As previously mentioned, “The Homesman” has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray in France, yesterday. The Western drama, directed by Tommy Lee Jones and starring Jones, Hilary Swank, James Spader, John Lithgow and Meryl Streep in a cameo performance, had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this Spring and released French theaters shortly after – hence the early home media release. You can order both the DVD and Blu-Ray at Amazon in France (if you’re living outside of Europe, please inform yourself about region codes). The Blu-Ray includes a lengthy featurette, but sadly no footage with Meryl. Screencaptures from the film have been added to the image library.

The US theatrical trailer for “The Homesman” has been released, showing lots of new footage, especially on Tommy Lee Jones and Hilary Swank, whose performance received quite some positive buzz after the film’s festival premieres. The rest, however, remains mysterious to me. While “The Homesman” has already received a theatrical release in some European countries back in May, this trailer states the US release as “Coming Soon”, while the IMDb lists a limited theatrical release for November 14, 2014. Let’s see…

A making of featurette has been published to promote the French theatrical release of “The Homesman” (it’s still odd that the film releases in France when the US theatrical release is set for October). Alongside scenes from the shooting of the film, the featurette includes interviews with Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, Grace Gummer and John Lithgow. Meryl, while not being interviewed, is seen with Jones on the set. You can watch the making of in the video archive. Many thanks to Joan for the heads-up.

“The Homesman” has celebrated its world-premiere at the Cannes Film Festival today. Tommy Lee Jones, who’s written, directed and stars in the film, was in attendance, alongside Hilary Swank. A selection of reviews have been collected below.

The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy
An absorbing, melancholy look at the hard lot of women in the Old West. In what’s probably her best big screen role since Million Dollar Baby, Swank is obliged to keep Mary Bee’s emotions in tight check, but the pain her valiant character bottles up emerges in piercing flashes to lasting effect. Jones’ scalawag is a man on the run from everything he’s ever done in his life, and director guides himself to a performance that is mildly amusing and glancingly poignant by turns. The rest of the cast constitutes a colorful gallery off-center characters for whom life has not worked out just as they might have hoped.

Variety, Peter Debruge
Unlike other actor-directors, Jones never seems to indulge excess on the part of his cast. Though the characters are strong, the performances are understated. Even the three ladies settle into a state of near-catatonia after awhile, rather than indulging their various “hysterias.” In the past, people have whispered about Jones’ attitudes toward women; with this film, he says a thing or two on the subject with a sensitivity that comes as a welcome surprise.

Screen Daily, Allan Hunter
The Homesman opts for a less conventional, less sentimental narrative that shows how everyone is marked by the West. Lyrical and touching with nicely-etched moments from a supporting cast that includes John Lithgow and Meryl Streep, The Homesman also contains one unexpected development that further underlines the tragic lives of the men and women who tamed the West.

The Telegraph, Robbie Collin
Tommy Lee Jones’s new Western, The Homesman, tells a tale John Ford perhaps never could have, although in just about the most full-throatedly Fordian way imaginable. Jones’s western about a woman’s lot on the wild frontier refuses to sugar-coat its subject, and is all the more satisfying for it. Swank and Jones are sensational.

Indiewire, Oliver Lyttleton
Too meditative to tick boxes for the gunplay crowd, and too silly and uneven for the arthouse gang, the film will likely be dismissed by many as a misfire. But in a festival with a lot of thoroughly decent, well-made, tasteful pictures that didn’t quite have us swooning, we savored the chance to sit through something a little more unruly […] Meryl Streep in a cameo that likely took all of an afternoon to shoot.

Slant Magazine, Budd Wilkins
For a while, it seems the film intends something uncommon: to speak for the experiences of frontierswomen caught in the clutches of harsh terrain and even harsher menfolk and driven thereby beyond the brink of sanity. But therein lies the rub. The Homesman speaks for its female characters, but, with the notable exception of Hilary Swank’s upright and uptight Mary Bee Cuddy, never lets them speak for themselves. Even worse is Meryl Streep’s Methodist matriarch, who doesn’t even want to hear about the women’s plight. When asked, reasonably enough, if she has the skill set to care for their needs, she replies rather ominously: “I think this room can hold them.” (As though the Black Mariah that serves as their transport from Nebraska to Iowa weren’t indignity enough.)

Tactic Film, Pete Turner
Saving the souls of three women driven to insanity by desperate circumstances, The Homesman delivers a strong heroine prepared to make an incredible sacrifice. With Swank and Tommy Lee Jones giving the grand standing central performances, the remainder of the cast is dotted with big names given relatively little to do but all getting to make some impact in their limited scenes. Most notably, Meryl Streep and Hailee Steinfeld are dependable as women encountered on the journey while Tim Blake Nelson gets a wonderfully funny interlude when he gets into fight with Jones’ slowly warming wise cracker.

The first batch of production stills from “The Homesman” have been released, and five pictures of Meryl as Minister’s wife Altha Carter have been added to the image library. The career page for “The Homesman” has been updates as well with the production notes for the film. Scroll down for an excerpt.

Meryl Streep needs no praise; she’s got plenty of it. She’s one of the finest movie actors in the history of cinema, and I’m very happy to call her a friend, because to be a friend of hers is another total joy. (Tommy Lee Jones, Production Notes)

Screenwriter Wes Oliver recalled the early development of “The Homesman”, when both Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep were shooting “Hope Springs”: “They were shooting in Connecticut and we spent time with Tommy on the set. In between their scenes, we would work on The Homesman. Tommy would do a scene with Meryl, come across the street, work with us, go back across the street and jump a hundred and fifty years forward in time back into a romantic comedy. It was a remarkable achievement on his part to be able to do that. I was very impressed. And it was also helpful for us because it I think energized our writing process. We were surrounded by a film crew, and by the excitement of a film already in production.”

Just in time for the world-premiere of “The Homesman” at the Cannes Film Festival, a first batch of clips have been released, one of them including a scene with Meryl (which, I guess, is a great deal of her screen time already). In the scene, Altha Carter (Meryl Streep) gives shelter to George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) and the three women (Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter, Grace Gummer) he has escorted. Additionally, four more clips have been added to the archives: Meryl’s speech at the Women’s Refugee Commission back on May 01, her very odd opening number with Joe Grifasi for Lewis Black’s Cystic Fibrosis Fundraiser and a narration video she did for the N.Y. Summer Tourism campaign. Then, the “Sophie’s Choice” roundtable interview have been updated with more excerpts. More information and pictures on “The Homesman” will follow this weekend. For now, enjoy the clips. Many thanks to Michael and Juha for the heads-up.

Video Archive – Career Videos – The Homesman – The Homesman Film Scene 01
Video Archive – Career Videos – Sophie’s Choice – 30th Anniversary Roundtable
Video Archive – Public Appearances – 2014 – Women’s Refugee Commission
Video Archive – Miscellaneous – 2014 – Lewis Black’s Cystic Fibrosis Fundraiser
Video Archive – Miscellaneous – 2014 – N.Y. Summer Tourism Advertisment

“The Homesman” will have its world-premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it’s running in competition! Starring Jones, Hilary Swank, Hailee Steinfeld, William Fichtner, Miranda Otto and Meryl Streep, this period Western is the actor-director’s first helming effort since his 2005 debut, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,” which won two prizes at Cannes (including an acting award for Jones). Meryl’s last trip to the croisette dates back to 1989, when she won Best Actress for “A Cry in the Dark”. It might be unlikely this year for her to attend since her performance in “The Homesman” is mentioned to be small turn / cameo appearance. Exact premiere dates will be announced closer to the festival’s opening, which runs from May 14th to the 25th.

An international trailer for “The Homesman” has been released today and we get to see a glimpse (it’s really not much more) of Meryl as Altha Carter. The french subtitles might hint a premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, although no official announcements have been made yet. For some strange reasons, IMDb lists a theatrical release for France for May 21, which would be odd – considering that the US release is stated for October 2014. Let’s see if this gets confirmed. Adapted by Jones himself from Glendon Swarthout‘s novel, the story follows him as a down-and-out man who gets recruited to take three women on an odyssey from Nebraska to Iowa. Alongside Tommy Lee Jones, “The Homesman” features a top-notch cast in Hilary Swank, Hailee Steinfeld, Meryl Streep, Tim Blake Nelson, James Spader, William Fichtner, Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto and Jesse Plemons, among others.

The Internet Movie Database has updated its list of release date for the upcoming “The Homesman”. The western-drama, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones and co-starring Hilary Swank, John Lithgow and Meryl Streep, will be first screened at the Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2014. Since the festival’s schedule hasn’t been announced yet, it’s difficult to say if there will be a world-premiere with the cast and crew in attendance, or simply a private screening for distributors. The film will be shown at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals in August and September, before receiving a limited release in the USA on October 3, 2014. With these latest dates announced, all three of Meryl’s upcoming films – The Giver, The Homesman and Into the Woods – will be released theatrically between August and December 2014. Many thanks to Glenn and Frank for the heads-up.

The Inquirer has recently interviewed Hilary Swank after wrapping her scenes for “The Homesman”, Tommy Lee Jones’ upcoming western starring himself, Swank and Meryl Streep. “It’s a dream come true—I’m in a movie with Meryl Streep,” Hilary Swank happily informed us of being cast with arguably the greatest living actress, in “The Homesman.” Then, Hilary added, “But I don’t have one scene with Meryl! I thought, ‘Well, on the days that I’m not working, I’m going to be a fly on the wall. I’m just going to watch Meryl – but, she wasn’t even in the same location! I did all my work in New Mexico. When we wrapped there recently, they went to Georgia.” Hilary admitted that it was “nice to have a dress on after all that time out there” in New Mexico to shoot “The Homesman,” being directed by Tommy Lee Jones who, along with Wesley Oliver and Kieran Fitzgerald, wrote the screenplay adaptation of Glendon Swarthout’s western novel of the same title, set around 1855.

“I was on the prairie for the last 60 days,” Hilary reported. “My character (Mary Bee Cuddy) is a farmer—I plow the fields and pump for water. My hands are all beat up.” The actress plays the title role, a “homesman” who must escort several women who lost their minds back to civilization. She teams up with an unlikely partner, George Briggs (Tommy Lee), a claim jumper. According to Hilary, Meryl plays Altha Carter, who collects the insane women to help bring them home. Also in the cast are Fil-Am actress Hailee Steinfeld, James Spader, John Lithgow, Tim Blake Nelson, Miranda Otto, William Fichtner and Grace Gummer (Meryl’s daughter). “It was an absolutely wonderful experience,” said Hilary of filming “The Homesman.” “It was right up there with my ‘Million Dollar Baby’ experience. I’m sad that it’s all over. It’s nice when you get your butt kicked to step up to the plate, and challenge yourself every day and in a new way with artists all across the board. The complete article can be read here.