Kristen Stewart, Josh O’Connor, Elle Fanning To Direct ‘Rosebushpruning’ From ‘Firebrand’ Director Karim Ainouz (Exclusive)

The 2023 Cannes Film Festival may be slowly winding down, but a red-hot new project has just hit the market to spice things up.

Kristen Steward (Spencer), Josh O’Connor (The Crown, God’s Country) and Elle Fanning (Adolescent spirit, the great one) will lead the cast of Pruning of rose bushesthe upcoming feature film by Karim Aïnouz, whose period drama starring Jude Law and Alicia Vikander Burning ember it had its world premiere in the main competition at Cannes last week to overwhelmingly positive reviews. The Match Factory and MUBI are backing the film.

The Hollywood Reporter understands that Aïnouz will direct from a script written by Efthimis Filippou (Dog’s Tooth, Killing the Sacred Deer, The Lobster) and taken from Marco Bellocchio’s first work from 1965 Fists in the pocket, a dark satire of family and social values, today considered a milestone of Italian cinema. The adaptation rights have been acquired by Kavac Film.

The Match Factory previously worked with Aïnouz on his Un Certain Regard winning film in 2019 The invisible life of Euridice Gusmão. The producers are Viola Fügen and Michael Weber Pruning of rose bushes for The Match Factory, which is also handling sales of the film. CAA Media Finance represents the distribution rights in North America. MUBI finances the production.

“The surprising debut of Marco Bellocchio, Fists in the pocket, came out more than 50 years ago and had a huge impact on Italian cinema and storytelling at the time,” said Aïnouz. “I am thrilled to collaborate with Efthimis Filippou to revisit this iconic work to create a contemporary parable about the death of the traditional patriarchal family, which I hope is touching and provocative in equal measure. It has been a dream come true to work with such a dynamic ensemble of actors that I have long admired to bring this explosive adaptation to today’s audiences.”

Pruning of rose bushes expected to begin production in spring 2024.

Kristen Stewart is represented by WME and McKuin/Frankel/Whitehead. Josh O’Connor is represented by CAA, Independent Talent Group and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Elle Fanning is represented by UTA, Echo Lake Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox.

In the original Fist in the pocket, a young man with epilepsy (Lou Castel in his film debut) plots the murders of his dysfunctional family. It proved controversial at the Locarno Film Festival, where it premiered and was condemned by several notable film figures, but was warmly received by younger critics and audiences, becoming a sleeper hit. In 2008, the Italian Ministry of Culture included it in the list of 100 films to save, a collection of films that had “changed the country’s collective memory between 1942 and 1978”.