MIPCOM to Welcome Celebrity Lineup to Cannes

PARIS: Among the talent set to make an appearance at the upcoming MIPCOM are German filmmaker Werner Herzog, a guest of ZDF Enterprises; the stars of the new ABC Studios series Missing, including actress Ashley Judd; and Bruce Springsteen guitar player Stevie van Zandt, promoting his new SevenOne International series.

“We are delighted to welcome such a rich lineup of international talent at MIPCOM this year,” said Laurine Garaude, the director of Reed MIDEM’s television division. “This reflects the fact that some truly big cinema names are increasingly involved in television projects and that producers and distributors recognize the importance of bringing this talent to MIPCOM to meet the international entertainment community and promote their shows.”

ABC Studios will have a premiere screening of its new series Missing at the Palais des Festivals’ Grand Auditorium, which will feature cast members of the show. Actress Ashley Judd (Heat), New Zealand’s Cliff Curtis (Live Free Or Die Hard) and Adriano Giannini (Swept Away) will be in attendance. Missing’s creator and executive producer Gregory Poirier will join Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo as part of the ABC Studios talent, along with Anne Sweeney, MIPCOM 2011 Personality of the Year and Disney/ABC Television Group’s president and Disney Media Networks’ co-chair.

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Basic Instinct, Total Recall, Starship Troopers) will be in Cannes promoting FCCE’s format and cross-media event The Entertainment Experience, the world’s first multiplatform format based on a user-generated movie. Emmy winner Eddie Izzard (The Riches, Ocean’s 12 and 13) will be meeting key buyers and press to promote his role as pirate Long John Silver in RHI Entertainment’s new mini-series event adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, along with director Steve Barron (Merlin, Arabian Nights).

Entertainment One and Endemol are bringing cast members of the new series Hell on Wheels to MIPCOM. Anson Mount (City By The Sea, In Her Shoes, Last Night), hip-hop artist and actor Common (Terminator Salvation), Dominique McElligott (Moon, The Philanthropist) and Colm Meaney (Dick Tracy, Die Hard 2) will be in attendance. From another Endemol series, Fran Drescher (The Nanny), the writer, producer and star of the hit sitcom Happily Divorced will appear alongside co-writer and executive producer Peter Marc Jacobson and Emmy Award-winning actress Kristen Johnston (Third Rock From the Sun) from the new TV Land sitcom The Exes.

Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band guitar player and singer Stevie van Zandt will be in attendance promoting his new dramedy mafia series Lilyhammer, the story of a reformed criminal who testified against his mafia boss in New York and entered the Witness Protection Program in the Norwegian countryside. The show is produced by Rubicon and distributed by SevenOne International.

German filmmaker Werner Herzog (Aguirre the Wrath of God, Nosferatu The Vampire) will present his documentary on the fate of American convicts on death row, Into The Abyss – A Tale Of Death, A Tale Of Life, presented by ZDF Enterprises.

British comedian, actor and director Ben Miller (Nadia, Johnny English) and French actress Sara Martins (Paris, I Love You) from Death In Paradise, sold by BBC Worldwide, will be at MIPCOM with executive producer Anthony Jordan of Red Planet Pictures. Margaret Cho (The Cho Show, Drop Dead Diva, Dancing with the Stars) will promote her new concert film release Cho Dependent, represented internationally by Beyond Distribution.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the president of the Goodplanet Foundation (Home, La Terre Vue du Ciel); Jean-Yves Robin, the president of Robin & Co and Calt Productions (Caméra Café, Kaamelot); and Nicolas Coppermann, the managing director of Robin & Co (Café De Flore), will present their new joint venture, Hope Production.