CANNES: Kurt Russell, Shirley MacLaine Pics

The marketplace at Cannes is now underway, and that means film packages are being shopped to foreign distributors. Kurt Russell has attached to star in Undying, a supernatural thriller being written by Book of Eli scribe Gary Whitta. Media 8 Entertainment is producing with Circle of Confusion, and they hope to begin production in the fall. Media 8 is financing and handling worldwide sales, with Gersh and CAA selling North American territories. Russell’s aboard to play a private investigator who finds himself recruited by a mysterious woman who draws him into a surreal underworld.
Another package has Shirley MacLaine, Maria Bello, Christina Ricci, John Corbett and Bill Pullman attached to star in Wild Oats, a light-hearted action comedy directed by Scott Marshall and written by Claudia Myers. MacLaine plays a widowed former history teacher whose life changes when her Social Security check reads $900,000 instead of the usual $900. Production begins in August. Peace Arch Entertainment is selling foreign territories. CAA and ICM packaged the film together.