Che and Clint in Cannes Line-up

Steven Soderbergh's two-part Che Guevara biopic, Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," Steven Spielberg's long-awaited "Indiana Jones" sequel and Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" are all having their world premieres at the 61st Cannes Film Festival.

This year's event, from May 14-25, will be lighter on Yank-produced Palme d'Or contenders than was last year's banner season. But it will still offer Hollywood glam as multiple U.S. pics, both studio and indie items, fill many Out of Competition slots.

Elsewhere, Thierry Fremaux -- in his first year as a fully fledged Cannes delegate general, but with the seeming complicity of Cannes president Gilles Jacob -- looks to be shaking up things.

The Competition section still showcases the work of a small pantheon of hallowed auteurs, but it also boasts pics from eight directors new to the section.

 

As Fremaux emphasized, Cannes has fast-tracked a clutch of lesser-known helmers and left-of-field pics into Competition.

Fremaux, who acknowledged that the selection process was "very difficult," said last year's 60th anni edition drew a line in the sand. "Cinema is evolving and the Cannes festival with it," he declared to a packed press conference Wednesday at Paris' Grand Hotel.

 

The 61st edition is "recentered and renewed," Jacob said in an introductory speech.
Whether the Cannes Film Festival will deliver on this promised renewal will no doubt be one of the event's major talking points.

Fest openers and closers have yet to be announced. Michael Patrick King's "Sex and the City: The Movie" and Barry Levinson's "What Just Happened?" are said to be still in the running. Fremaux said opening and closing night films -- and perhaps more than one additional Competition title -- would be announced later.

The inclusion of Soderbergh's two-part, four-hour "Che" opus, "The Argentine" and "Guerrilla," was a nail-biter, as it remained unclear down to the last minute whether the onetime Palme d'Or winner would be able to complete work in time for the fest. Fremaux assured the press that digital post-production would allow Soderbergh to deliver the French-Spanish co-production in finished form.

Inclusion of Eastwood's 1920s-set mystery thriller, which toplines Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Amy Ryan and Colm Feore, also came as a surprise, as the Universal release isn't due to hit theaters until November. Pic will be the director's fifth in the Competition; the Palme d'Or is one of the few awards Eastwood has never won.

Cannes selectors were reportedly still making decisions Tuesday, and some films, including Jia Zhangke's "24 City" and Kim Jee-woon's "The Good, the Bad, the Weird," were only seen over the weekend.

Three highly anticipated Stateside Out of Competition entries, all with major star quotients, look set to keep Palais flashbulbs popping. As previously disclosed, Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" world preems on the Croisette on the evening of May 18. It promises to be the fest's most star-studded event, with Spielberg, producer George Lucas and thesps Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Karen Allen and Cate Blanchett set to grace the red carpet. DreamWorks-Paramount release will open in France and Belgium on May 21 and around the rest of the world over the subsequent two days.

On May 15, also Out of Competition, DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda," a comedic chopsocky toon voiced by Jack Black, Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan and Dustin Hoffman, promises another Hollywood red-carpet cavalcade. Pic bows in the U.S. on June 6.

Also noncompeting, as is Allen's custom, is the Spain-shot "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." Said to be Allen's sexiest film in many years, pic will bow over the fest's first weekend. Topliners Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz are expected in Cannes; co-star Javier Bardem has yet to confirm.

This year's Cannes Competition will roll out some other Riviera regulars.
Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne vie for their third Palme d'Or with a drama about a young woman, "The Silence of Lorna."

Arnaud Desplechin returns with "A Christmas Tale," a family solidarity tale with a star-studded French cast led by Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Amalric. Other than the two-part "Che," this film looks to be the longest in the Competition at 2½ hours; the only other feature listed by the fest at more than 2¼ hours is Eastwood's "Changeling," at 140 minutes.

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" has a 125-minute running time, according to the official Cannes schedule.