The iconic film festival has a habit of unearthing exciting talent, as Nick Clark found out

Mark & Jay Duplass, 83 mins. Starring: Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon

Two new versions of the Mowgli stories are in production – but will either match the animated version?

Who knew that Mel Gibson has a horseshoe kidney? This congenital disorder affects about 1 in 400 people whose two kidneys are melded together into one giant organ. The extent to which this may explain why Gibson is such a gigantic organ himself is not clear. While side effects can include kidney stones, infections and tumours, there is no evidence that it heightens the risk of misogyny, homophobia, racism or anti-Semitism. Gibson is the only known super-kidney celeb on the planet, and it would be irresponsible to draw conclusions from a study group of one.

Left-leaning David Hare's new play is based on his days as a scholarship boy at public school. Michael Coveney meets him

Hollywood is mulling the impact of a small yet impactful number of job losses recently felt at DreamWorks, Steven Spielberg's studio.

For two decades, Mel Gibson was at the top of the Hollywood tree. Building on his successes as an actor, he won an Oscar in 1996 for directing Braveheart and routinely commanded salaries of more than $20 million.

Unpublished autobiography written at 22 reveals the inspiration for the novel

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's slightly anal 27-year-old Adam is diagnosed with a "malignant tumour" in his spine in Jonathan Levine's mildly subversive "cancer comedy".

This well-judged comedy-drama stars Joseph Gordon Levitt (500 Days of Summer, Inception) as a young radio producer diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

Literary adaptations rule this year's Oscar nominations. But, for an author, having a book transformed by movie magic isn't always pleasant. Five writers tell Charlotte Philby what it's like to see your creation 'brought to life'.

Gerard Depardieu is to play Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a Hollywood biopic about the scandal that destroyed the economist's hopes of winning the French presidency.

"My husband's not a hero," says Kirsty anxiously, as a man in a sinister rubber mask locks her and her daughter into the downstairs loo.

Screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes makes the most of her licence to finish Dickens's last book