Eastwood to Premiere “Changeling” at Cannes Festival

Academy Award-winning director Clint Eastwood will present his newest project, “Changeling,” a thriller starring Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival in May, organizers said Wednesday.

The organizers of the 61st Cannes Film Festival announced the lineup in Paris on Wednesday.  Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling,” Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” would be among the 19 contenders for the main award.

“Changeling” is based on a period thriller from noted writer J. Michael Straczynski, and tells the story of a woman (Jolie) who suspects that the child returned to her after a kidnapping is not her own, only to be thrown into a psychiatric hospital by corrupt officers of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The story is based on the “Wineville Chicken Murders,” an infamous kidnapping and murder case that occurred in Los Angeles in the 1920s.

“Che” is a four-hour epic on the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, while Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director struggling with inspiration for a monumental new play and his relationships with various women (Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams and Samantha Morton).

Other contenders for this year’s Palme d’Or are German-born Wim Wenders with “The Palermo Shooting,” Canadian director Atom Egoyan with “Adorationand Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan with “Three Monkeys.”

There are also movies from France, Italy, Belgium and Brazil.

The festival is held from May 14 to 25 in the French Riviera resort.

There are fewer big-name directors than in previous years and organizers said many of the festival's favorite directors are working on new movies, reports the Associated Press.

Woody Allen’s “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” with an ensemble cast including Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem will be screened out of competition, as will be the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” directed by Steven Spielberg.