Croisette-set comedy Cannes cancelled

French director Christopher Thompson’s upcoming Croisette-set comedy Cannes, set to star Adrien Brody, has been cancelled just two weeks ahead of its scheduled shoot on the French Riviera.

Brody was set to star as a beleaguered director attending the festival with his wife alongside an ensemble cast featuring Golshifteh Farahani, Gael Garcia Bernal, Emmanuelle Seigner, André Dussollier, Xavier Demolon, Alex Lutz and Ana Giradot.

Thompson had hoped to set and shoot the film against the backdrop of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The shoot was scheduled to start in Cannes on April 17, the eve of the Cannes Film Festival’s press conference in Paris to announce its Official Selection, and continue through to the festival in May.

Thompson announced on his Twitter account on Tuesday, however, that the production had been cancelled at the eleventh hour.

“The production of Cannes with Brody, Seigner, Farahani, A Giradot, Garcia Bernal, Demolon, Dussolier and Lutz… is stopping,” he tweeted.

“With just two weeks to go to the shoot, sets, costumes and actors ready. Sadness and despair for the whole crew. Thanks to all of them #CANNES film,” he continued.

A spokesman for Paris-based production company LGM Cinema, which was co-producing the film alongside popular television host and producer Thierry Ardisson’s Ardimage, confirmed to Screen that the production had been cancelled.

He said financing problems alongside difficulty in securing shooting permits for the period during the festival had scuppered the production.

Cannes would have been the second feature-length film for Thompson, son of celebrated screenwriter and director Daniele Thompson, after his debut picture Bus Palladium.

The last mainstream feature set against the backdrop of the Cannes Film Festival was Henry Jaglom’s 2001 Festival in Cannes starring Anouk Aimée, Rachel Bailit and Greta Scacchi.