After weeks of suspense, James Gray‘s anticipated next film “Paper Tiger” has joined the Palme d’Or race at the Cannes Film Festival. The gritty crime thriller, starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, will world premiere in competition, while Neon has secured North American rights, Variety has learned.
“Paper Tiger” follows two brothers as they try to achieve the American dream, only to become “entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true.” The film’s synopsis reads: “As they try to navigate their way through an ever-more dangerous world of corruption and violence, they find themselves and their family brutally terrorized by the Russian ‘Mafiya.’ Their bond begins to fray, and betrayal — once utterly unthinkable — now becomes all too possible.”
Gray is a longtime Cannes favorite and is particularly beloved in France. Over the years, he has brought five films to the Croisette – “Armageddon Time,” “The Immigrant,” “Two Lovers,” “We Own the Night” and “The Yards” — and he also served on the Cannes jury in 2009, when Isabelle Huppert presided.
His films have been handled by a wide range of U.S. distributors, from Miramax (“The Yards”) and Sony Pictures Classics (“We Own the Night,” “Two Lovers”) to Magnolia Pictures (“The Immigrant”), Amazon Studios (“The Lost City of Z”), 20th Century Fox (“Ad Astra”) and Focus Features (“Armageddon Time”).
“Paper Tiger” had been widely expected to make the cut when Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux unveiled the official selection on April 9, but was left off the initial lineup. Fremaux told Variety he was hopeful the film would be added at a later stage, describing it as “a wonderful film, a very James Gray film, very indie.”
“It’s the James Gray who has never stopped being himself,” Frémaux said, noting the project was “complicated to put together” and that “there are still some contractual issues to resolve.” He added, “I hope they’ll be settled very soon and that we’ll be able to announce the film.”
Gray will be one of the two American filmmakers competing at this year’s festival, alongside Ira Sachs’ “The Man I love” starring Rami Malek.
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The casting reunites Johansson and Driver after 2019’s “Marriage Story,” for which they both earned Academy Award nominations.
It’s produced by Rodrigo Teixeira under his RT Features banner and Anthony Katagas for AK Productions alongside James Gray, Raffaella Leone, Gary Farkas, Marco Perego, Carlo Salem and Andrea Bucko. Executive producers are Lee Broda, Jeff Rice, Riccardo Maddalosso and Emily Salveson. French distribution will be handled by SND.
The “Paper Tiger” deal cements Neon’s huge presence on the Croisette this year. With “Paper Tiger,” Neon is behind six Palme d’Or contenders at this point, including Arthur Harari’s “The Unknown,” Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden,” Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Sheep in the Box” and Na Hong-jin’s “Hope,” a Korean genre film starring Hwang Jung-min, Hoyeon, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender. The distribution company already has a stellar track record at Cannes, having backed the past six Palme d’Or winners.
From Variety US