International Insider: ‘Megalopolis’ At Cannes; LA Screenings; Celebrating Jenne Casarotto

Afternoon, Max Goldbart here with your International Insider on day four of a super-busy Cannes. Read on, and sign up here.

‘Megalopolis’ Is Talk Of Cannes

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A more straightforward affair: After a tense build-up shaped by endless rumors of an imminent #MeToo expose and a potential labor strike, the first week of this year’s Cannes Film Festival has been a more straightforward affair. The most controversial event so far has been Thursday evening’s premiere of Francis Ford Coppola’s highly-anticipated Megalopolis. The critical response has been predominantly positive, with some very high highs and inevitably a few low lows. Deadline’s Damon Wise praised the movie, calling it a “mad modern masterwork that reinvents the possibilities of cinema”. He said the film is “something of a mess; unruly, exaggerated, and drawn to pretension like a moth to a flame. It is also, however, a pretty stunning achievement, the work of a master artist who has taken to Imax like Caravaggio to canvas. It is a true modern masterwork of the kind that outrages with its sheer audacity.” The film’s ovation (often a decent yardstick) clocked in at seven minutes in the Grand Théâtre Lumière. Apart from Megalopolis, there has yet to be any real buzz out of the official competition, which our reviewer described as “so-far lackluster.” Check out our cover story with the controversial pic’s star Aubrey Plaza over here.

Dramatic tug: Another talking point on the Croisette has been the presence of the Precarious Film Festival Workers Collective, an unofficial union representing Cannes staffers alongside festival workers from across France who have been mounting small demonstrations to raise awareness of their campaign over benefits. We first told you about this in the run-up last week. The group launched an impromptu rooftop protest at the Palais on opening night. Members dropped a sign with their motto Sous les écrans la dèche (Under the screen, the waste). At the same time, another group of demonstrators from the collective began a second protest on the ground. They held a sign with the same message and began chanting and blowing whistles to draw attention. Local armed police immediately descended on the ground protesters and snatched the banner away after a brief tussle with the protestors. There were about a dozen protesters on the roof and a dozen more on the ground. You can see footage from the dramatic tug between the protesters and police here. The collective’s planned strike action has yet to materialize but we understand the group has met with the French Labor Minister Catherine Vautrin about their demands and plans to push forward with larger-scale demonstrations depending on how these talks go. Check back with us later this weekend for the latest.

Breaking Baz & packages: As ever, Deadline’s Breaking Baz @ Cannes has been ruling the Croisette. On opening night he could be found chewing the fat with two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep who told him talks are imminent regarding a third Mamma Mia! flick. “Of course I want to do it. I think folks love it,” she said. Check out the full piece here and multiple others over here for plenty of insider goss, including a natter with Michael Cera and a first look at Billy Zane channeling Marlon Brando. Away from the glitz and glamor, the Cannes Market is in full swing and it’s been buzzy, as Andreas and Zac revealed in our Hot List earlier this week. Packages are still popping up with A-list talent including The Nest, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Andrea Riseborough, a late addition to AMP’s Cannes lineup, and social media thriller American Sweatshop starring Lili Reinhart. Buyers also appear to be biting. This morning, we revealed Focus Features has acquired Last Breath, starring Woody Harrelson, Finn Cole, and Simu Liu. The festival is set to kick into second gear this weekend as Yorgos Lanthimos debuts his latest feature Kinds of Kindness and Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump pic The Apprentice hits the red carpet. We’ll be on the ground for all of it, so check back in for the latest. Cannes runs until May 25.

The Meaning Behind The Screenings

To Tinseltown: As you digest this week’s mailer, jet-lagged international buyers will be grabbing their suitcases from LAX conveyor belts and heading to their hotels to do a spot of last-minute homework on studio slates. That’s right, the LA Screenings take place next week, closely following the Upfronts as ever in New York, and Jesse has spent the week talking to studio sales bosses, international buyers and indie vendors to assess the shape of the distribution market. Last year, the actors and writers strikes meant the Screenings were a more low-key affair, but no decorum in 2024, as showrunners and stars hit the lots to help the studios sell the shiniest new dramas, comedies and docs. As Warner Bros. Discovery President of Content Sales David Decker tells us: “It feels like we’re really back after the strikes and firing on all cylinders.” Elsewhere, Jesse’s article explores how slates are changing (they’re less ‘piloty’ and more international, for one) and how the LA Screenings are finding a new identity in the crowded international sales calendar. Read it in full here. And read our hard-working American colleagues’ Upfronts coverage over here.

Royal Snub For ‘The Crown’ At BAFTA TV

‘Top Boy’ wins big prize: The red carpet returned to London’s Royal Festival Hall Sunday night for a BAFTA TV Awards carrying plenty of star power and buzz. As is often the case with these awards, it was hard to pick a ‘grand winner’ on the night so to speak but Happy Valley, The Sixth Commandment and Top Boy creatives would have been delighted with two awards apiece, the latter scooping the coveted Drama Series prize in a hotly contested category that featured Sally Wainwright’s epic, Slow Horses and The Gold. Notably failing to garner a single trophy was The Crown. Netflix’s royal smash’s swansong season had four actors vying for gold but, having also lost out in various categories at last month’s BAFTA Crafts, came away with nothing. Other big winners on the night included Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen, The Sixth Commandment’s Timothy Spall and a big one in the Reality category for Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge.

Undimmed ‘Reindeer’ chatter: There was only really one show the execs, commissioners and celebs wanted to talk about late into the night at the after party, mind. Baby Reindeer came out way too late to make the shortlist for this year’s awards but the fallout from Richard Gadd’s true-to-life-but-how-true-to-life? breakout rumbles on. Jake spent some of his evening putting the issues to guests and the result was this Monday op-ed, in which he points out that Gadd and star Jessica Gunning did not do a single interview and eschewed performing any comedy skit before naming the nominees when presenting the Limited Drama award to The Sixth Commandment. With the UK government now joining the debate alongside all and sundry, Jake subsequently revealed yesterday that the real-life Martha, who you’ll remember from an astonishing Piers Morgan pow-wow last week, appears to be making good on her promise to sue Netflix, with a barrister now building a lawsuit. Fiona Harvey says she is yet to hear from the streamer despite being identified against her wishes and claiming to have received death threats and unwanted attention. This one is not going away.

No Need For TIFF Over Toronto’s Future

“Game-changer”: Big news in the film festival game with the unveiling of an official market at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which will roll out in two years’ time. The new market was labeled a “game-changer” by festival CEO Cameron Bailey, who told Stewart he wants to see industry attendance more than double. It really was tough talk on TIFF. “I think there’s so much more we can do by providing bigger, more robust infrastructure, and more opportunities for people to meet,” the festival boss said. The market will be paired with a C$23 million (US$16.9 million) funding boost from Canada’s federal government and comes with North American film markets shifting amid a challenged indie movie landscape – one only needs look at AFM’s move from LA to Vegas. More info will come, with the TIFF team now in the process of looking for a venue close to the current festival action.

Nick Hornby Celebrates Jenne Casarotto

A touching tribute: Jenne Casarotto’s death earlier this year sent shockwaves through the industry. The agenting titan and Casarotto Ramsay & Associates co-founder represented, amongst many doyens, British author Nick Hornby for 30 years. If you are rushed off your feet and only have time for one Deadline long-read this week, then you could do worse than his touching tribute to Jenne, which was shepherded by our Baz Bamigboye. Nick writes that Jenne’s eclecticism was “unique and sadly irreplaceable,” while celebrating her “straightforward and plain-talking” approach, the latter of which in the film agent world he says is akin to “finding a five-leafed clover, or a right-footed footballer with two right feet, or a screenwriter without paranoia and envy.” “It is a comfort that her company will live on not just with her name, but in her image,” writes Nick.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: RJ Malishka (pictured), Rajesh Kumar and KC Shankar have become the latest Indian stars to board SonyLIV‘s political drama series Freedom at Midnight.

🌶️ Another: Disney+ is moving into originals in the Central and Eastern Europe region with a greenlight for Polish drama Breslau (working title).

🌶️ A third: Charlotte Hong’s debut Tropical Rain, Death Scented Kiss wrapped in Singapore and the U.S., per Sara Merican.

🤝 New job: For Jenny van der Lande, who joins The Outlaws maker Big Talk from Brontë Film & TV.

🏪 Setting up shop: Veteran producers Frida Torresblanco (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Frank Murray (First Reformed) with Hangtime International Pictures in London and NY.

🏪 Setting up a different shop: Colors of the Sun Ventures comes from LA-based Into the Sun Entertainment and Italy’s Augustus Group.

📝 Research: Grim revelations from Channel 4 News showed working-class representation in UK film and TV to be at its lowest level for a decade.

⛺ Fest latest: Annette Hess will receive the first ever Deadline German TV Disruptor Award at Seriencamp next month.

🤝 Done deal: Between Philippines’ Nathan Studio and Singapore’s Momo Film Co in Momo’s upcoming slate.

🤝 More deals: RedBird IMI is the official owner of All3Media after all regulatory hurdles were cleared.

📉 Financials: Following a boardroom tussle, German major ProSiebenSat.1 posted first quarter earnings up 35%.

🔄 Rebrand: Banijay SPAC FL Entertainment becomes … Banijay Group.

🍿 Box office: Alex Garland’s Civil War has become the first A24 production to hit cinemas in China.

🖼️ First look: At King Charles’ debut official portrait, in which the monarch somewhat resembles a floating head next to a butterfly.

Zac Ntim and Jesse Whittock contributed to this week’s Insider.

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