A tipster alerted us to this entertaining video about a crisis at Pixar awhile back. It’s a simply drawn but eloquent (it is Pixar, after all) cautionary tale about the perils of digital movie-making and the importance of backups.

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Saoirse Ronan is returning to her period roots with the David Heyman-produced Testament Of Youth. The Atonement actress, whos lately made a detour into action, has become attached to the adaptation of Vera Brittain’s World War I memoir. The tome, adapted by Calendar Girls Juliette Towhidi, traces Brittain’s experiences as a disillusioned nurse during the war and the beginning of her career as a journalist and pacifist. Heyday Films and BBC Films are producing.

Presenting its slate in Cannes today, BBC Films also announced it is reteaming with My Week With Marilyn director Simon Curtis for The Golden Lady. Playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell wrote the script.

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(Cannes) May 20, 2012 AngelWorld Entertainment (AWE), who on Saturday announced the launch of their $150m equity fund, will finance and produce The Big Shoe, a sexy comedic drama directed by Steven Shainberg (Secretary), from a script by Shainberg and Mickey Birnbaum. The film will star Jim Sturgess (One Day, Across the Universe) and Academy Award Winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking, Robot & Frank, The Snitch), who can next be seen together in Tom Tykwer, Andy and Lana Wachowskis Cloud Atlas. Andrew Lazars Mad Chance Productions will produce alongside AngelWorld Entertainments Darby Angel. HanWay Films will be handling international sales while CAA will represent the North American rights.

With filming set to begin in fall 2012, The Big Shoe follows Nate (Sturgess), a gifted shoe designer forced to break free from a family who want to cheapen his art for their own commercial gain. Overbearing mother Irene (Sarandon) hires a psychotherapist and a ‘muse’ to lure Nate back to work.

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Weekend openers in the specialty arena did not impress once again, taking an unfortunate cue from their studio brethrenapart from The Avengers juggernaut. Even so, some holdovers including Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Bernie undoubtedly received a champagne sant by their execs today at the (very wet) Cannes Film Festival.

Among specialty newbies, Zeitgeist Films’ Elenaled the per-theater race, although it opened at just one location, taking in over $9K. Sony Classics’ Hysteria bowed in five theaters, averaging just over $8K, nabbing the second best of the newcomers. More disappointing were Sundance Selects’ Polisse, which rolled into three theaters, averaging under $6K, while eOne’s Virginia squeaked out a $1,262 average from five locations.

Pantelion/Lionsgate’s Girl In Progress grossed $460K in its second weekend, down steeply from its debut of $1.

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Last night’s season finale of NBC’s Saturday Night Live featured an emotional send-off to key cast member Kristen Wiig, making her departure after seven season official (video below). There was no mention of the two other SNL cast members whose contracts are up and may be leaving, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg. Last night’s SNL with host/musical guest Mick Jagger posted a 5.2/13 in the metered-market households. That was in line with the previous two weeks (5.2 for the show hosted by Eli Manning, 5.

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Samuel Goldwyn Films has slated a spring 2013 US release for Renoir, which premieres in Cannes later this week. Set on the Cte d’Azur in 1915, Gilles Bourdos’ love story turns around Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir and the woman who becomes the painter’s model and the filmmaker’s lover. Veteran French actor Michel Bouquet stars with Vincent Rottiers and Christa Theret. Olivier Delbosc and Marc Missonnier are producers, Christine De Jekel is exec producer. Goldwyn’s Ian Puente and Peter Goldwyn negotiated the deal with Wild Bunch’s Carole Baraton and Antoine Zylberberg.

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I just cancelled all of my meetings,” a distributor firmly ensconced in a plush lobby chair at the Majestic Hotel told me today while it was pouring outside. “So Im buying over the phone. So much for the face time that Cannes usually affords.

Related: Cassian Elwes Preps Herzogs Queen Of The Desert; Weinstein Selling Bodies

Thrashing wind and rain have been streaming steadily all day today after an on-and-off couple of days that havent been much better. And if forecasts are to be believed, theres no sign the deluge will end before Thursday. An exec tells me, Ive been to 19 Cannes and I cant remember the cold rain and wind like its been.

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Men In Black 3 opens Friday and it’ll be on plenty of 3D screens despite disagreement between exhibitors and Sony Pictures Entertainment over who should pay for 3D glasses. Movie studios have been footing the bill for the glasses but Sony’s announcement last year that it would end payments with the release of MIB3 rankled major exhibitors. As discussions continue neither side is budging at least publicly. Sony is keeping quiet but Bloomberg reports that executives from Regal Cinemas and Cinemark have said they won’t give in, and the National Association of Theatre Owners indicates nothing has changed on either side. The movie is obviously booked into theaters in 3D and 2D because as the saying goes, the show must go on. So will that surcharge for 3D tickets, which theaters and studios split as they do regular ticket prices.

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The upfronts serve as a scorecard for the major agencies television departments. Here is our count for agency packages on the 39 new scripted primetimeseries ordered by the broadcast networks for the 2012/2013 season. Most of the agency totals include shared packages. Obviously, this is a very narrow snapshot of the TV agency landscape by omitting unscripted shows, returning series, and cable. We will start to expand our scorecard into those areas beginning next year.

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