far from the madding crowdThough today marks the opening of Cannes, it’s one of the features that’s closing the festival which has since piqued our interests, as HeyUGuys were fortunate enough to be at a special event hosted by the BBC, where they unveiled their new slate, with poignant drama Pride set to close the director’s fortnight at the prestigious, annual film festival.

That’s not all the BBC wanted to discuss, as Christine Langan, the Head of BBC Films, was thrilled to announce that they will be collaborating once more with Alan Bennett, reuniting the team behind The History Boys to bring us The Lady in the Van, starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings.

Langan commented, Our ambition is to be a creative hub enabling exciting British filmmakers to tell their stories. From Pride at Cannes through to today announcing The Lady in The Van with Alan Bennett, BBC Films nurtures a comprehensive range of films from inception, through production, cinema release and to their eventual home on BBC Two.”

A second announcement came in the form of City of Tiny Lights, a thriller starring Riz Ahmed and Roshan Seth, and directed by Pete Travis. However it’s merely one of many promising titles, as we ran through the corporation’s forthcoming slate, which boasts the likes of Thomas Vinterberg’s Far From the Madding Crowd (pictured above), starring Carey Mulligan and Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos, where he also stars alongside Kate Winslet, and also that of London Road – Rufus Norris’ groundbreaking production that chronicles the tragic events in Ipswich 2006, where five female bodies were found. The musical stars Olivia Colman and Tom Hardy.

Before leaving the event, we had a very quick chat with Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond, a writing duo who are behind the brilliant TV series Horrible Histories, who are set for their debut feature film with Bill – another of the BBC’s exciting new projects.

“BBC Films, on our first day of taking this story around, said they love it and have supported us all the way through, getting the film together, we got the whole package,” said Willbond.

“You spend your life trying to sell ideas and get people interested in projects, but it’s hard. But I think BBC liked the idea of a multi-character comedy, and something that’s for the family, and about Shakespeare,” Rickard added.

So there’s certainly a lot to be excited about, with Bill just being one of many new projects the BBC are proud to be working on. However none come sooner than Pride, and with Cannes upon us, we look forward to hearing of the response for this seemingly profound piece of cinema.

Cannes Film Festival begins today.