When they’re not walking down the red carpet, the celebrity guests of Cannes Film Festival can be spotted lunching at exclusive restaurants like this one. Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas were joined by Jane Fonda at the Eden Rock Restaurant, where they soaked up the sun and laughed over lunch during their break from the festival. This week Griffith and Banderas, who have been married for 15 years, enjoyed the premiere of Midnight in Paris during Cannes.

And the 53-year-old actress and 50-year-old actor showed their love for each other is still as strong as ever, as they playfully laughed with each other during lunch. It seemed to be an all-white affair too, with most of the guests wearing their finest light ensembles at the exclusive eatery.

Banderas has also been busy during Cannes Film Festival by promoting his new film Puss In Boots. He was snapped at a photo call this week with his co-star Salma Hayek, who wowed in a burnt orange Gucci dress. Banderas has made an effort to dress casually during the event though and on top of wearing jeans to the photo call, he also wore a simple grey T-shirt to eat with his wife and Jane Fonda.

Meanwhile, 73-year-old Fonda put on a spectacular show on the red carpet this week by showing off her amazing figure in a skin-tight white Emilio Pucci gown. Her stunning figure isn’t all down to her fitness DVDs though and she has admitted to boosting her assets through cosmetic surgery. Fonda had breast implants in the 1970s, as well as having surgery on her chin, neck and under her eyes last year.

And her friend Melanie Griffith is no stranger to surgery herself, but her husband has always been adamant that he wants to her grow old gracefully. The Spanish-born star has said in the past: ‘Hollywood stars are not supposed to be perfection. I don’t believe in perfection. I think it is a mistake. ‘I said to her [Melanie], ‘I want to see you growing old and I will grow old with you too, and I don’t care.’ I like her the way she is. Wrinkles are beautiful.’

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One film that is certain to have a growing amount of buzz is “The Big Bang”, an action-packed film starring Antonio Banderas, James Van Der Beek, Snoop Dogg, William Fichtner, and Sam Elliot. In an interview with the New York Times, director Tony Krantz talks about his new venture into directing.

“I just kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is one of the greatest moments of my life,” he said when recalling working on the film. As the article states, this is Krantz third career in Hollywood–he started as an agent and then became a television producer. According to the article, Krantz has been avid about becoming a filmmaker since he was a child.

J.J. Abrams was also interviewed about the Krantz and the film, saying, “It’s always a cool thing when someone switches careers–it is wildly unexpected, which is what makes it so great…I’m sure Tony appreciates the challenges of dealing with crew and schedule and actors in a way he never did before. It is harder to be told you only have one day to shoot nine pages than it is to tell a director he or she only has one day to shoot nine pages.”

Banderas also gave his feelings on the film. “I am an actor who has risked my career many times to work with first-time directors and people outside of the mainstream,” he said. “There was something in Tony’s vision of the project that interested me.”

“The Big Bang” is a film about a private detective who is hired to find a missing stripper. The investigation becomes complicated when everyone he questions ends up dead.

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Antonio Banderas' film company Green Moon, Ve´rtice 360 and Quinta Communications have inked a deal to co-produce and co-finance a slate of movies, including Spanish director Gabe Iba´n~ez's Automata.

Banderas will co-produce and star in Automata, which explores a futuristic vision of the world when civilization is taken over by artificial intelligence and humans have relationships with robots. The film is set to begin production later this year and was written by Javier Donate, Iba´n~ez and Igor Legarreta.
The three companies will begin production on Solo in 2012. Banderas will also star in the film, as well as serve as director and executive producer. Erik Jendresen of Band of Brothers has written and will co-executive produce the project. The movie centers on a Spanish special forces operative who has just returned home after a tour of duty in a war zone and his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Banderas' Green Moon has an existing co-production partnership with Spain's Ve´rtice 360; this deal marks Tarak Ben Ammar’s Quinta Communications' entrance into the collaboration. Ben Ammar produced Femme Fatale in 2002, in which Banderas starred.

Banderas said of the deal: “This alliance is a great opportunity for European cinema. In times of crisis, this dream unites three film companies and their strengths in their ability to face a challenging new way of making movies. We are delighted to have Tarak Ben Ammar's prestigious Quinta Communications join us in this three-way co-production partnership with Ve´rtice 360. At Green Moon, the new long-term alliance is our most recent step in the company’s current growth strategy.”

Sau´l Ruiz, the CEO of Ve´rtice 360, added: "An agreement like this, with three leader companies like Green Moon, Ve´rtice 360 and Quinta, and starting with these two big projects gives an extra value to our strategy of promoting development of contents in all the Ve´rtice 360 industry value chain: services and equipment, production, post-production, distribution, broadcasting, exhibition and interactive."

Ben Ammar remarked: “I have been looking at opportunities in Spain for quite a while and the timing of this partnership with Ve´rtice and Green Moon could not be better. The partnership between the three companies means we now have a union between France, Italy and Spain, which is a formidable prospect for any independent media company. Plus, the opportunity to deepen my professional relationship with my good friend Antonio Banderas, who has himself built an impressive infrastructure in his native Spain, was an opportunity I could not say no to. I am also excited by the prospect of being a part of the discovery of a major new cinematic talent in Gabe Iba´n~ez.“

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Salma Hayek made a flamboyant start to the Cannes Film Festival today in an eye-catching dress.
The Mexican actress was the centre of attention in her wacky Gucci dress at a photocall to promote her new film Puss In Boots with co-star Antonio Banderas. The 44-year-old was wearing a strapless burnt orange leather dress and matching floral bolero from the label's Autumn/Winter 2011 collection.

Hayek is a big fan of the Italian label, but her decision to wear the unusual ensemble is also helping the family business - her billionaire husband François-Henri Pinault is the CEO of PPR, the company who owns Gucci. Despite her tight-fitting dress and killer platform heels, Hayek managed to climb up on a pair of giant boots, which had been placed at the end of the pier on Carlton Beach. During the photocall, she larked around and cuddled up to her Spanish co-star Banderas.

New animated film Puss In Boots sees Banderas reprise his role as the swashbuckling cat from the Shrek films. Hayek is a new addition to the cast, playing Puss's love interest, a tuxedo cat named Kitty Softpaws.

The 3D film, which has been in the works since 2004, won't be released in cinemas until November this year. But as one of the big animated releases planned for this year, the cast drummed up publicity for the film against the backdrop of the French Riviera. Speaking to the assembled world's press, Hayek said: 'When I started out, Hispanic roles were very limited. Roles were very limited. There were one or two kinds of characters you used to do. Now we get to play the cats! It's OK to be a Hispanic, even if you are a cat.'Hayek also spoke about how she was embracing her middle-age in Hollywood.

She explained: 'What makes you feel old is when you are not excited about life. You are not excited anymore about what you do, and you cannot do it as well. 'I do feel my body beginning to - like, I need glasses now when I read my scripts. I wear them, but I'm happy to wear them and happy that I still get to read my scripts. 'So it's not been so bad. They scared me. They told me, "Forget it. At 30, it's over for you". And it has not been the case. It feels great to age in Hollywood.'

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First teaser trailer for Antonio Banderas' drama thriller, "The Skin That I Live In", has arrived online. Banderas' Robert Ledgard imprisons Elena Anaya's Vera in his house. Vera, in the meantime, unsuccessfully threatens Ledgard to let her go.

"The Skin That I Live In", which will be premiered at 2011 Cannes Film Festival, has a different storyline from the original work. In Thierry Jonquet's novel "Mygale", a plastic surgeon named Robert Ledgard is on the hunt for the men who raped his daughter. In a summary released on Cannes official site, it is said that the movie revolves around the surgeon whose wife was burnt in a car crash.

"Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her," the synopsis read. "After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault."

"In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig..."

Supporting the forthcoming movie are the likes of Marisa Paredes, Blanca Suarez, Jan Cornet, and Roberto Alamo. Pedro Almodovar serves behind the lens and provides the script. The film itself will hit theaters in November, a few months after its premiere at Cannes in May.

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Snoop Dogg is back on the big screen. The rapper-turned-actor is set to appear in the upcoming film The Big Bang, which also stars Antonio Banderas, James Van Der Beek, Autumn Reeser, Sam Elliott and more.

The limited release, landing in theaters on May 13th, follows a Los Angeles private investigator (Banderas) who gets approached by a Russian boxer to find his missing girlfriend. Through his journey, he comes upon a secret-hoarding Hollywood action star (Van Der Beek), a sexy waitress (Reeser) and a porn producer, played by Snoop Dogg. In a clip from the film, Uncle Snoop and Banderas converse on the set of a porn shoot, with the rapper's character explaining that he likes to make cameos in his work like famed director Alfred Hitchcock.

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Antonio Banderas act in 'BLACK GOLD': According to Ohnotheydidn't, Broadway veteran Antonio Banderas will join previously announced Freida Pinto in 'Black Gold.' The film, which will be directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, takes place in the 1930's when oil reserves in the Middle East have been discovered.

In 1996, Banderas starred alongside Madonna in Evita, an adaptation of the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in which he played the narrator, Che, a role played by Mandy Patinkin in the original Broadway production.

In 2003, he returned to the musical genre, appearing to great acclaim in the Broadway revival of Maury Yeston's musical Nine, based on the film 8½, playing the prime role originated by the late Raúl Juliá. Banderas won both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for best actor in a musical.

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Antonio Banderas & Melanie Griffith kissing together: Hollywood star Antonio is a member of a Roman Catholic religious brotherhood in Málaga and travels with his wife this time every year to take part in the city's celebrations.

After sharing a kiss inside a church, Antonio donned a traditional white robe for the first of many religious events this week. He carried an image of the Virgin of Tears and Favours through the streets and said he felt "very emotional because it's been a very special year for the many activities" in which he had been involved.

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Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith pose in Semana Santa Festivities: Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith appear at the Semana Santa Festivities in Malaga.

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Antonio Banderas finances university grants, different creates: Antonio Banderas's Lagrimas y Favores (Tears and Favors) Foundation has donated 130,000 euros ($188,000) for college scholarships, aid for cancer victims, and to help people currently down and out from the economic crisis.

The actor endowed Monday his native Malaga with 75,000 euros ($108,000) in scholarships to enable students to take postgraduate courses at universities in the United States and Canada. Accompanied by his wife, actress Melanie Griffith, he has also gave 25,000 euros ($36,000) to the Cancer Care Association, or Cudeca, and 30,000 euros ($43,000) to the Catholic charity Caritas.

"Too many people are calling on churches these days needing help, they need some kind of support because the situation is maybe a lot worse than we think," Banderas said. "The whole world," he said, is in "a very tough, very deep crisis that is causing suffering to lot of people.""We're not going to fix the problems of the whole world, but we have a great belief in the work the foundation is doing," the actor said.

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