EXCLUSIVE: Mubi has won out in a multi-distributor tug of war for Jennifer Lawrence’s Cannes Competition film Die My Love, we understand. The voracious buyer is taking domestic and multiple international rights. Deal is in the range of $23 million, maybe closer to $24 million, with full theatrical commitment on 1500 screens for 45 days, we hear. It’s the first major deal on the ground for a film playing at Cannes.
Lawrence and Robert Pattinson took to the Cannes red carpet last night for the world premiere of director Lynne Ramsay’s (You Were Never Really Here) drama. This is a big one for Mubi and its chief Jason Ropell, coming after its breakout work last Oscar season on The Substance. We hear the bidding on this one was fevered, with Apple and Netflix also squarely in the mix. The theatrical plan and Mubi’s creative alignment on the film and how to release it won the day. CAA Media Finance brokered the deal with Patrick Wachsberger’s 193; it is the first big deal for the latter since the Cannes stalwart launched his new shingle.
Set in rural America, the film is a portrait of a married woman’s (Lawrence) mental disintegration as post-natal depression consumes and obliterates her. Reviews have varied for the movie, but plenty of critics were fired up by Lawrence’s performance.
Pic is based on the 2017 novel by Ariana Harwicz and also stars LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte. Pattinson plays the husband, and Stanfield the lover. The prevailing thought on the ground in Cannes seems to be that in the right hands the film could be an American awards contender, in addition to its chances on the Croisettte.
In Deadline’s review, Damon Wise was impressed by Ramsay’s “mesmerizing film,” describing it as a “brutal but beautiful story.” As for many critics, Lawrence proved the star of the show. “America knows very well how good Jennifer Lawrence can be,” Wise wrote, “and this could well mean a fifth Oscar nomination if it lands in savvy hands.” Ramsay also came in for particular praise: “It could also be the film that takes Ramsay into the next stage of her career,” he says.
Ramsay directed Die My Love from her script written with Enda Walsh and Alice Burch. Producers include Justine Ciarrocchi and Lawrence on behalf of Excellent Cadaver, as well as Martin Scorsese, Andrea Calderwood, and Black Label Media’s Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill and Thad Luckinbill. The latter served as financier.
Mubi is on a roll, as we reported in a company deep-dive earlier this week. The ambitious arthouse studio , which made a big splash with The Substance this past awards season, is growing fast and aiming high. It already had three films in Competition and another in Un Certain Regard. It now has a fourth Competition film, around 20 percent of the lineup.
Known for her Cannes-debuting 1999 drama Ratcatcher, as well as films like We Need to Talk About Kevin and Morvern Callar, Ramsay’s last movie You Were Never Really Here, the thriller starring Joaquin Phoenix, won her the Cannes Best Screenplay award in 2017.
