Director Jodie Foster poses for photographers, during a photo call for the film Money Monster at the 69th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
CANNES, France (AP) --
Jodie Foster, one of only two female directors helming a major studio wide-release this summer, says Hollywood's risk aversion is contributing to its overwhelming male directors.
Foster spoke Thursday at a "Women in Motion" talk at the Cannes Film Festival before the premiere of her hostage thriller "Money Monster." She said the industry is "scared, period" and that fearfulness has led to executives choosing familiar, male faces: "You're going to go with the guy that looks like you."
But the two-time Oscar winner, who began as a child actor, said she's seen "faces change" through the years as more and more women began populating film sets.
When women joined productions, Foster said, "everything changed." ''Suddenly it felt more like a family, and movie sets became healthier."
Ashley Walters, left, and Rosalind Eleazar pose for photographers at a photo call for the television series "Missing You," Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
It's Netflix's resolution every new year to give viewers a headscratcher in January.
Since 2020, the streamer has released a U.K. miniseries based on thriller book by Harlan Coben over the holidays. It seems to have paid off: "Fool Me Once," starring Michelle Keegan, Adeel Akhtar and Joanna Lumley, launched this past January and became what Netflix says was one of their most watched shows of the year, amassing 108 million views.
2025's seasonal suspense series is "Missing You," based on Coben's 2014 New York Times bestseller. It stars Rosalind Eleazar ("Slow Horses") as Detective Inspector Kat Donovan, a police officer who specializes in finding missing people — apart from the fiance that vanished 11 years earlier.
"They know Jan. 1 is the sweet spot for them," says actor Richard Armitage, who has appeared in each winter Coben adaptation, which relocates the stories from the books' America to the north of England. "People have ownership over the show now, so like, 'I want my Harlan Coben show on New Year's Day. Give me my Harlan Coben fix.'"
"It's perfect timing for the release, to be honest," says co-star Ashley Walters. "Most people are going to be hung over or, you know, just not have anything to do with the day."
The show opens with the shock of Donovan's ex-fiance (Walters) popping up on a dating app, over a decade after she came home one day to find him gone.
"I've ghosted people before," laughs Armitage. "Just people you don't want to talk to anymore. Not digitally though."
Another star, Jessica Plummer, isn't a fan of those who disappear without saying goodbye, though.
"I'd just feel too guilty," she admits, calling it "cowardly and lazy — sorry Richard!"
