Conan The Barbarian trailer

Stella Artois has always taken more than just a passing interest in film. You’ve seen the Film Four ads. Now they’re making their own movie which will debut at Cannes.

They’ve scoured the globe looking for someone to play Jacques d’Azur, the legendary (and fictitious) ‘King of Cannes,’ character from their latest ads in a biographical film about his life. They’ve found their guy and here he is - Gustavo Alvarez from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

More deets after the jump.

The entries are divided between films in the main competition, the more indie-focused 'Un certain regard' category and larger films simply being showcased outside the competition.

For our money, Terrence Malick's The Tree Of Life is the most intriguing screening here as we still know little about it except for the trailer. This year's biggest most misplaced blockbuster: Pirates 4.

Opening Film:
Woody ALLEN - MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (Out of Competition)

MAIN COMPETITION

Pedro ALMODÓVAR - LA PIEL QUE HABITO
Bertrand BONELLO - L’APOLLONIDE - SOUVENIRS DE LA MAISON CLOSE
Alain CAVALIER - PATER
Joseph CEDAR - HEARAT SHULAYIM (Footnote)
Nuri Bilge CEYLAN - BIR ZAMANLAR ANADOLU’DA (Once upon a time in Anatolia)
Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE - LE GAMIN AU VÉLO
Aki KAURISMÄKI - LE HAVRE
Naomi KAWASE - HANEZU NO TSUKI
Julia LEIGH - SLEEPING BEAUTY
MAÏWENN - POLISSE
Terrence MALICK - THE TREE OF LIFE
Radu MIHAILEANU - LA SOURCE DES FEMMES
Takashi MIIKE - ICHIMEI (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samuraï)
Nanni MORETTI - HABEMUS PAPAM
Lynne RAMSAY - WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Markus SCHLEINZER - MICHAEL
Paolo SORRENTINO - THIS MUST BE THE PLACE
Lars VON TRIER - MELANCHOLIA
Nicolas WINDING REFN - DRIVE

UN CERTAIN REGARD
RESTLESS, Gus VAN SANT - Opening Film
THE HUNTER, Bakur BAKURADZE
HALT AUF FREIER STRECKE, Andreas DRESEN
HORS SATAN, Bruno DUMONT
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, Sean DURKIN
LES NEIGES DU KILIMANDJARO, Robert GUÉDIGUIAN
SKOONHEID, Oliver HERMANUS
THE DAY HE ARRIVES, HONG Sangsoo
BONSÁI, Cristián JIMÉNEZ
TATSUMI, Eric KHOO
ARIRANG, KIM Ki-duk
ET MAINTENANT ON VA OÚ, Nadine LABAKI
LOVERBOY, Catalin MITULESCU
YELLOW SEA, NA Hong-jin
MISS BALA, Gerardo NARANJO
TRABALHAR CANSA, Juliana ROJAS, Marco DUTRA
L’EXERCICE DE L’ETAT, Pierre SCHOELLER
TOOMELAH, Ivan SEN
OSLO, AUGUST 31ST, Joachim TRIER

OUT OF COMPETITION
Xavier DURRINGER - LA CONQUÊTE
Jodie FOSTER - THE BEAVER
Michel HAZANAVICIUS - THE ARTIST
Rob MARSHALL - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

It’s Sunday night, we’re sitting in a pub just off Charing Cross Road in London and Danny McBride is passing us tequila after tequila. Yes THAT Danny McBride is passing us tequila after tequila. The star of The Foot Fist Way, Pineapple Express and Eastbound And Down seems determined to have a good time while we talk about his new movie Your Highness. Meanwhile at the other end of the table, his co-star Rasmus Hardiker is more than happy to match Danny shot for shot and soundbite for soundbite..

So I’m sat here at San Francisco airport waiting to board my flight back to merry old England when I noticed I forgot to upload this picture (left) of the amazing award collection that is proudly displayed at Pixar studios. Pixar have bagged loads of awards over the years, including Oscars for Up! and Toy Story 3 – that’s pretty impressive.

My time in San Francisco was brilliant and I can now really see why Pixar make such incredible films – all the workers there are treated like royalty. John Lasseter has made an outstanding effort to allow his worker bees to be in the most creative hive possible – they have an incredible building, an on-site swimming pool, massage rooms and (I’ve mentioned it before but I’m going to bring it up again) a free breakfast cereal bar that’s open all day. So if the Pixar pixies are lacking inspiration, they can go and get a massage and tuck into a bowl of high-sugar cereal – if that isn’t a recipe for making great films, I don’t know what is.

I came away from the press day yesterday with a huge smile on my face. It might have been the copious amounts of coffee passed my lips, but I think it was because the studio has a child-like magic to it and everyone there seems to be genuinely happy. Even John Lasseter’s smile beamed as brightly as his loud, Hawaiian style shirt and he was keen to answer all our questions.

I also chatted to one of the Pixar home-town heroes, a Brit who’s lucky enough to work at Pixar. And I even almost got him to spill the beans on Pixar’s secret future project that he’s working on… Unfortunately, he said that the film didn’t even have a title yet (I bet they train the animators on how not to crack when being interrogated by journalists.) But, I did find out from the mouth of the mighty John Lasseter, that they’re working on a ‘Planes and Trains’ themed film – an extension of the Cars universe.
I’ll be bringing you detailed interviews from my trip to Pixar in the near future, but for now I hope my blog entries have painted a bit of a picture of what the Pixar studios are like. If you want to see them for yourself, you better start sending your drawings to John Lasseter – a few of mine are already in the post to him.

Many people may not have believed me when I said that people whizzed around the Pixar studios on scooters, but now I have the evidence – to your left is a sneaky photo I took of a Pixar employee happily scooting through the building. I only noticed him because he almost crashed into me – I wonder how many scooter injuries the Pixar peeps have each year?

I’ve just returned from my last action-packed day at Pixar and, by the end of it, I didn’t want to leave – it really is such a cool place. One employee even said that it’s a ‘happier place than Disney Land’ – I don’t hear many people describing their job like that, and if they did I would think they would be a little bit on the strange side. But this Pixar worker really believed it was and I could see where he was coming from. Everyone was smiley and looked genuinely like they loved their job.

Our press day started ridiculously early, I emerged from the hotel bleary-eyed just as the sun was just starting to rise over San Francisco. A rabble of half-awake journalists bimbled on the shuttle bus with me and a quick nap later, we were once again at Pixar Palace.

Today wasn’t about relaxing and mingling like the night before though – it was time to wake up and find out everything that I possibly could about their up-and-coming flick Cars 2. After a very strong coffee or three, we were all escorted to Pixar’s private cinema (complete with a planetarium-style ceiling) and treated to a sample of the film. I can’t give anything away, but it’s fair to say that Cars 2 is a totally different film to its predecessor…

We then listened to the film’s producer Denise Ream talk about the film and it soon dawned on me just how much work is put into each Pixar film. The Pixar pixies have been working on Cars 2 since 2008 and they’re still working hard to meet the summer deadline. They don’t do anything by halves – even the most minute details are incredibly important to the film makers and I think that’s what makes their films so great.

I managed to take a few snaps when I got a moment, including this really great pic of hand-made sculptures of the Cars characters – more evidence of the amazing detail and work that goes into each Pixar film. I also filmed a behind-the-scenes video of the Pixars studio for our users to enjoy, so watch this space...

As well as finding out about the technical side of the film, we also have the amazing opportunity to meet the legendary John Lasseter and he’s just as jolly many believe him to be. He was a pleasure to talk to and we’ll be bringing you my full interview with him nearer the release date of Cars 2. I also chatted with the extremely talented British actress Emily Mortimer who plays Holley Shiftwell in the film. She confessed that being in a Pixar film had made her seven-year-old son think she’s a superhero.

Mater is one of the most popular characters from the Cars franchise and I spoke to the lovely Larry The Cable Guy who is the voice talent behind the character. He is a huge deal in America and I can see why – he is incredibly funny, yet approachable and down-to-earth. Denise Ream, the film’s producer who also worked on Up!, stopped to talk to me and she revealed a great deal about what goes on behind the scenes at Pixar.

So, I’ve just got back from Pixar’s 25th anniversary party and I have to say that the Pixar studios simply surpassed my expectations – it literally is the coolest place to work in the entire world.

Not only are its grounds scattered with quirky memorabilia from their movies (check out the picture of me and Mike and Sulley from Monsters Inc.) but their employees get to ride around on scooters and eat free cereal all day long– what more could you want from a job?!

After a short bus journey from my hotel, I arrived at ‘Pixar Palace’ and I was immediately taken aback by the building. Artwork from their films covers most of the walls and there’s glitzy cabinet that proudly displays the studio’s many Oscars. I was also given a tour of their ‘new building’.

As I walked outside I saw a number of happy-looking people practicing yoga in the scorching San Francisco sunshine and I was informed that they were employees of Pixar – it became clear that the bosses at Pixar love to keep their workers’ creative minds happy.

The new building was as imaginative as any Pixar film and we were shown around its many secret passageways and meeting rooms (most were readily equipped with bars – another touch that is sure to keep the Pixar workers content.)

I was then lead to the reception area where I had the chance to mingle with other journalists and film makers from Pixar. With a glass of chilled white wine and a mini burger in hand, I chatted with Darla K. Anderson, the producer of a number of Pixar films including the hugely popular Toy Story 3. She was lovely to talk to and she really emphasised how Pixar was different to any other film studio – they were more like a big, scooter-using, family. She revealed that even the café staff don’t get left out of any film’s credits - all Pixar employees help build the films in one way or another.

I chatted to Darla about which was her favourite film to produce and she revealed that A Bug’s Life was a big turning point for Pixar, as it was the film that followed their first flick, Toy Story. She said that A Bug’s Life was the ‘film that literally built this studio.’ Toy Story 3 was Darla’s favourite film to produce though as she said it was ‘like the Toy Story circle was complete.’

After munching through a few more mini-burgers (although mini in America is probably your average sized Big Mac) I stopped to chat with Jonas Rivera, the producer of the fantastic and moving Pixar film Up!

Jonas was happy to talk about Up! and revealed that he was pleased on the huge emotional impact the film had on audiences across the globe. He also confirmed that Pixar was a great place to work and that the rumours of scooter-riding employees were true. On cue a bearded, artistic-looking man whizzed by on a fold-away scooter.

We were then escorted to Pixar’s huge screening room where we were treated to an exclusive look at the first Toy Story Toon short – I won’t give much away just yet, but let’s just say we witness a very important kiss…

I’m off to bed now, as I have to be up bright and early for my press day at Pixar tomorrow – I’ll keep you posted on Twitter with pics and videos.

by guest blogger Emma Roberts

Those of you that follow MSN Movies on Twitter will know that we’ve been looking forward to jetting off to sunny San Francisco this week to visit the fabled Pixar studios. We’re not just doing this for fun though (although we hear that there’s a lot of that to be had at their studios,) we’re going there to talk to the legendary John Lasseter about Pixar’s latest flick Cars 2.

So, I’ve been sent half way across the globe to get the exclusive scoop on Pixar’s latest sequel – and why is this a big deal? Well, the peeps at Pixar have previously said that they only make sequels if they think it’s worth it and seeing that the original Cars is thought to be one of their weakest films, we’re quite interested about why they wanted to revive it in a sequel. We’re sure John will fill us in.

John Lasseter is one of the biggest names in the animation industry – he’s practically ‘Mr Pixar’ so I’m really excited to meet him on Thursday. I’ve just arrived in San Francisco and, after an eleven our flight, I feel surprisingly perky (it must be my former student body-clock kicking back in.) I think I’ll be getting an early night tonight though, as tomorrow I’ll be putting on my glad-rags and will be going to the glitzy Pixar 25th Anniversary Party. I’ll get to have a good old snoop around the studios and will hopefully get a chance to grab a chat with people from Pixar… and who knows who else might be there?
Keep following our tweets for the latest from our San Francisco adventure and I’ll upload some pics and videos from the studios tomorrow…