Meirelles' `Blindness' to open Cannes Film Festival

In this Jan. 27, 2004 file photo, director Fernando Meirelles is shown in London. [Agencies]

"Blindness," a Fernando Meirelles movie starring Julianne Moore, will open this year's Cannes Film Festival, organizers said Tuesday.

Based on a novel by Nobel laureate Jose Saramago, it's about a city where inhabitants inexplicably go blind, one by one. Moore stars as the sole person to keep her sight during the ordeal. Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal co-star.

Barry Levinson's "What Just Happened?," about a Hollywood producer struggling to make a film, is scheduled to close the festival. It stars Robert De Niro, Bruce Willis, Robin Wright Penn, John Turturro and Sean Penn.

Festival organizers said Tuesday that De Niro also is slated to present the top Palme d'Or prize at the end of the festival May 25. It kicks off May 14.

Organizers also said two additional movies had been added to lineup, bringing to 21 the number of films in competition: James Gray's "Two Lovers," a romantic drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, and "Entre les murs" ("Between the Walls") by Laurent Cantet.

Other films in competition — announced at a Paris news conference last week — include Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," a mystery starring Angelina Jolie, and Steven Soderbergh's "Che."

Overall, the 61st edition of the Riviera festival features fewer big-name directors and more emerging voices from across the globe than in previous years.