The new film, starring Alicia Vikander, will compete in the fest’s competition section.

German director Wim Wenders will open the 65th San Sebastian Film Festival with his new film Submergence. Wenders and the film’s star, Alicia Vikander, will travel to Spain to present the film on Sept. 22.

Submergence, which will compete for the festival’s Golden Shell main prize, also stars James McAvoy. Shot across Berlin, Madrid, Toledo and multiple locations in France and Djibouti, the film was penned by Erin Dignam, based on the book by J.M. Ledgard.

McAvoy and Vikander play a hydraulic engineer, James More, and a bio-mathematician, Danielle Flinders, who fall in love in a remote hotel in Normandy. After they depart for dangerous missions, it is revealed that More works for the British Secret Service and is taken hostage in Somalia.

Wenders returns to San Sebastian after chairing the festival jury in 2002. He is the recipient of a Venice Golden Lion for The State of Things, a Palme d’Or for Paris, Texas, and the best director prize in Cannes for Wings of Desire. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards.

The San Sebastian Festival takes place Sept. 22-30. [Source]

Alicia Vikander is in talks to star in Ben Wheatley’s hotly anticipated project Freakshift, an all-guns-blazing action thriller about a band of misfits who hunt down and kill nocturnal underground monsters.

Should the deal make, the much-in-demand Vikander would play the lead female protagonist in the cops-vs.-monsters tale. I’m hearing the project is eyeing an August start date, which would fit in with Vikander’s schedule as she’s due to wrap Tomb Raider in early summer.

This is an exciting pairing of a hot European actress with one of the UK’s most sought-after directors. Wheatley’s white-hot Free Fire is getting rave reviews in advance of its UK release at the end of this month, and it’s set to bow in the U.S. on April 21 via A24. That comic shootout stars Brie Larson, Sam Riley, Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy and Jack Reynor.

Freakshift looks set to be even more badass and more ambitious, with Wheatley directing from script he co-wrote with writing partner Amy Jump. Wheatley’s longtime producer Andrew Starke produces via their Rook Films banner. IMR is handling international rights to the title, with Riverstone Pictures and Film4 financing.

Wheatley’s career has gone from strength to strength since his 2009 Brit gangster breakout Down Terrace. Since then, he’s helmed cult chiller Kill List, horror comedy Sightseers, low-budget A Field in England, an adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High Rise as well as Free Fire.

The 17th century period romance starring Oscar winners Alicia Vikander, Christoph Waltz, and Judi Dench will now spring up in the late summer on August 25.

Initially, the movie directed by Justin Chadwick was scheduled for July 15, then Weinstein Co. announced back in July 6 last year that Tulip Fever would sprout this Friday.

Tulip Fever is based on the novel of the same name by Deborah Moggach, and adapted by Tom Stoppard. Pic centers around a married woman (Vikander) in Amsterdam who begins a passionate affair with an artist (Dane DeHaan) who is hired to paint her portrait. The lovers plot to run away together, and do so by banking on the tulip bulb market. Holliday Grainger, Jack O’Connell, Zach Galifianakis, Matthew Morrison, Tom Hollander and Cara Delevingne co-star. Tulip Fever is produced by Alison Owen and Harvey Weinstein. TWC is planning a moderate release for the film. [Source]

Oscar winner Alicia Vikander just added a new hyphen to her considerable list of talents: that of producer. The 27-year-old Swedish actress has launched her own production banner Vikarious Productions along with her London-based agent Charles Collier of Tavistock Wood. The company has set its first feature, Euphoria, with Vikander also set to star alongside Eva Green as sisters in conflict traveling through Europe towards a mystery destination. The project marks the English-language directorial debut of award-winning Swedish writer/director Lisa Langseth, who previously collaborated with Vikander on two Swedish-language pics, Pure and Hotell. Euphoria is a production with Sweden’s B-Reel Films’ Patrik Anderson and Frida Bargo, and starts shooting in the German Alps in early August.

“Euphoria is Lisa’s third film as writer and director. I have worked with her on each of them and I jumped at the chance to do so again,” said Vikander. “It’s a uniquely European approach, enabling me to work with a great Swedish team alongside my colleagues in London. It is a profound story about the journey of two estranged sisters, full of suffering but also full of joy, and squaring up to very important subject matter. It also has compelling female voices and is packed to the rafters with female talent both sides of the camera. All these ingredients made this film the obvious choice for our first film at Vikarious. Charles and I will be developing more films in this space over the next 24 months.”

The news further cements Vikander’s stratospheric rise and is testament to her formidable drive and ambition. Last week, she was confirmed as Lara Croft for MGM, Warner Bros and GK Films in Tomb Raider. The reboot will tell the story of a young and untested Lara Croft fighting to survive her first adventure. Roar Uthaug (The Wave) is directing. MGM and Warner Bros are co-producing the film with MGM overseeing production. They acquired film rights from GK Films, which had previously purchased film rights in 2011 from Square Enix LTD. Graham King is serving as producer.

The Weinstein Company has set a limited July 15 release date in the U.S. for its period drama “Tulip Fever,” starring Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, Christoph Waltz and Judi Dench.

It’s TWC’s third release slated for summer, along with Michael Keaton’s “The Founder” on Aug. 5 and Robert De Niro’s “Hands of Stone” on Aug. 26.

“Tulip Fever” is directed by Justin Chadwick from a script by Tom Stoppard, based on Deborah Moggach’s novel of the same name. Producers are Alison Owen and Harvey Weinstein.

Holliday Grainger, Jack O’Connell, Zach Galifianakis, Matthew Morrison, Tom Hollander and Cara Delevingne also star in the drama.

The story is set in 17th century Amsterdam, with Vikander playing a married woman who begins a passionate affair with an artist (DeHaan) hired to paint her portrait. The lovers gamble on the booming market for tulip bulbs as a way to raise money to run away together. Waltz plays Vikander’s husband who commissions the painting.

The project was originally planned for a 2004 shoot with Jude Law and Keira Knightley as the leads and John Madden directing, but the production was halted after government incentives were cut in the U.K. [Source]