Eric Lavallée

The pic above (Denis Lavant aiding an Eva Mendes from a manhole) tells us that Carax appears to have incorporated some narrative and film character elements from his portion of the Carax-Michel Gondry-Bong Joon-ho triptych Tokyo!. In it, Lavant plays some excruciatingly annoying Godzilla-like creature, which wouldn't be a selling point for this project as it was worst than fingernails on a chalkboard, but we're curious about how this "meta" film within a film formula might work out. Also worth noting: this is Carax's first feature film since 1999's Pola X.

Screen Daily have learned that filmmaker Angelina Nikonova (pictured on the right) will once again team up with Olga Dykhovichnaya (the star and co-writer of her Venice Days and TIFF showcased debut feature film Twilight Portrait) on a film item that carries a whole other DNA. Welcome Home will most likely be followed by a third project by the pair -- they are looking for Japanese co-producers to board "a Russian-Japanese story set in the early 20th century Japan."

A foursome of films have been added to the 2012 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. Joining Sundance's "Spotlight" section (which showcases films that have made their mark on the festival circuit in the previous year) we've got a couple of Cannes films in Paolo Sorrentino's oddball comedy/travelogue/revenge pic (This Must Be The Place) and Joachim Trier, who will be attending the Sundance Screenwriting labs the week before will extend his stay in the state of Utah by showing one of our favorites of the year in, "Oslo, August 31st."

Here is some great news for fans of the long take. Cannes' 2007 Palme d'Or winning director Cristian Mungiu (4 months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) and Golden Lion winning director Abdellatif Kechiche (La Graine et le mulet) are two of the 18 European co-productions that have received coin from Council of Europe's Eurimages Fund.

New film projects by the likes of Aktan Arym Kubat (The Light Thief), Athina Rachel Tsangari (ATTENBERG), Taika Waititi (Eagle vs Shark), Kelly Reichardt (Meek's Cutoff), Úrszula Antoniak (Code Blue and Nothing Personal), Quentin Dupieux (Rubber and the Sundance selected Wrong), Florin Serban (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle), Ruben Östlund (Play) and Aditya Assarat (Wonderful Town) are among the 36 projects participating in Rotterdam’s 29th co-production market CineMart (where a whopping 850 potential co-financiers add coin to future projects).