Part of the film festival fun is seeing some of the great films that make their premieres at the likes of Sundance and the Cannes Film Festival find their homes with various major distributors and studios. Todd Haynes' May December, a new romantic drama starring two Oscar winners in Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore (a frequent collaborator of Haynes), has found a home in Netflix out of the festival.
Deadline broke the news that after what was described as an “old-style all-night auction,” Netflix came out on top and purchased the rights to May December for $11 million. The sale is being finalized by CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group — Rocket Science is handling international deals.
May December follows a married couple who, 20 years after a tabloid romance that swept the trades, have their marriage tested once more when an actress shows up to do research for a film about their relationship in which she'll play Gracie. Natalie Portman stars as Elizabeth Berry — presumably the actress — while Moore stars as Gracie Atherton-Yoo. Riverdale star Charles Melton also stars in the film as Joe Yoo (presumably the scandalous partner of Gracie). The film premiered at Cannes on May 20 and reportedly received an eight-minute standing ovation.
Speaking to Deadline shortly after Netflix purchased May December, Haynes said, “The news of the Netflix deal was just remarkable — it's such an incredible vote of confidence in their enthusiasm for the film and, you know, it made us all feel emboldened by what we just premiered at Cannes.”
Like collaborating with Julianne Moore, this isn't the first time that Todd Haynes has had a film distributed by a streamer. His previous film, The Velvet Underground, which was a documentary following the titular band, was an Apple TV+ release after being purchased out of Cannes.
We don't know when Netflix will distribute the film to its domestic audience, but you can bet that they'll try to get some awards play with it and release it later in the year (perhaps screen it at some other festivals such as TIFF and the NYFF).
May December held its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20.
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