EXCLUSIVE: Deadline can reveal the primary clip of Scarlett Johansson‘s directorial debut Eleanor the Great, which can premiere within the Un Certain Regard lineup on the Cannes Film Festival, which begins subsequent week.
The end result of Johansson’s long-held dream to direct a function, Eleanor the Great stars nonagenarian June Squibb as Eleanor, a girl grieving the lack of Bessie, her finest good friend and roommate. When she strikes to Manhattan to stay along with her daughter and grandson, Eleanor finds herself occurring one thing of an odyssey in the hunt for connection — with generally stunning outcomes. When she inadvertently joins a Holocaust survivors’ group, Eleanor is reminded of her late good friend Bessie’s harrowing expertise rising up in Nazi-occupied Poland. But, when Nina, a journalism scholar, takes a vested curiosity in Eleanor, the reality out of the blue turns into a slippery topic.
The above first-look clip reveals Squibb as Eleanor in feisty type. As she readies to pack up and depart Florida for New York, she shuts down her passive aggressive neighbor’s feedback with a comeback concerning the girl’s husband. “Say goodbye to Melvin for me,” Eleanor says, with a twinkle in her eye. “We had such a wonderful time the other night. He’s very strong.”
Johansson has been behind the digital camera earlier than, directing a 12-minute quick referred to as These Vagabond Shoes for the 2008 portmanteau movie New York, I Love You. But that is the primary function she’s ever directed.
June Squibb as Eleanor with Erin Kellyman as Nina in ‘Eleanor the Great’.
Anne Joyce
The movie additionally stars Erin Kellyman as Nina, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Nina’s father, Breaking Bad‘s Jessica Hecht as Eleanor’s daughter and Holocaust survivor Rita Zohar as Bessie. Kellyman, who will subsequent seem in Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, was most not too long ago seen alongside Saoirse Ronan in Blitz.
Eleanor the Great is from a screenplay by first-time function author Tory Kamen, and sees Sony Pictures Classics and TriStar Pictures partnering for the primary time. The movie is produced by Johansson’s These Pictures with Jonathan Lia and Keenan Flynn, Pinky Promise’s Jessamine Burgum and Kara Durrett, and Maven Screen Media’s Trudie Styler and Celine Rattray.
Check out the clip above.
Johansson on the set of ‘Eleanor the Great’
Anne Joyce