After directing Cheri, Stephen Frears would return to a more contemporary format and I imagine he might have personally come across Drewe when it was being published as a comic strip for the Guardian before it eventually became a non-graphic novel.
"Every once in a while, a great director, an auteur even, will helm such a dastardly atrocious film, that you can’t possibly comprehend how such a work could come into being. The great Stephen Frears has such a film on his impeccable resume with this latest turkey, Lay the Favorite."
Okay so Miral is out, Tree of Life is unlikely and Carlos is fighting to find a spot, and if we crunch the numbers (past decade stats provided by a Cannes film festival friend) it looks certain that there is still some filling up to do, not just the Main Comp, but potentially one or two more added titles might be added to the Un Certain Regard section and we should get at least four more titles joining the Out of Competition titles of Robin Hood, Stephen Frears, Oliver Stone and Woody Allen.
It appears that the very busy Oren Moverman will be adding one more project to his writing/directing slate, a film that originally had Stephen Frears attached to direct. Production Weekly reports that Woody Harrelson & Ben Foster may reunite with their The Messenger director on what could be an explosive commentary/crime drama.