Cannes Selection Buzz
Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby will open the 66th Cannes Film Festival and Steven Spielberg will head the jury. Now speculation turns to what else will join the festival’s main slate. Biopic Grace of Monaco with Nicole Kidman, Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac and Pedro Almodovar’s I’m So Excited are apparently not going to be ready in time for the May festival. Strong possibilities, however, include the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, and Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, Deadline reports.

Veronica Mars Fans Surpass $2M Goal to Bring Series to Big Screen
So far, over 50,000 fans have donated a total of more than $3.5 million to bring cancelled TV show Veronica Mars to the big screen through crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter. The project is the fastest of any category to reach the $1 million mark, is already the top fundraiser in the site’s film category, and, with 28 days left to go, seems poised to become the highest grossing project ever on the site. That record is currently held by E-Paper watch Pebble, which raised just over $10 million in 2012. The cult show, starring Kristen Bell as a young sleuth, ended its run in 2007.

Rival Prophet Muhammad Films in the Works
Rival Iranian and Qatari productions based on the life of the Prophet Muhammad are in the works. In December, Qatar-based Alnoor Holdings said it will spend up to $1 billion on a series of epics for a worldwide audience based on Muhammad, with The Lord of the Rings producer Barrie Osborne on board to advise. Meanwhile, Iranian director Majid Majidi began work on a $30 million biopic that began shooting in October. Qatar is a predominately Sunni Muslim country, while Iran is dominated by the Shia sect, THR reports.

Zurich Film Festival to Spotlight Brazil
The 9th Zurich Film Festival will showcase Brazilian cinema in its New World View section with 12 narrative and documentary feature selections on tap. Brazilian production has experienced a rise over the past decade and a half as well as wide international attention for films like Walter Salles’s Central Station in 1998 and Fernando Meirelles’s City of God in 2002, Screen Daily reports.

Eleven New Projects Set for Tribeca All Access Program
The program supports works-in-progress by emerging and established filmmakers who come from statistically underrepresented communities. Supported by the Tribeca Film Institute, each project receives an initial $15,000 grant and year-round support. A full list of the selected projects can be found on the Tribeca website.