While we patiently wait to hear more about James Gray’s highly anticipated Cannes hopeful The Immigrant, another project that bares his fingerprints has screened out of competition there this week — Guillaume Canet’s Blood Ties. Gray co-wrote the film with actor-turned-filmmaker Canet (Tell No One, Little White Lies) — a remake of the 2008 French thriller Les liens du sang (which starred Canet) — and it looks to have several of the We Own the Night director’s touchstones. Set in 1970s Brooklyn, the film follows the story of two brothers on either side of the law and features a stellar cast: Clive Owen plays a ex-con trying to go straight, Marion Cotillard (aka Canet’s wife) is his prostitute ex/mother of his children and Mila Kunis is his new love interest, while Billy Crudup is his cop brother enters into a romance with Zoe Saldana after putting away her violent ex, Matthias Schoenaerts. Noah Emmerich, James Caan and Lili Taylor also co-star. It sounds a little convoluted and early reviews seem to suggest the sprawling narrative doesn’t quite work, which is a shame because this first trailer is rather promising and it’s great to see Owen in a rare decent leading role.
Blood Ties opens in France on October 30; no international releases have been set. Check out the first trailer and poster below.
