Ralph Kamp and Louise Goodsill's UK-based sales company Odyssey Entertainment is heading to Cannes with a bustling slate including two new additions - The Libertine, starring Johnny Depp, John Malkovich and Samantha Morton, and The Blue Afternoon, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Olivier Martinez and Sam Neill.

The Libertine stars Depp as the real-life Earl of Rochester, the notoriously debauched 17th century poet who died at 33 a physical wreck. Malkovich, whose Mr Mudd production company has been developing the project since he starred in the original play as Rochester, will play King Charles II. Morton plays a struggling young actress with whom Rochester becomes enraptured.

"I can't see anyone apart from Johnny Depp playing Rochester," said Kamp. "He's playing someone so admired and yet so outrageous."

Commercials director Laurence Dunmore, who first worked with Malkovich on an advert for the Eurostar train, is expected to start shooting in December or January.

The script, by playwright Stephen Jeffreys, is laden with sex and period language - much of it coarse. Russell Smith, who produces with Malkovich and Lianne Halfon at Mr Mudd, said the film will provide actors with plenty of room to act, as well as delve into the underbelly of life for ordinary people in "a dirty, muddy, smelly period".

"If we had made the script lighter, funnier, with less crotch references, it might have been easier to get made," said Smith. "You shoot a rocket into someone's mouth and people say it is exciting, but sex is dangerous."

Meanwhile, The Blue Afternoon marks Australian-born Beresford's first production in Asia and Australia since Paradise Road. Adapted by William Boyd from his own novel, the film will star Martinez as a doctor in turn of the century Manila who becomes embroiled in the investigation into the guerrilla attacks on the notorious American 49th battalion and their evangelical, psychopathic colonel, played by Neill.

While the film is primarily a romantic thriller, Beresford points out that the political backdrop has obvious contemporary resonance. "It is a little known period of American history that is really interesting," said the director, whose credits include Driving Miss Daisy, Double Jeopardy and Breaker Morant. "They said they were liberating, and then they stayed."

Producers Xavier Marchand and Steve Clark-Hall are still casting a female lead. Jane Moore is executive producing, with Deborah Balderstone the Australian co-producer.

Beresford aims to start shooting in December, shooting action scenes in the jungles of Australia. However, he is also looking for a location in Asia, probably Thailand, and wants to convey a sense of Manila's distinctive, Spanish colonial architecture.

Kamp, who aims to unveil up to two further projects at Cannes, is also assembling long-term distribution partners for his VeggieTales franchise, which now has a second feature after the first grossed more than $25m in the US. He has closed deals in several smaller territories but is still hammering out agreements in key markets, often involving several players.