A handful of films with Louisiana ties are currently competing in the 65th annual Cannes film festival.
This week, projects of the Hollywood South are shining bright at the prestigious festival in the South of France.

Director, Lee Daniels' New Orleans-shot drama "The Paperboy" starring Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, John Cusack and Nicole Kidman is competing.  Houma-shot Sundance Film Festival sensation "Beasts of the Southern Wild," directed by New Orleans-based filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, is in the Un Certain Regard section and received outstanding reviews thus far.

Also screening is Director Walter Salles' "On the Road," based on a classic 1957 novel by Jack Kerouac, partly filmed in New Orleans. Gritty crime drama, "Killing Them Softy," directed by Andrew Dominick's starring Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Ben Mendelsohn and Scoot McNairy also shot in New Orleans under the title "Cogan's Trade."

The Weinstein Company also offered a seven minute sneak peak of Quentin Tarantino’s slavery film, “Django Unchained” which is still currently filming in New Orleans! Tarantino calls this feature, a “Southern.” We love that! Next time, the Southern Celebrity Gossiper will report on the festival winners- stay tuned!

AngelWorld Entertainment just announced a series of exciting new projects at the Cannes Film Festival, including funding of feature film, “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”.  Jessica Biel ("New Year's Eve"), Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("Watchmen") and young actress, Chloe Grace Moretz ("Hugo") have reportedly signed on to star in the New Orleans-set drama.
    According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film “follows Henry (Morgan), a grieving widower who recently lost his wife (Biel) in a car accident, as he finds refuge by helping an imaginative young girl (Moretz) fulfill her dream of building a raft and sailing across the Atlantic Ocean."
    Bill Purple will direct from a script by Robbie Pickering and begin principle photography for the project this fall in New Orleans! Biel will produce as well with Michelle Purple under their production company, Iron Ocean Films alongside Preferred Content's Ross M. Dinerstein and AngelWorld's Darby Angel.
    Excitingly enough, this project will be the first professional collaboration between Biel and her fiance, Justin Timberlake. He is set to compose the film's soundtrack and serve as music supervisor.
    MTV makes note of Timberlake’s “self-imposed” vacation from the music industry to focus on his film career and wonders if this means he will also make an appearance in this film. We can hope so!
    Plus, we love to see actors make it back to the Hollywood South! In this case, Morgan will return to New Orleans to film “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” as he shot crime thriller, "The Courier" here in October 2010.

Filming in the South continues to heat up this summer bringing back academy award winning actors and handsome Hollywood hunks!

Brad Pitt has said it time and time again, he loves New Orleans! We admire him just the same. He really cares about our community and recently hosted a charity gala for The Make it Right Foundation. In addition to keeping a residence here with his family and enjoying our culture, he is a community activist. Meanwhile, he continues to engage in local filming and contribute to the growing local entertainment industry.

Next month, he is going to co-star in a historical drama filming in New Orleans. The feature is based on Solomon Northup’s memoir,Twelve Years a Slave, chronicling his experiences as a free black man who was kidnapped in New York and sold into slavery in Louisiana in 1841. It’s nostalgic that New Orleans is going to be the film setting for significant stories that impacted our society. Remember, director Lee Daniels is also bringing a real life story to film here this summer, The Butler.

We could never abandon our appreciation for true stories but we’re also excited to welcome Gerard Butler back to Louisiana to film an action thriller set in the White House, "Olympus Has Fallen". Butler is confirmed to play an ex-secret service agent fighting to prevent a terrorist attack!

Some of Hollywood’s other biggest action stars, Mark Walhberg and Denzel Washington are also returning to Louisiana this summer! They will film crime thriller, "2 Guns", based on a graphic novel by Steven Gant.