Cinema veterans to light up Cannes screens

The French Riviera was bracing for a jolt of star power as some of cinema's hottest commodities prepared to descend on the 58th Cannes Film Festival.

The French Riviera was bracing for a jolt of star power on Tuesday as some of cinema's hottest commodities prepared to descend on the 58th Cannes Film Festival.

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This year's event, starting Wednesday, will see masters of the craft including David Cronenberg, Jim Jarmusch, Gus Van Sant, Robert Rodriguez and Wim Wenders battle for the coveted Palme d'Or top prize.

After an uneven festival in 2004 when Hollywood money machines like a "Shrek" sequel shared the limelight with the eventual winner -- Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, organizers promise a vintage year.

"The great filmmakers have taken the reins again," artistic director Thierry Fremaux told French weekly Journal du Dimanche ahead of the 12-day event.

"They show the state of creativity today."

Some 250,000 on-lookers and fans, 4,000 journalists and 35,000 film industry types are on hand for the festival, which crowns the European cinema calendar each May.

George Lucas will unveil his anxiously awaited Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith in the official selection, three decades after he signed his first contract in Cannes.

And Sin City, a slick thriller starring Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke, will see its launch on the world market.

Five Asian films are also in the running for the top prize, including "Shanghai Dreams" by Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai, one of the prominent figures of what has been dubbed China's "Sixth Generation".

Other contenders include Japan's Masahiro Kobayashi with Bashing, Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-Hsien with The Best of Our Times and a last-minute entry by South Korean director Hong Sangsoo with his A Tale of the Cinema.

King-of-the-creepy Cronenberg (The Fly) will show A History of Violence starring Viggo Mortesen, Ed Harris and William Hurt while Van Sant will unspool a Seattle-based drama about a musician resembling the late grunge hero Kurt Cobain.

Danish filmmaker Lars Van Trier has swapped Nicole Kidman for Bryce Dallas Howard -- the daughter of director Ron -- for the second chapter of his American trilogy Manderlay.

And Germany's Wenders -- after winning the Palme d'Or in 1984 with Sam Shepard and their picture Paris, Texas -- has teamed up with the US actor again for Don't Come Knocking about an aging star of cowboy films.

The galaxy of stars expected in Cannes is always countless, but autograph hunters can already sharpen their pencils for Sharon Stone, appearing in Jarmusch's "Broken Flowers", Natalie Portman in The Revenge of the Sith, Scarlett Johansson in Woody Allen's Match Ball and Tommy Lee Jones presenting his film directorial debut.

The nine-member jury is nearly as star-studded as the films, including US Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, Spanish actor Javier Bardem, Mexican actress Salma Hayek and Hong Kong director John Woo, and led by the Sarajevo-born director Emir Kusturica as president.

Other highlights this year will include a celebration of 100 years of Chinese cinema as well as African film's 50th birthday party.

And the "All the Cinemas of the World" section will showcase undiscovered gems of international cinema with new features from countries including Morocco, South Africa, Mexico, Austria, Peru, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.