of the year. And Cooper is a favorite with this crowd, having won a pair of honors for “Silver Linings Playbook” a few years ago and having landed eight nominations to date. But he also beat out the likes of Chris Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), Ansel Elgort (already a winner along with Shailene Woodley for Best Kiss in favorite “The Fault in Our Stars”), Channing Tatum (“Foxcatcher,” but as if that was gonna happen) and Miles Teller (“Whiplash,” ditto).

“American Sniper,” which is on the brink of finally wrapping up its theatrical run, has grossed over $347 million since its Christmas Day limited release. Cooper dedicated his prize to the late Chris Kyle, who he plays in the film and who would have turned 41 last week.

More from the MTV Movie Awards as it happens. Be sure to keep track of the winners here and follow along with our live blog here.

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Actress Shailene Woodley took a few more steps toward owning the MTV demographic that Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart have had a stranglehold on the last few years Sunday by claiming a pair of awards at the top of the 2015 MTV Movie Awards: Best Actress for her work in “The Fault in Our Stars” and the Trailblazer Award for forging her own path in the industry.

“I was here three years ago when Emma Stone won this award and I remember what she said,” Woodley said from the Nokia Theatre stage in accepting the Trailblazer honor. “She came up here and defined what a trailblazer is…and in her speech she said we meet thousands of people we're inspired by but we'll never be anyone other than ourselves. In thinking about that I realized we can't truly be ourselves without a community to reflect back to ourselves who we are.”

She also took a moment just before accepting the prize, presented by her “Spectacular Now” co-star Miles Teller, to remind everyone of what an unsung hero Teller was last season. “I think that award should actually go to you because you were amazing in 'Whiplash,'” she exclaimed.

Woodley won the Best Actress award earlier in the evening for her performance in “The Fault in Our Stars” after Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart have spent the last six years winning three in a row. She beat out some stiff competition, too. Lawrence was in there, for the latest installment in the waning “Hunger Games” franchise,” as were Oscar nominees Emma Stone (“Birdman”) and Reese Witherspoon (“Wild”), as well as “Lucy” star Scarlett Johansson.

There are a few more “Divergent” films still to come for Woodley, but she'll also pop up as Edward Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Oliver Stone's “Snowden” later this year.

More from the MTV Movie Awards as it happens. Keep track of the winners here and follow along with our live blog here.

O.K., so the producers of the MTV Movie Awards and the network itself got quite lucky.  The red carpet for the 2015 show was verging on the worst ever.  How weak was it?  The red carpet for the last Teen Choice Awards was close to blowing it away.

That's not to say there weren't a lot of stars in the house.  Vin Diesel, Mark Wahlberg, Channing Tatum and the entire cast of “Magic Mike XXL” and the whole “Avengers: Age of Ultron” crew had to get into the Nokia Theater somehow.  Instead, they went in the private entrance and MTV basically had Tyler Posey (their own “Teen Wolf” star), the cast of “Pitch Perfect 2” (without Anna Kendrick), Victoria Justice and old school red carpet noise maker Bai Ling to generate any sort of buzz. 

Luckily, Jennifer “I never saw a red carpet I didn't like” Lopez, Miles Teller, Scarlett Johansson and Shailene Woodley, a multiple winner, listened to their publicists and allowed the show's producers to actually breathe.  Because for a moment there? Yikes.

Check out who made it and guess who didn't in the embedded gallery below.

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Meryl Streep has three Oscars and 19 nominations. Something she didn't have coming into this weekend? An MTV Movie Award. Well, she can cross that one off the ole' bucket list.

Awards season's truly dominant champion took home a Golden Popcorn statue for Best Villain at the 2015 MTV Movie Awards Sunday. Her performance in the musical “Into the Woods” beat out Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (“Whiplash”) as well as Jillian Bell (“22 Jump Street”), Peter Dinklage (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) and Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl”).

While Streep may be a perennial fixture on the Oscar circuit, though, this was only her second MTV nomination to date. She was also nominated in the Best Villain category eight years ago for “The Devil Wears Prada,” which also netted her an Oscar nomination. And a fun fact: She lost that year to fellow Oscar magnet Jack Nicholson (“The Departed”).

More from the 2015 MTV Movie Awards as they happen. Keep track of the winners here and follow along with Dan Fienberg's live blog here.

The 2015 MTV Movie Awards were handed out Sunday, April 12 in a telecast held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Here is a complete list of all the winners and nominees.

Movie of the Year
“American Sniper”
“Boyhood”
“The Fault in Our Stars” – WINNER
“Gone Girl”
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1”
“Selma”
“Whiplash”

Best Male Performance
Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper” – WINNER
Ansel Elgort, “The Fault in Our Stars”
Chris Pratt, “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Channing Tatum, “Foxcatcher”
Miles Teller, “Whiplash”

Best Female Performance
Scarlett Johansson, “Lucy”
Jennifer Lawrence, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1”
Emma Stone, “Birdman”
Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”
Shailene Woodley, “The Fault in Our Stars” – WINNER

Best Scared-as-S*** Performance
Zach Gilford, “The Purge: Anarchy”
Jennifer Lopez, “The Boy Next Door” – WINNER
Dylan O'Brien, “The Maze Runner”
Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”
Annabelle Wallis, “Annabell”

Breakthrough Performance
Ellar Coltrane, “Boyhood”
Ansel Elgort, “The Fault in Our Stars”
Dylan O'Brien, “The Maze Runner” – WINNER
David Oyelowo, “Selma”
Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”

Best Shirtless Performance
Ansel Elgort, “The Fault in Our Stars”
Zac Efron, “Neighbors” – WINNER
Chris Pratt, “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Channing Tatum, “Foxcatcher”
Kate Upton, “The Other Woman”

Best Kiss
Rose Byrne & Halston Sage, “Neighbors”
Ansel Elgort & Shailene Woodley, “The Fault in Our Stars” – WINNER
James Franco & Seth Rogen, “The Interview”
Andrew Garfield & Emma Stone, “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”
Scarlett Johansson & Chris Evans, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”

Best #WTF Moment
Rosario Dawson & Anders Holm, “Top Five”
Jonah Hill, “22 Jump Street”
Seth Rogen & Rose Byrne, “Neighbors” – WINNER
Jason Sudeikis & Charlie Day, “Horrible Bosses 2”
Miles Teller, “Whiplash”

Best Villain
Jillian Bell, “22 Jump Street”
Peter Dinklage, “X-Men: Days of Future Past”
Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”
Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods” – WINNER

Best Comedic Performance
Rose Byrne, “Neighbors”
Kevin Hart, “The Wedding Ringer”
Chris Pratt, “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Chris Rock, “Top Five”
Channing Tatum, “22 Jump Street” – WINNER

Best Duo
Bradley Cooper & Vin Diesel, “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Zac Efron & Dave Franco, “Neighbors” – WINNER
James Franco & Seth Rogen, “The Interview”
Channing Tatum & Jonah Hill, “22 Jump Street”
Shailene Woodley & Ansel Elgort, “The Fault in Our Stars”

Best Fight
Chris Evans vs. Sebastian Stan, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
Jonah Hill & Jillian Bell, “22 Jump Street”
Edward Norton vs. Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
Dylan O'Brien vs. Will Poulter, “The Maze Runner” – WINNER
Seth Rogen vs. Zac Efron, “Neighbors”

Best Musical Moment
Bill Hader & Kristen Wiig, “The Skeleton Twins”
Jennifer Lawwrence, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” – WINNER
Chris Pratt, “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Seth Rogen & Zac Efron, “Neighbors”
Miles Teller, “Whiplash”

Best On-Screen Transformation
Elizabeth Banks, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” – WINNER
Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”
Ellar Coltrane, “Boyhood”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”
Zoe Saldana, “Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Hero
Katniess Everdeen, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Pt. 1” (Jennifer Lawrence)
Tris Prior, “Insurgent” (Shailene Woodley)
Star-Lord, “Guardians of the Galaxy” (Chris Pratt)
Bilbo Baggins, “The Hobbit” (Martin Freeman)
Thomas, “The Maze Runner” (Dylan O'Brien)  – WINNER

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4909778759001

Oscar Isaac has delivered another superb performance in Alex Garland's “Ex Machina.”  It follows a National Board of Review-winning turn in “A Most Violent Year” which, frankly, should have earned him an Academy Award nomination this past January. Of course, you could also say he should have received more recognition for his work in “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Drive,” but Isaac's time will come.  Potentially with whatever projects he chooses after shooting “X-Men: Apocalypse” this summer.  But, before we get to Isaac's blueprint or building his character in “Machina” let's get to the subject you probably really want him to hear about, “Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens.”

Frankly, the mantra for anyone working on any J.J. Abrams directed movie is that you keep your lips sealed and don't reveal anything to the press.  And that means almost everything is under wraps unless you're playing Han Solo, Princess Leia or Luke Skywalker (mostly).  Isaac, who has always been pretty frank in our previous interviews, has made some public comments about his experience on the picture which made me wonder just how formal a “keep things quiet” discussion was held when he got the role.

Isaac clarifies, “You have to keep it under wraps.  You do sign the things.* Of course, everyone that comes to visit on set does.  Yeah, so there definitely is the talk about keep it under wraps.” 

But, then there was this intriguing nugget about his role as Poe Dameron, a Rebel X-Wing fighter.

“The truth is I didn't know until I saw the trailer.  I wasn”t even sure I was still going to be in the movie,” Isaac says. “You never know.  I”ve kind of gotten misquoted as saying I”m in the next one.  I have no idea.  You know, they [reporter asked], 'Was I excited to work with them?'  Of course, I”d be excited to work with them.  I have no idea if I”m going to, but yeah, there”s a lot of unknown elements.”

*Likely a contractual non-disclosure agreement.

While his public profile has grown, Isaac has been dealing with the media for quite some time. He knows they are looking for tidbits on his bigger or high profile films (oh, hi Madonna's “W.E.”) and often he's just as curious as we are about how it will all turn out.

“There”s so many people and so many components and there”s such a thirst for content that unfortunately one of the ramifications is that you get left in the dark a lot more than with the smaller movies because they have to be so protective, understandably so about everything,” Isaac admits. “Sometimes the collaborative aspects can become a little bit more difficult.”

And, now, back to the really juicy stuff from “Ex Machina.”   

In case you hadn't heard, Garland's original screenplay centers on a young programmer, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), who has been dropped off at the remote estate of his company's mysterious and genius founder, Nathan (Isaac).  Caleb has won a contest at their Google-like company to spend a week with this mysterious figure, but he soon learns, however, that he's been recruited for a specific experiment.  Nathan has secretly been developing an artificial intelligence that “lives” within a walking and talking robotic body.  Caleb has been brought in to interact with Eva (Alicia Vikander) and help determine if “she” has really reached a true level of independent consciousness.

“Machina” is a movie full of unexpected surprises and Nathan is one of them.  For the most part, he's not the stereotypical programmer-entrepreneur that Hollywood has seemingly made into a cliché over the past 15 years.  Nathan won't remind you of Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg.  He's someone else entirely. That being said…

“He incorporates the pro billionaire speak.  You know the 'dudes,' the 'bros' and all that whole aspect of it,” Isaac says. “I though, 'I don”t need to research that because that”s [in the script].'  What I”m interested in is the idea that he”s a savant.  He was 13-years-old when he wrote this code. That he”s maybe street smart.  That he”s a fatalist. That he”s misanthropic.  That he doesn”t think too highly of humanity.  That he is open about his damaged almost juvenile look at sexuality to a certain extent.  And he”s honest.  Well, honest is a difficult word.  He tells the truth.”

Isaac continues, “Everything that he says stands up.  Actually, even his arguments philosophically stand up.  You know, I would defy anyone to be very up front with his or her porn history.  We all have pretty [expletive]-up sexual proclivities and his is on the scale of [expletive]-up.  I mean, it”s like, what if your iPad was semi-sentient?  It probably wouldn”t be too happy about its place in the universe.  And, yet, we”d be fine with just keeping I guess like, 'Hey man, I”m gonna jerk off onto it.'  So, if he”s by himself all alone up there for four or five years why wouldn”t, you know, why wouldn”t he make his creation sexually stimulating.  He”s beyond red tube.”

Isaac is referencing some of Nathan's questionable actions that audiences will be debating soon as they walk out of the theater.  Trying to keep spoilers at a minimum, how Nathan uses the robots with A.I. for his own personal use will disturb many.  And, yet, if they don't have true consciousness, does it matter?  Isaac's true inspiration for Nathan may help form a clearer picture of his character's motivations.

“I didn”t go to pro billionaires,” Isaac says.  “Bobby Fischer and Stanley Kubrick were my two big inspirations for Nathan.  Bobby Fischer because he was so brilliant, but so damaged and definitely, towards the end of his life, just rotten with hatred, you know?  He was incredibly anti-Semitic.  He was [expletive]-ed up.  But he was also streetwise and he was self-taught.  He actually had an Olympic trainer when he was training for his matches.”

Nathan's look and public persona, on the other hand, came from the secretive and perfectionist filmmaker.

“Those glasses and the owl eyes and the shaved head and the beard. Even his speech patterns.  That”s why he kind of sounded a little bit like he was from the Bronx, because both Bobby Fischer and Stanley Kubrick were from the Bronx.  They were New Yorkers,” Isaac says.  “And I played a lot of chess while we were doing it.  I”m not a great chess player, but it just helped the feeling of I”m looking at all the directions I need to go to.  [Nathan is] 20 moves ahead constantly. Everything that he says and does is a calculation.  Everything.”

For a movie that's as much of a mind game as “Machina” is, this background may make you reconsider Nathan.  Moreover, seeing the movie for a second time may completely change your perspective on the events that occur within his estate (no doubt music to A24's ears).

“It is funny because my girlfriend, who”s a hyper feminist, the first time she saw it she”s like, 'I hated you so much,'” Isaac says. “She saw it a second time and was like, 'I kind of saw the whole thing from his perspective now and you realize he”s actually telling the truth the whole time.  He”s kind of the good guy here.  A good guy if you see that all he”s doing is running an experiment.'”

Now that he's done with a short promotional tour for “Machina,” Isaac will continue prepping for his role as the villainous and seemingly immortal mutant Apocalypse in the follow up to last year's blockbuster, “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”  He's hoping to follow that up by staging a new adaptation of “Hamlet” this fall in New York.  Beyond that, well, Isaac, like most true talents, doesn't have a master plan for what's next.

“I”m not thinking that far ahead because it”s boring to be honest,” Isaac says. “Because it”s art – for me that aspect of it is so much more interesting than the more commercial ideas.  I don”t mean that by, like, commercial films [themselves].  For me, even those are about ideas and a character, 'Oh, this is an interesting meditation on this' and also working with certain people and being part of those worlds.”

And this is what Isaac leaves you with after talking to him.  If he doesn't get to appear in the follow-up to “A Force Awakens”?  No skin off his back.  He'll just movie on to whatever's next.

Then again, maybe he's such a good actor he just wants us to think that…I might need to read this interview again.

“Ex Machina” is now playing in New York and Los Angeles.