Chinese director-cum-actor Jiang Wen's The Sun Also Rises was surprisingly taken off from the final lineup of the 60th Festival de Cannes, which was announced on Thursday night.
 
Jiang Wen and his wife Zhou Yun are in the leading roles of the film.

The movie which took one year to make and cost US$10 million is Jiang's third directorial production. He had hoped that The Sun Also Rises would be competing for the Golden Palm Award.
 
He earlier announced that the film's editing would be completed a month ahead of schedule.

Besides The Sun Also Rises, another Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai's movie Left Right also failed to make it into the Cannes' lineup.

Sources say that the Left Right had not yet passed the examination of the Film Bureau, and in this way it couldn't compete at Cannes.

There is some good news though as Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights has been confirmed to open the festival on May 16.

Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights will open this year's Cannes Film Festival on May 16.

As Wong's first English production, Blueberry tells the story of a young girl, who arrives in America looking for true love. The film stars big names like Norah Jones, Jude Law and Natalie Portman.

Wong says that he felt very honored that his film would open the festival. He is looking forward to the 60th birthday celebration of the film festival. He says that because this is his first English film, it means a lot to him and he thinks it's also the pride of Hong Kong filming industry.

In the meantime, Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung has been invited to be a judge during the festival, and mainland director Jia Zhangke has been invited to be the president of the short film awards.

(CRI.cn April 20, 2007)