With just two days left to shock and awe its moviegoing audience, the Cannes Film Festival has kept up a surprisingly brisk business of selling off its titles—big, small, not even showing at the fest—throughout its run, and even this last week has been marked by some major sales on some buzzy titles. Eager to check out some of the festival’s most talked-about features in the comfort of your own country? Here’s a good start.
- In need of an, ahem, new use of 3-D? Gaspar Noe’s much-talked about Love sold to Alchemy in advance of its Cannes premiere (which sounded like quite the event). IndieWire reported on the news. Juicy?
- Coming Soon reports that Alchemy also picked up the piping-hot The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos’ futuristic love story/satire starring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, and Lea Seydoux.
- The Hollywood Reporter shares that Laszlo Nemes’ Son Of Saul, a big contender for festival favorite, has been purchased by Sony Pictures Classics. The Holocaust drama has already garnered major affection and should (hopefully) make an awards season debut.
- Deadline shares that Sony Pictures Classics has spent a big-time $6 million on Truth, the Robert Redford-starring film about the so-called “Rathergate” scandal. The James Vanderbilt feature focuses on the last days of Dan Rather’s CBS tenure, which were marked by a jaw-dropping story about prisoner abuse that might not have been as truth-y as it purported to be. The film also stars Cate Blanchett and Elisabeth Moss.
- Deadline also reports that Magnolia Pictures has purchased Arnaud Desplechin’s My Golden Days, a time- and location- spanning drama starring Mathieu Almaric, Quentin Dolmaire, and Lou Roy-Lecollinet.
- The Miles Teller-starring boxing drama Bleed For This only showed footage to buyers at Cannes, but it was good enough to knock out Open Road, which bought the film for $4 million, as reported by The Wrap. No word yet on release date, but it does sound like a possible awards contender, just saying.
- Variety shares that another battle—not boxing, sadly—broke out for Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals, which eventually sold to Focus Features for “more than $20 million.” The film has not yet been made, but Ford reportedly made one hell of a pitch (for $20 million, it better have been).
- Variety reports that Sundance Selects has picked up Alice Winocour’s Maryland (Disorder). The thriller stars Matthias Schoenaerts and Diane Kruger and centers on an ex-Special Forces solider hired to protect the beautiful wife of a rich Lebanese businessman. You guess who plays who! There’s not yet word on when the distributor plans to release the feature, but it will likely get a platform release heavy on the VOD.
- The John Travolta-starring I Am Wrath didn’t play at Cannes, but it did offer up a teaser and some other materials at the film market, enough to get Saban Films to snap up the actioner. The Hollywood Reporter shares that the distributor has picked up the film, which features Travolta as a revenge-driven family man, as you do. No word yet on when we can see the film, which is currently in post-production.
- Variety reports that Strand Releasing has purchased the rights to Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery Of Splendour, the latest from the former Cannes winner. The film focuses on an “incurable sleeping sickness” that the director utilizes as a metaphor for the current Thai government.
The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 13 until May 24.