Today has been a day of talking about Cannes. From the news this morning that several of our favorite filmmakers wouldn’t be making it to this year’s film festival to the news that Terry Gilliam’s long-awaited “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” is a probable addition, we thought we had covered our bases for building the anticipation for this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Well, we had no clue that Disney and Lucasfilm were preparing a bombshell.
According to Deadline, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is set to make its world premiere at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in May. The report claims that Lucasfilm has set up a special screening for the film on May 15, which is a week ahead of its scheduled premiere in Los Angeles on May 22. To say this is a surprise is an understatement considering the stories that have led up to this news.
It wasn’t that long ago that no one had even seen a piece of marketing materials for the film, with many hypothesizing that the maligned ‘Star Wars’ film would see its release pushed back to the end of 2018. Instead, the last month has seen the buzz for the film build as Disney/Lucasfilm started rolling out the hype machine. Now, it looks like they want to carry that hype all the way to France and drop the film on the world stage, in front of what could be a fairly critical crowd.
The idea of ‘Solo’ premiering at Cannes means that Lucasfilm feels confident with the finished product. Previously Cannes has welcomed mainstream, big-budget films before, with “Mad Max: Fury Road” and various Pixar films coming to mind, but those were quality films that were guaranteed to have fans at the prestigious event. ‘Solo’ is not a guarantee, and up until this news, the most discussed topics of conversation were about how troubled the production of this film has been. Perhaps, Lucasfilm’s Ron Howard switch-up has paid off.
If this report turns out to be true, it looks like fans will get the first word about ‘Solo’ much earlier than expected. This is a ballsy move by Disney and Lucasfilm, but one that is sure to bring worldwide headlines to a film that might need a bit of good press.
For those not in attendance at Cannes, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” will make its global debut on May 25.