Director Leos Carax’s (Holy Motors, The Lovers Under the Bridge) upcoming musical film, Annette, once looked like it would be one of the most remarkable and crazy movies made in recent memory. Gradually, however, that beautiful vision has blurred a little bit. Initial industry reports that the project would star Adam Driver, Rooney Mara, and Rihanna proved to be hasty, as it has been confirmed that both Mara and Rihanna will not appear in the film. According to a Variety report on Tuesday, Mara had to pull out of the movie because of previous commitments. Today, a representative of Rihanna’s confirmed to Pitchfork that the pop icon will not continue to fill out her burgeoning acting resume under Carax’s direction.
Annette is probably real, however; it appears, almost definitely, to have been acquired by Amazon Studios. According to Indiewire, it is set to begin production in the spring, and the plot supposedly revolves around a stand-up comic, his opera star wife, and their young, possibly supernatural daughter. By all accounts, it is also still true that all-time great synth-pop innovators Sparks wrote the film—their screenwriting debut—as well as contributed new songs to its soundtrack. Let’s hope that actually proves to be true, and that it doesn’t eventually turn out the project was actually directed by Jerry Bruckheimer with a score by Adam Levine.
