After a sluggish opening week that left many sellers looking at their telephones, the Cannes Film Market discovered one thing like a second wind in its last days, with a flurry of high-profile acquisitions injecting some much-needed vitality into what had been a cautious, defensive Marché.
The late surge was headlined by two offers that had been quietly percolating on the Croisette. Netflix moved to accumulate the animated function In Waves, whereas Warner Bros.’ nascent specialty label Clockworks entered unique negotiations to take Park Chan-wook‘s upcoming revenge Western The Brigands of Rattlecreek — a project that had been flagged by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the market’s most coveted packages earlier than the primary screening had even unspooled.
Netflix took worldwide rights exterior of France for In Waves, which opened Cannes Critics’ Week. The hand-drawn French animated function, from Franco-Vietnamese director Phuong Mai Nguyen, is an adaptation of the graphic novel by AJ Dungo and is a love story set in L.A. between AJ, a shy, skateboard and art-loving teen, and Kristen, a surfer lady. Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu voice the English-language model. Charades is dealing with gross sales.
The Brigands of Rattlecreek, the subsequent function from Cannes 2026 Jury President Park, is about to star Matthew McConaughey, Austin Butler, Pedro Pascal and Tang Wei and has been a long-gestating ardour mission for the Oldboy and Resolution to Go away director.
The Park acquisition, if it closes, would mark a major early assertion of intent for Clockworks, the newly minted Warner Bros. division nonetheless establishing its identification.
The offers adopted A24’s massive purchase of Cannes, taking worldwide rights to Jordan Firstman’s crowd-pleaser Club Kid for a reported $17 million following a bidding struggle of the type Cannes as soon as reliably produced however has struggled to copy in recent times. UTA and Charades dealt with gross sales.
Amazon additionally added warmth to the Marché, selecting up Pumping Black, one other THR Sizzling Checklist title. The bundle, from Contemporary director Mimi Cave, stars Jonathan Bailey and Natalie Portman in a psychological thriller set on the earth of aggressive biking. Amazon picked up nearly all of international rights. CAA Media Finance and Anton are co-repping world rights.
However the sturdy end for the Cannes Market solely underscored the relative quiet that preceded it — this was a Cannes that wanted a last-minute dash to get marked down as a win.
