No official press release has been issued yet, but all arrows (and insiders) are pointing to Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood as the Cannes Film Festival opener. Ridley Scott presented his 1977 film The Duellists for which he won the Jury Prize for Best First Feature at the festival, and only returned for an Out of Competition slot for Thelma and Louise (1991), so this would be an attention-getting, timely premiere opening for Universal Pictures who release the film worldwide two days later on the 14th. Universal is in desperate need for a hit. I’ll be watching the red carpet arrivals for Léa Seydoux who plays Princess Isabella in the film, but we foreign cinema lovers know her for parts in Une vieille maîtresse, De la guerre, Inglourious Basterds, Lourdes and of course, Christophe Honoré’s La belle personne
The blockbuster title doesn’t necessarily go against the recent trend of openers – last year’s Up was a great title to open the festival and in the past decade we’ve had: My Blueberry Nights, Da Vinci Code, Blindness, Bienvenue en Suisse and Lemming. My response to the trailer is mostly meh, but I’ll be pumped to see the film because it’ll be the first item I’ll see at the fest, unless I can get into some early marketing screenings.
