‘May December’: Netflix Acquires North American Distribution Rights in Lucrative Cannes Deal
(L-R) Natalie Portman as Elizabeth and Julianne Moore as Gracie in Todd Haynes’ May December.
One of the biggest films to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, in and out of competition, has been Todd Haynes’ May December, which stars Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman.
After having its premiere over the weekend and gathering rather positive initial reviews, Deadline reports that Netflix has acquired the rights to distribute it in North America for $11M, the biggest number at any Cannes auction this year. CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Group are closing the deal, with Rocket Science brokering international rights.
May December follows Natalie Portman as an actress who is studying the interaction between a married couple, played by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton, 20 years after they were at the center of a national tabloid scandal, when it was uncovered that Moore’s character had seduced a 13-year-old. While she served time for it, the two later got married. The film explores the dynamic between the two of them, years later, when a third party starts to mess with the established balance.
Natalie Portman as Elizabeth in Todd Haynes’ May December.
This marks the latest collaboration between Haynes and Moore after 2002’s multiple Oscar nominee Far From Heaven. So far, the film has a 88% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 34 reviews; it received an 8-minute standing ovation after its premiere on Saturday. It is in competition for the Palme d’Or.
Other high-profile projects to have premiered at Cannes so far include Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, both of which are also in competition, as well as HBO’s miniseries The Idol and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. All of them have their distribution rights sorted out already, with Focus Features handling Asteroid City, A24 releasing The Zone of Interest (which could very well take home the Palme d’Or and is already a likely Oscar competitor alongside Scorsese’s latest), and Paramount releasing Killers of the Flower Moon in October before it is available to stream on Apple TV Plus.
No release date has been set for May December.
(L-R) Julianne Moore as Gracie and Natalie Portman as Elizabeth in Todd Haynes’ May December.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
