It’s inconceivable that even 10 years ago, an actress of the calibre of Kate Winslet and a film-maker as world-class as Todd Haynes would be working together in television. But that is exactly what the two cinema luminaries are doing in a five-hour mini-series of James M Cain’s 1941 Mildred Pierce that is now in production. Haynes is returning to the Cain source material rather than the classic 1945 Michael Curtiz film and has cast Evan Rachel Wood as Mildred’s daughter Veda along with Guy Pearce, Melissa Leo and James LeGros. Fresh off its $200m mini-series The Pacific, HBO is the backer of the project.

Meanwhile, in France, the 320-minute multilingual mini-series Carlos directed by French auteur Olivier Assayas is set to premiere on Canal Plus after the Cannes film festival, where it is tipped for a special screening.

The Sundance Channel, which boarded the project early on, will broadcast it in the US in the summer while Sundance sister company IFC Films will subsequently release both the mini-series and a two-hour feature version in theatres. IFC enjoyed limited success in cinemas with the six-hour Red Riding trilogy, a UK mini-series directed by and starring some of the country’s biggest names.

Blurring the line between TV and film

If Carlos does get a Cannes slot, what’s the betting film festivals will be clamouring for Mildred Pierce? In fact, HBO has often screened its made-for-HBO features in festivals, from The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers, which was in competition at Cannes, to American Splendor, which won the Sundance grand jury prize. That’s the same HBO whose hit TV series Sex And The City has now spawned two theatrical movies, the first of which grossed $415m worldwide.

Talk about lines blurring between TV and film. There is even an argument that the collapse of the US studios’ specialised theatrical business will mean that artistically challenging or issue-driven films will gradually make the shift to TV while the majors focus their efforts on effects-driven tentpoles.

That could eventually mean a more star-studded turnout at the Emmys than the Oscars.

In this month’s issue, Screen explores the economics and dynamics behind event television like The Pacific and Mildred Pierce and the shift in attitude of theatrical talent who might have looked down on TV in the past but now warmly embrace TV gigs. Haynes, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson and recent Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow are all at it in 2010. At a particular moment in the evolution of cinema where talent of the highest calibre is struggling to get daring work made for the big screen, the small one is apparently the place to go.

Ironically most of the world will be glued to the small screen this June and July for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, another TV event which poses a threat to the theatrical experience, although enterprising cinema circuits will be playing key matches on their screens. Screen US editor Jeremy Kay takes a close look at how the studios are programming through and around the football marathon on page 52.

Biggest of the counter-programming theatrical titles aimed at the non-soccer loving female demographic (or “football widows”) is, yes, Sex And The City 2.

Please feel free to contact me with any feedback at mike.goodridge@emap.com