Morena Films
Benicio del Toro plays Che Guevara in Stephen Soderbergh's films "Guerrilla" and "The Argentine."
Clint Eastwood's latest thriller, "Changeling," and Steven Soderbergh's four-hour, two-part Che Guevara opus were among the surprise selections when the official lineup for the 61st Cannes Film Festival was announced at a Paris press conference on Wednesday. Both films will be in competition, as will "Synecdoche, New York," the directing debut of eccentric screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation," etc.).
As expected, Steven Spielberg's forthcoming blockbuster "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" will premiere out of competition at Cannes on May 18, four days before its worldwide release. The festival's opening and closing films were not announced today; speculation continues to focus on Michael Patrick King's "Sex and the City: The Movie" for the former slot and Barry Levinson's "What Just Happened?" for the much less desirable closing-night gig. In a minor surprise, Woody Allen's new film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" will premiere out of competition at Cannes, despite published reports that Allen was financially obligated to open the film at the festival in San Sebastián, Spain, later this year.