If you don't know the names mentioned in the headline above then its perhaps time to familiarize yourself with French cinema. Actually, I'm fairly sure all three filmmakers showed their last films at the Cannes Film Festival either a year or two years back.

Now, almost a decade later, those films might have crossed paths, as Despentes has cast Beatrice Dalle (she starred in Trouble Every Day) in the lead role for Bye Bye Blondie.

Christoph Waltz will want to make sure that his next moves are the goods ones, or else the good fortune of Inglourious Basterds will wash away. The Austrian actor has according to Deadline.com, dropped out on a chance to play with David Cronenberg’s The Talking Cure for an antagonist role in Francis Lawrence's Water For Elephants.

Zach Braff is working on a new indie project - Canadian indie. Currently filming in Montreal, the helmer/star of Garden State is the topliner in Deborah Chow's directorial debut - a dark drama that will most likely receive its world premiere at TIFF next September

Before joining Terrence Malick's untitled romantic drama alongside Christian Bale, Javier Bardem and Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams might be joining Woody Allen's Paris-based film, which could turn out to be a romantic drama as well, since it's being filmed in the city of lights.

The phasing out of "Scarlett Johansson period" is now complete, as Woody Allen seems logically more into leading ladies whose first language is French. Slowing finding the set pieces for his Paris-based project, Carla Bruni and Owen Wilson were recently announced/attached, and now Allen claimed Oscar winning actress in Marion Cotillard off waivers.

Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth's sumptuous looking Altiplano has been picked up by the First Run folks. Since it preemed in the Critic's Week section, the film has followed in the same path as their debut film Khadak - heavy festival play and multi-territory sales.

Film Movement have grabbed the rights to the Cannes preemed, TIFF presented sophomore feature from Keren Yedaya. Working once again with actresses Ronit Elkabetz and Dana Ivgy - both were in her 2004 Camera D'or winning feature Or (Mon trésor), Yedaya's latest film titled Jaffa (the name of an old port city that is part of Tel Aviv) once again goes the turbulent route - with a storyline on the difficulties of being a woman in love, in a city where the cultures clash - I think you can guess which ones.

Kino Lorber (the new venture from Lorber Films and Kino International) have made an EFM pick up, grabbing the theatrical rights to Stéphane Brizé's Mademoiselle Chambon - a recent winner for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Cesars this past weekend.

We'll be seeing Mesrine: Killer Instinct (the word "death" replaced by "killer") and Mesrine: Public Enemy No.1 released this summer, I just hope that this receives a better fate than Soderbergh's Che films did. I'd hardly call Music Box French film specialists, but two summers back they did an impressive run with Tell No One.

If you notice, the promo poster clearly indicates that there is still some casting work to do on Lynne Ramsey's We Need To Talk About Kevin. Clearly this is a showcase for Tilda, but before it starts lensing in Connecticut next April, there are a pair of "Kevins" to be cast, and the Culkin brothers are all grown up. There is the young boy version - a mean-spirited looking child to cast, a younger sister and finally the adolescent Kevin.

In many ways, Cannes is like Disneyland. It's a lieu where dreams come true, where an actor can be plucked from obscurity, as was the case for Tahar Rahim - whose mind-numbing, break-out performance in A Prophet has landed him a wealth of future acting parts, and it's a place that helps sustain a career in filmmaking when you're banned from pursuing the profession in your own country, as was the case for provocateur Lou Ye.

Not sure how much time after world preems in Venice and TIFF that the IFC Films folks scooped up the rights to Claire Denis' White Material, but if you are like me, both a fan of Denis and this film, or you run Fin de Cinema, you'd have noticed that next month's BAMcinématek presents Focus on IFC Films contains a surprise selection that hadn't been yet announced as an IFC pick-up.

You get a sense that if you had to choose a crowning piece in Magnet Releasing's 2nd edition of the ‘Six Shooter’ series that you'd want to end on a high note such as in today's pick-up announcement. Despite only playing in market screenings, Neil Marshall's Centurion may be a major coup for Tom Quinn.

Last week in my Cannes predictions, I attached a first glimpse of the Lee Jeong-jae and Jeon Do-yeon (who won Best Actress in Cannes for Secret Sunshine) pairing we'll find Im Sang-soo's remake of The Housemaid, and now we have a sweet first look at a Jeon Do-yeon again in a pic that gives us a vague idea of the subservient, domesticated nanny persona she embodies before the problems start to mount.

It's been almost one year since we last reported on Apichatpong Weerasethakul and him wanting to transform his multi-platform project "Primitive" into an eventual feature film project. For a buck, you can watch the short on TheAuteurs in preparation for Uncle Bonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which is officially in the can.

Déborah François, Abe Hiroshi (Still Walking) and Nishijima Hidetoshi (Dolls) just completed principle shooting for Audrey Fouché Memories Corner -- a Canadian-France production that just wrapped up shooting in Japan.

Natalia Smirnoff, an art director-turned casting director-turned filmmaker will see her debut film, what appears to be a Berlin Film Festival favorite, get a theatrical run via the IFC folks. Smirnoff, who's worked with Lucrecia Martel and Pablo Trapero, saw her debut film Puzzle receive a Films In Progress screening at the San Sebastian Film Festival, just prior to landing a main comp spot in Berlin.

How many office Oscar pools are won by the wise ass who happens to know the competition in the often neglected short film categories? This year's winner could be you, but all joking aside, Magnolia Pictures has, for the past five years, made watching Oscar nominated short films in both the animated and live action categories easier than pie.

Sony Pictures Classics have finally made a Sundance pick-up - and let me tell you, they've pretty much landed themselves a masterwork in David Michôd's debut -- and trust me, I don't use a word like masterwork lightly. Animal Kingdom was perhaps the biggest title that had yet to find a high bidder, and almost one month to the date that it premiered in Park City's Egyptian theater, SPC have grabbed the all US and Latin American rights to the pic.

If you're a small indie company such as Lorber films you need for titles to fall through the cracks to fill up a theatrical slate. Hence, a lot of time has lapsed on Robert Guediguian's The Army of Crime since it preemed as an out of comp title at Cannes. A Spring/Summer release is in the works.

Variety reports that the Bergman project will be filmed as a four-part mini series with a feature film in mind. Shooting begins in the fall of next year, which means if Bier really wants to, she could finish off The Revenge, bring it to the festivals and follow up with Which Brings Me to You.

Philippe Claudel's change in disciplines (he went from novelist to filmmaker) was extremely well-received if you consider the number of international film festival awards and film critic prizes that I've Loved You So Long racked up. Looks like we won't have to wait too long for Claudel's sophomore project.

It appears that the cinephile in Michael Haneke is the reason for the scrapping of his "old age project" titled Ces Deux. The premise of a deteriorating, aging body but a youthful mind my have been too close to Sarah Polley's Away From Her...

In pure Kaurismaki tradition, Le Havre as reported by Screen Daily, falls in his usual "dramatic comedy" territory and is about a shoeshiner who tries to save a refugee. Fitting since the city is a port town in the North of France.

Ray Winstone is reteaming with his Sexy Beast and 44 Inch Chest scribe David Scinto for the screenwriter's directing debut - which is being called not a gangster film, but a "terrifying romantic thriller". Night Flower would obviously involve a female lead of some sorts and word is that a pair of young, talented Brit actors Ben Whishaw (Bright Star) and Andrew Garfield (Never Let Me Go) are also in talks to join the cast. The pic is expected to go into production in the fall.

Hawke and career hotter than an iron Kristin Scott Thomas will take on the lead roles in a film that should signify the return of Pawel Pawlikowski (he has been dabbling on many projects that never came to fruition (see here). Shooting is set to start in April for The Woman in the Fifth.

Screen Daily reports that Dominic Cooper, Julie Christie and Imogen Poots are currently attached to Hello Darkness -- which has Bobby Allen and Alexandra Stone producing, with Steve Golin, one of my favorites Todd Haynes and Adam Shulman acting as executive producers.

Strand Releasing are once again teaming up with the prolific French filmmaker (they last worked with Francois Ozon on Time to Leave). Plans are for a Spring release. Looking back on this title, I wouldn't call it your typical comeback moment for Ozon, but sometimes a simple, one note number can make waves and Le Refuge certainly did back at Fall film festivals such as San Sebastian and Toronto. Mousse and Louis are young, beautiful, rich and in love. But drugs have invaded their lives. One day they overdose, and Louis dies. Mousse survives, but soon learns she’s pregnant. Feeling lost, she runs away to a house far from Paris. Several months later, Louis’ brother joins her in her refuge.

Firth will now reunite with the filmmaker on a completely different blend - The Promised Land political crime thriller set in British-ruled Palestine at the end of World War II - circa 1948 when the partition of Palestine and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel. Basically, this could be an explosive indie film. Written by Laurence Coriat (who wrote pair of Winterbottom projects in Genova and Seven Days), Firth and Matthew Macfadyen will join the already cast Jim Sturgess.

Looking to make the pre-sales in Berlin, Celluloid Dreams will be pitching a project without having not worry about pitching a project with voice talent as Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, the duo behind Persepolis are set to embark on their second collaboration - and this time they'll be using the Satrapi's graphic novel source material as the basis for a live-action film.