Paul Verhoeven And Gaspar Noé Selling New Projects At Cannes

It's Cannes time, which means the marketplace is opening in France, and producers, sales agents, distributors, and other money-traders are converging to make deals to produce and exhibit new films. Two of the first big filmmakers who will be selling their new projects at the festival are Paul Verhoeven and Gaspar Noé. We've got what little info is available on their new projects, after the break.

Screen Daily reports the details.

Verhoevens' film sounds... disturbing. It is based on Oh..., the 2012 novel from French author Philippe Djian, and follows "a psychological game of cat-and-mouse between a businesswoman and a stalker who raped her, a crime for which she is seeking revenge." That's definitely Verhoeven material, and it also sounds like a serious exploitation thriller. 

As if to echo that idea, Vincent Maraval of Wild Bunch, the outfit that is selling rights to both Verhoeven and Noe's movies at Cannes, says this of the film:

Casting is being finalised. It's a very intelligent script but it's also pure Verhoeven, extremely erotic and perverted, so the actress has to be prepared to take that on.

So this one is going to be tough going. Whoever is cast should get in touch with Carice van Houten to see what shooting Black Book was like.

Meanwhile, there's the Gaspar Noé movie, which is called Love. That film is designed as "a sexual melodrama about a boy and a girl and another girl." Maraval chimes in on that one, too, saying, 

We'll have a visual and a note of intention at Cannes. It's a love story, which celebrates sex in a joyous way. Gaspar feels that most films that touch on sex in traditional cinema are dark and dramatic, this will be really joyous... He says it's a film that will give guys 'a hard-on and make girls cry.'

That last line is somewhat hair-raising, as Noé's previous films could drive women (and men) to cry for various reasons, many of which wouldn't be an expression of joy or longing. Love should shoot in June, with Paris a likely location.