From Mr. Showbiz (E! Online)
Tuesday, December 26, 2001

Jodie Foster has withdrawn The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys from the Sundance lineup, apparently because the film could not be completed in time for its scheduled Jan. 24 premiere.

Altar Boys, which Foster co-produced and in which she plays a one-legged nun overseeing a group of mischievous school boys, was set to air as the festival's Centerpiece Premiere. Instead, festivalgoers will be treated to the world premiere of Invisible Circus, which stars Cameron Diaz.

Altar Boys features extensive animation, which is far from being ready, Variety surmises. By missing Sundance, the movie may also miss out on a chance to find a distributor during the festival's routine dealmaking. The film also stars Jena Malone (Stepmom), Kieran Culkin (The Cider House Rules), and Vincent D'Onofrio (The Cell).

Invisible Circus, which co-stars Jordana Brewster (The Faculty), Blythe Danner (Meet the Parents), and Christopher Eccleston (Shallow Grave), was not originally slated to play at Sundance. It already has a distributor in Fine Line Features.

The Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Utah.

Jodie Foster to Head Cannes Film Festival Jury

From Variety
Tuesday, January 16, 2001

The Cannes Film Festival offered Hollywood an olive branch Tuesday with the announcement that Jodie Foster will head the jury at this year's event.

The choice of an American star for the prestigious role is widely seen as an attempt by festival president Gilles Jacob to patch up his strained relations with Hollywood.

However Jacob denied that was the reason for his choice, saying, ``We didn't choose Jodie to please America, but the whole world. She is a very intelligent woman and we are confident she will handle the rest of the jury in a diplomatic way.''

A constant topic throughout Cannes last year was the lack of a significant Hollywood presence, whether due to the organizers' inattention or industry disinterest. This year's event will take place May 9-20.

Last year's jury president was French director Luc Besson. Other past presidents include Canadian director David Cronenberg (1999), Martin Scorsese (1998), French actress Isabelle Adjani (1997) and Francis Ford Coppola (1996). Other American heavyweights include Clint Eastwood (1994), Sydney Pollack (1986) and Kirk Douglas (1980).

``Jodie promised me years ago that she would do it,'' Jacob said. ``She has won the highest awards; it was high time she came to Cannes to award some herself.''

Foster, who first climbed the steps of the Palais des Festivals in 1976 for the screening of the Palme d'Or-winning ''Taxi Driver,'' said in a statement: ``I've dreamed of the honor of being president of the jury at Cannes since I was a child.''

As well as pleasing Americans, the choice will go down well with the French, who are fond of the French-speaking Foster.

The actress, who went to school at the Lycee Francais in L.A., has spent a lot of time in France and once had an apartment on the Ile St. Louis, in the heart of Paris.

She also is well known in the French film community, having starred in Eric Le Hung's 1977 ``Moi, Fleur Bleue'' and Claude Chabrol's 1984 ``Le sang des autres.''

Jodie Foster Tapped for 'Jeopardy'

From Associated Press
Monday, January 29, 2001

She decided not to reprise her role in ``Hannibal,'' the upcoming sequel to ``The Silence of the Lambs'' but Jodie Foster did accept a gig on ``Celebrity Jeopardy!''

Foster competes against Harry Connick Jr. and Nathan Lane on the game show airing Feb. 5.

``I've been wanting to be on `Jeopardy!' my whole life,'' the 38-year-old actress-director tells People magazine in its Feb. 5 issue. ``I watched it growing up, and a lot of my friends at college were really into it. We talked about it all the time.''

Foster says she doesn't feel any pressure to make Yale University, her alma mater, proud.

``I'm not a very competitive person, anyway. If I don't look like a total jerk, I'll be happy.''

Foster: Au Revoir Cannes, Hello "Panic"

From E! Online
Monday, February 5, 2001

In a panic, Jodie Foster has bid adieu to the Cannes International Film Festival.

The Oscar-winning actress has withdrawn as president of the world's most famous film fest so she can take over for the injured Nicole Kidman in Columbia Pictures' The Panic Room.

The film's director, David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven) asked Foster to replace Kidman, who, under doctors' orders, backed out from the physically grueling action-thriller last week, after re-injuring her bum knee, which she originally tricked out while shooting the upcoming musical Moulin Rouge.

Foster will play a mother who must find her way with her daughter to the "panic room," a security-reinforced area of her house, before three thieves (Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam) who think money is stashed there do.

"Since shooting [on Panic] continues in May, Jodie has asked us to postpone her presidency to another year," Cannes chief Gilles Jacob says in a statement. (The festival runs May 9-20.) "The awkwardness [of her position] and regret which she expressed are as intense as our disappointment, but everyone understands that for an actress, exercising one's profession comes before everything."

The 38-year-old Foster, who speaks French fluently, has appeared in local films and produced the French film La Haine (The Hate) .

Jacob, who must be disappointed to lose such a high-profile celeb, promised a new jury president would be appointed "soon."

Foster says in the statement that she was "mortified" at letting down the festival organizers. The actress previously said she had dreamt of heading the festival jury since she was a child. "I hope with all my heart that one day, if the festival does me the honor to ask again, I can be president of the jury of a festival to which I owe so much."

The actress played a kid prostitute in in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, which won the Palme d'or in 1975.

Panic had been shooting for a little over two weeks last month when Kidman's doctors, concerned that she still hadn't fully recovered from her knee injury, told her to drop out. After filming scenes in which Kidman's character didn't appear, production shut down completely last week.

Fincher, Leto, Whitaker and Yoakam can now breath a sigh of relief--since nearly all prestrike productions are fully staffed, they would have probably been out of work until the pending writers and actors strikes are resolved, which could be months. Columbia doesn't have to panic, either, as it doesn't have to find a replacement for Kidman--a daunting task as most leading actresses are all booked up.

Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie, considered the early favorite as Panic Room sub, has decided to join the cast of Life, or Something Like It, a film about a woman who discovers she only has a month to live.

Jodie Foster up for Western

From Jam! Movies
Monday, February 26, 2001

Jodie Foster will be saddling up and riding out into the open prairie, if Paramount Pictures has anything to say about it.

Variety reports that producer Mark Johnson has teamed up with Foster's Egg Productions and Paramount for the women-in-the-saddle modern western "One Hundred Years On". Foster is likely to star in the project.

The story, by "Life Or Something Like It" scribe Dana Stevens, is about a woman who struggles to keep her cattle ranch out of the hands of greedy outsiders, Variety says.

Foster most recently replaced the injured, and newly separated, Nicole Kidman in "Fight Club" director David Fincher's "Panic Room."