Fox Searchlight Take a Dip with Guadagnino’s “A Bigger Splash”

Fox Searchlight folks have brought out their swim gear and might be getting ready for a Cannes Film Festival splash with Luca Guadagnino’s highly anticipated English language debut. Among our most anticipated foreign film productions (ranked #19) for the upcoming ’15 campaign, A Bigger Splash stars Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts, Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton (who reunites with the Italian filmmaker on their fourth project – it began with The Protagonists (1999), 35 min Tilda Swinton: The Love Factory (2002), and his career best item, 2009’s I Am Love. Fox Searchlight will surely look at a festival launchpad for this art-house item.

Gist: Written by David Kajganich and based on Jacques Deray’s La Piscine, this is about the lives of a high profile couple, a famous rock star and a filmmaker (Matthias Schoenaerts and Tilda Swinton), vacationing and recovering on the idyllic sun-drenched and remote Italian island of Pantelleria are disrupted by the unexpected visit of an old friend and his daughter (Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson) – creating a whirlwind of jealousy, passion and ultimate danger for everyone involved.

Worth Noting: Margot Robbie was pegged to play the role that eventually went to Dakota Johnson. Early players also attached include Jeremy Renner and Mia Wasikowska.

Do We Care?: As our Nicholas Bell highlighted in our Most Anticipated overview, we’re almost certain that this is going to be Guadagnino’s first trip to Cannes. The commissioned 2012 short film could certainly have been an early exercise for the look of the feature film.