Director James Gray tried to call Scarlett Johansson on his cell phone so she could join in the seven-minute standing ovation at the Cannes premiere of Paper Tiger on Saturday. However, the star did not respond to FaceTime.
Johansson was unable to come to the south of France because she was filming a reboot of “The Exorcist.” But co-stars Miles Teller and Adam Driver, who play brothers who clash with the Russian mob in the tragic crime thriller, stood by the boisterous Gray.
Paper Tiger, Grey’s first film since 2022’s Armageddon Time, has already been picked up for North American distribution by Neon, which has won the Palme d’Or for the past six years in a row. According to the official synopsis, the film follows two brothers who try to achieve the American Dream, but end up “caught up in a scheme that seems too good to be true.” “As they try to navigate an increasingly dangerous world of corruption and violence, they find themselves and their families subject to brutal terror at the hands of the Russian “Mafia.” Their bond begins to fray, and betrayal, once completely unthinkable, is now all too likely. ”
Gray is a leading Cannes director, and Paper Tiger will be the sixth film to premiere at the Croisette, following Armageddon Time, The Immigrant, Two Lovers, We Own the Night, and The Yard. He was also a member of the competition’s jury in 2019, when Isabelle Huppert was president.
When the first lineup for Cannes was announced in early April, artistic director Thierry Frémaux made no secret of the fact that he was still eager to get Paper Tiger into competition. “James Gray never stopped being himself,” Frémaux told Variety, noting that the project was “complicated to put together” and “there are still some contractual issues to resolve.” By the end of April, the film was officially added to competition.
