George Clooney Raises $625K For Obama At Geneva Event; Noah Baumbach and Brian De Palma On Tap for New York Film Festival: Biz Break

Also in Monday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, the Hamptons International Film Festival revealed its list of the "10 Actors to Watch" for this October's event. Minnie Driver joins a "horror musical." A Toronto and Cannes film is headed for U.S. theaters. Abbie Cornish joins a Fellini pic. And two jail-bound punks flee Russia after being convicted of Russian Orthodox Church offense.

Noah Baumbach, Brian De Palma, Abbas Kiarostami Set for NYFF Event
Noah Baumbach and Brian De Palma will take part in the "On Cinema" conversation while Abbas Kiarostami, David Chase and Robert Zemeckis will participate in the Directors Dialogues at the upcoming 50th New York Film Festival. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, which organizes the annual festival also said that the the Director’s Cut of Frank Oz’s Little Shop of Horrors restored versions of Michael Cimino’s Heaven's Gate, Laurence Olivier’s Richard III and Peter Whitehead’s The Rolling Stone - Charling is My Darling - Ireland 1965 will be presented as part of NYFF's Masterworks program in addition to two sidebar presentations as part of the festival’s 50th Anniversary event.

Hamptons International Film Festival to Fete "10 Actors to Watch"
The October festival on Long Island's East End will spotlight the "2012 ‘Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch: Breakthrough Performers' at the upcoming 20th anniversary edition of HIFF taking place October 4 - 8. This year's honorees include: Adam Driver (Inside Llewyn Davis), Domhnall Gleeson (Anna Karenina), Bella Heathcote (Not Fade Away), Dree Hemingway (Starlet), Boyd Holbrook (The Host), Elyas M'Barek (Turkish for Beginners), Scoot McNairy (Killing Them Softly), Nate Parker (Arbitrage), Imogen Poots (Knight of Cups) and Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina).

Minnie Driver Joins Horror Musical Stage Fright
Oscar nominee Minnie Driver is joining Meat Loaf Aday (Rocky Horror Picture Show), Allie Mac Donald (House at the End of the Street) and Douglas Smith (Big Love) in the horror-musical Stage Fright. Jerome Sable (“The Legend of Beaver Dam”) will direct from his own script.  The feature tells the story of a snobby musical theater camp terrorized by a blood-thirsty masked killer who despises musical theatre. Scream meets Glee in this genre-bending R-rated horror-musical. Driver plays Kylie Swanson, the enigmatic and haunted star of the Broadway stage, and mother of siblings Camilla (MacDonald) and Buddy (Smith) who find themselves at the centre of the unfolding horror at the camp.

Toronto and Cannes' Ernest & Celestine Heads to Theaters
Ernest & Celestine is based on the popular children’s book series by author and illustrator, Gabrielle Vincent. It tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a bear, Ernest, and a young mouse named Celestine. The film debuted at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where it received a special mention in Directors Fortnight. Distributor GKIDS will release the film in the U.S. and will have its North American premiere at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. The deal was negotiated by Vanessa Saal for Studiocanal and Eric Beckman for GKIDS. 

Around the 'net…

Abbie Cornish Joins Fellini Black And White
Cornish will play the female lead Betty in Fellini Black and White. She is the beautiful veterinarian that the Italian filmmaker fell in love with when he traveled to L.A. for the 1957 Oscars in which he won best picture for Nights of Cabiria Directed by Henry Bromell, the film stars William H. Macy, Terrence Howard, Peter Dinklage and Brazilian star Wagner Maura, who’ll play Fellini, Deadline reports.

George Clooney Raises $625K for Obama Campaign in Geneva
The Swiss contingent of Democrats Abroad raised "at least" $625,000 for the Obama campaign at an evening event in Geneva where George Clooney appeared. Guests paid $15K to have dinner with him and $5K for a photo with him and $1K to attend a reception before the dinner, Deadline reports.

Two Pussy Riot Activists Flee Russia
Two activists in Russian punk band Pussy Riot have fled the country, their Twitter account said. Three members of the group were jailed this month for staging an anti-Vladimir Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral. The pair who fled have not been named but the husband of one of the jailed women said the duo had taken part in the cathedral protest in February. Their brief, obscenity-laced performance, which implored the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out", enraged the Russian Orthodox Church. Many in the West, including recently Madonna, condemned the Pussy Riot sentences as disproportionate, BBC reports.