James Gray‘s Paper Tiger is heading to Cannes.
The new crime drama from the director of The Immigrant, Two Lovers and We Own The Night, is a late addition to the competition line-up at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Featuring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller, the film will bring some much-needed star power to the event, which runs May 12-23.
Neon has swooped in to take North American rights to the film ahead of its festival bow. Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox’s The Veterans are representing international sales rights on the movie, with CAA Media Finance handling North American rights.
When he unveiled his 2026 lineup on April 8, Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux said it wasn’t complete, and there was widespread speculation that Gray’s film would be added to the list. French distributor SND recently boarded the film for local distribution, adding to the speculation it would be Cannes-bound. Gray is a favorite on the Croisette, with five of his previous films, including his last feature, Armageddon Time, screening in competition. He was part of the Cannes jury in 2009.
His new film is thought to be a return to Gray’s early, more genre-inflected work. Driver and Teller play two brothers whose pursuit of the American Dream gets tied up in a deadly Russian mafia scheme that tests their relationship and gets them entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme that threatens their family and their bond to one another.
Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong were initially cast in the film but dropped out due to other commitments, with Johansson and Teller replacing them. The casting reunites Johansson and Driver after 2019’s Marriage Story, for which they both earned Oscar nominations.
Paper Tiger was produced by Rodrigo Teixeira for his RT Features banner and Anthony Katagas for AK Productions alongside Raffaella Leone, Gary Farkas, Marco Perego, Carlo Salem and Andrea Bucko. Lee Broda, Jeff Rice, Riccardo Maddalosso and Emily Salveson are executive producers.
Neon, which has released the past six Palme d’Or winners domestically, has several horses in this year’s race. Alongside Paper Tiger, Tom Quinn’s indie distributor has also secured Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Sheep in the Box, Arthur Harari’s The Unknown, and Na Hong-jin’s Hope.
