Deal heats up Cannes Market
Exclusive updates place Florence Pugh in the lead role for The Midnight Library, a fantasy drama directed by Garth Davis. The project is drawing broad bidding from multiple studios as the Cannes market revs up.
Estimated at around $70 million, the film has Paramount, Focus Features and Sony among bidders for domestic rights and select international deals, with Studiocanal handling sales and aiming to keep certain territories for itself. The deal outlook resembles recent territory splits seen in European financing plays.
The screenplay comes from Laura Wade and Nick Payne, adapting Matt Haig’s celebrated novel. Haig is set to executive‑produce, with Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin of Blueprint Pictures producing alongside Anita Overland and Florence Pugh. Blueprint’s Ben Knight and Diarmuid McKeown will exec‑produce, with Anna Marsh, Ron Halpern and Dan MacRae also on the Studiocanal slate.
Production is planned to start pre‑production this fall, with principal photography slated for early 2027. Studiocanal intends a wide theatrical release across its European footprint plus other key markets, positioning The Midnight Library as the Euro studio’s largest‑budget project in years.
In the story, Nora Seed wanders a liminal library between life and death, offered the chance to glimpse the lives she could have lived. Buyers are buzzing about the title’s potential, with a winner expected in the coming days. Studiocanal and the studios declined to comment.
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