There was some buzz around the red carpet here in Cannes on Tuesday that Netflix had secured the rights for the big Cannes opener Everybody Knows. However, on the day after its big festival premiere, it was revealed that Focus Features had bagged the rights to the Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz-led psychological drama from Asghar Farhadi.
The news was announced early Wednesday that Focus has nabbed the distribution rights to the film for the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, select Asian territories and the Middle East, apart from Iran.
“Asghar is a world-class filmmaker whose work transcends language,” said Focus chairman Peter Kujawski. “Matching his talents with these emotionally charged performances from Penelope, Javier and Ricardo will leave audiences captivated.”
We reviewed the film rather positively in our Cannes review earlier today, and backed up the comments from Kujawski that the central cast were the film’s biggest asset.
Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz arrive for the ‘Everybody Knows’ press conference on Wednesday.
Image credit: Heathside Media
Everybody Knows opens with a family wedding, deep in the heart of a rural Spain where Laura (Penelope Cruz) has returned from Argentina with her family – her teenage daughter, Irene (Carla Campra), and her young son, Diego (Ivan Chavero). She is attending the wedding of her sister Ana (Inma Cuesta), to Joan (Roger Casamajor), but it is apparent from the outset that there is some deep-rooted history that lies here. For example, there’s Javier Bardem’s local farmer Paco, who we know Laura once had a relationship with. We also know that this was in the distant past, and while the two have rarely seen one another – Laura having married Argentinian Alejandro (Darin), they have remained friends. The wedding is a big, lavish affair, clearly an event for the village who all come together to celebrate the nuptials, but immediately afterwards Laura’s daughter Irene vanishes from her room late at night causing an absolute frenzy in the village. A distraught Laura calls upon Paco to help her to find Irene, the option of going to the local police not an option after a text message is received warning hem away from law enforcement, while at the same time demanding a 300,000 Euro ransom for Irene’s safe return.
Read our full review over here.
