While there will be a lot of dealmaking done over glasses of chardonnay at Cannes, a few are going to be done before the festival kicks off, and in what is one of the biggest so far, one of the most high profile movies premiering on the Croisette has now landed U.S. distribution.
IFC Films and Sundance Selects have teamed up to acquire the U.S. rights to Walter Salles' star-studded "On The Road," and the two distributors will release the film jointly into theaters in late fall. As you well know by now, the film is an adaptation of Jack Kerouac's famed novel that features more names that can fit on a marquee including: Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Alice Braga, Elisabeth Moss and Viggo Mortensen. Jose Rivera, who penned "The Motorcycle Diaries" for Salles, reteams with the director and adapted the novel.
Now, does this mean Oscar play could be in the works? Late fall certainly suggests a hope that the film can gain some awards season currency, but the best barometer for that will be out of the Cannes Film Festival itself. The film is tentatively slated to premiere on May 23rd from what we're hearing, so we'll see how it goes. And we're guessing IFC/Sundance will also bring the film to the fall festival circuit stateside as well before releasing it in theaters.