Pitt lights up the red carpet at film festival

Crowds went wild last night as they caught a glimpse of Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt as he arrived at the premiere of his new film in Cannes.

Pitt, looking dapper in a black tuxedo and a pair of sunglasses, sent fans into a frenzy as he paced quickly up and down the lines of admirers bordering the pavement, signing autographs.

Angelina Jolie was not with him.

Earlier in the day at a press conference for Pitt’s new mob thriller Killing Them Softly, Pitt said Jolie would not be attending and also quashed rumours they had set a date for their wedding.

Pitt, who also produced the film, appeared on the red carpet with co-stars Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn, as well as director Andrew Dominik and co-producer Dede Gardner.

The film, in which Pitt plays brutal mob enforcer Jackie Cogan, is not just a gangster story, but a commentary on modern living, he said.

He is hired to hunt down and punish a gang of petty thieves who turned over a lucrative poker game.

Pitt said he was interested in the film because he was looking for stories that “say something about our time and who we are”.

Describing the idea behind Killing Them Softly, Pitt said newspaper headlines about the global financial situation and what was happening to people was a source of inspiration.

He said: “This commentary — in the way it’s done in this film, in the way that you believe you’re watching a gangster film — I felt it was really a gangster film and it wasn’t until the very end that things coalesced for me as far as maybe the direction the film was pointing to overall; that the film actually was saying something about the greater world.”

He said his character killed people in the best way possible, hence the title of the film, as was dictated by his occupation.

Killing Them Softly sees Pitt as Jackie who, under the eye of a mysterious driver, tries to track down and punish those responsible for the heist.

Meanwhile, Rupert Everett is to make his directorial debut with a film about legendary Irish writer Oscar Wilde.

The Happy Prince will star Everett as the playwright and Colin Firth as his friend and confidant Reginald “Reggie” Turner.

The pair previously appeared together in the 1999 Wilde adaptation An Ideal Husband.

The casting of Firth, who won an Oscar for The King’s Speech, may surprise a few given the alleged animosity between the two British actors.

The film, which will be scripted by Everett, will look at Wilde’s final days and is described as being a mixture of the comic and tragic as he reflects on his life, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson and Edward Fox are also due to star in The Happy Prince, which will begin shooting next year.