Cannes Diary: Harry Potter magic leads to film debut

Crispian Mills, the lead singer of Kula Shaker, can thank a bit of Harry Potter magic for getting him into films, which has culminated in his directing a "semi-comedy" starring Simon Pegg.

A crew member on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix left a camera outside his house. He returned it and was invited on set where he met Geraldine Patten, now a producer. His debut A Fantastic Fear of Everything, stars Pegg and Amara Karan. Film is the Mills family business. His mother Hayley Mills was an actress as was his grandfather Sir John Mills. His father is director Roy Boulting.

Schoenaerts is the next big name

The buzz surrounding Matthias Schoenaerts continues to grow. On the first day of the festival we noted how he had been picked as the next Jean Dujardin (even though he's Belgian, not French), and the praise carried on yesterday.

Marion Cotillard, his co-star in Rust and Bone, said, "I think Matthias is a tremendous actor," and likened him to Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis. The actor is considering US projects and joked that he'd signed up for "Rambo 34" before adding: "There's a lot of stuff moving and I'm excited."

From Raging Bull to Russian ballet

He wrote Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Raging Bull. Now Paul Schrader is to turn his hand to ballet.

Schrader will write the story of Russian prima ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska. The film follows the ballerina who was the lover of Russia's last Tsar Nicholas II and was forced to flee the Bolsheviks and move to Paris. Producer David Weisman told The Hollywood Reporter: "Kschessinska was worshipped and reviled. Nicknames such as 'Black-Eyed She-Devil of the Imperial Ballet' and 'Mathilde the Magnificent' echo the... jealousy and... admiration she provoked during her time."