Cannes Film Festival 2023: Day 11: 26 May 2023

CANNES CONFIDENTIAL – DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD FRIDAY 26 MAY

Fremaux fights, deals done: Over to Zac Ntim, who’s been on the ground in Cannes since the start… It’s been an eventful second week here in Cannes. Things kicked off with Festival Delegate General Thierry Fremaux caught up in an altercation with a local police officer. Footage of the scrap, captured by veteran French journalist Eric Morillot, made its way to social media sites, showing Fremaux and the officer exchanging insults and minor blows outside the Carlton Hotel. French media reported that the incident occurred after Fremaux was caught riding his electric bike outside the grand establishment. Away from street beefs, the Cannes Market has been heating up, with a series of high-profile deals locked out of the Croisette. Deadline broke the news that Netflix has picked up Todd Haynes’ Competition title May December in an $11M deal for North American rights . The pact is being finalized by CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group, with Rocket Science brokering international deals. The film premiered at Cannes last Saturday, and received a hearty eight-minute standing ovation. The pic, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, is an early frontrunner in the Palme d’Or chatter here in Cannes alongside Jonathan Glazer’s latest The Zone of Interest, which has secured a slew of European and Asian sales. The biggest deal thrashed out at this year’s Cannes Market is Prime Video swooping to pre-buy international rights — excluding Germany — to Liam Neeson action sequel Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky for around $17M. Mubi has also been busy, picking up two Un Certain Regard pics, Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents (Los Delincuentes) and Felipe Gálvez’s The Settlers , for major territories. Elsewhere Neon — the home of the last three Palme d’Or winners Triangle of Sadness, Titane and Parasite — picked up Justine Triet’s Cannes Competition feature Anatomy of a Fall for NA.

American Idol: In a stark sign ‘o’ the times, the hottest ticket in town this week was the premiere of a TV show, Sam Levinson’s sex-filled Euphoria follow-up, The Idol. Levinson co-created the HBO series with pop star Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye, who leads alongside Lily-Rose Depp in his first substantial on-screen appearance. The series received a five-minute standing ovation, during which Levinson fought back tears, but the response from critics and commentators has been less enthusiastic. Deadline’s Baz Bamigboye wasn’t exactly sold on the subject matter. Festivalgoers have also been scavenging to nab a ticket to Directors’ Fortnight’s headline Rendez-vous with Quentin Tarantino event. The writer-director landed on the Croisette Thursday and introduced a screening of the 1977 pic Rolling Thunder before leading a masterclass session. Before the event, the Pulp Fiction filmmaker spoke exclusively with Baz and shared new details about his forthcoming 10th and final feature film, The Movie Critic . Tarantino told Deadline the pic is moving into “pre-pre-production” next month and will be based “on a guy who really lived, but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag.” Baz’s interview with Tarantino was split into two parts. Check out one here and two here.

Closer: The festival concludes with the closing ceremony Saturday evening, but before that, Alice Rohrwacher and Ken Loach will debut their latest works in Competition. Both pics will be relatively starry events. Rohrwacher’s La Chimerafeatures Josh O’Connor (The Crown) alongside Isabella Rossellini and Alba Rohrwacher. Conversely, Loach’s The Old Oak features a mix of professional and non-actors. The pic has been billed as the octogenarian’s last film, capping a decades-long career that includes 16 Cannes competition titles and two Palme d’Or wins. Can he grab a historic third? Check back with us on Saturday for this year’s winners and find all our Cannes coverage here.