Last year, Laura Dern teased that David Lynch fans should expect “more and more radical, boundary-less art” from the Blue Velvet filmmaker. Her source? She’d just enjoyed a cappuccino with the man himself, and noticed a “a twinkle in his eye” that said “he’s up to something radical and fantastic”.
As it turns out, Dern and Lynch may have been discussing more than the simple delights of a damn fine cup of coffee. Reports suggest that a brand new Lynch film, starring Dern in a supporting role or brief cameo – alongside “some other Lynch regulars” – is set to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The surprise announcement comes via Variety, which cites “two well-informed sources” in its predictions for the 2022 festival. The actual content of the production remains anyone’s guess, though some have speculated that it is an extended pilot of his long-rumoured TV series, Wisteria.
In terms of the casting rumours, this would make sense – both Dern and Mulholland Drive’s Naomi Watts have previously been linked to the show, while Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan stirred rumours about his own involvement in 2021. Then again, it’s possible that Lynch filmed an entirely separate feature film in secret, in between his daily weather reports.
Also expected to debut at Cannes this year are Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic and David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, a science fiction thriller starring Kristen Stewart, Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux.
Cannes Film Festival is set to confirm its Official Selection on Thursday (April 14), which will hopefully help demystify Lynch’s upcoming project. Then it’s blue skies and golden sunshine all along the way.
Update: Sadly, David Lynch has clarified that he is not set to premiere a new film at Cannes Film Festival, despite what sources say. “That’s a total rumour,” he tells Entertainment Weekly ahead of the Official Selection announcement. “It is not happening. I don’t have a project. I have nothing at Cannes. It’s unfortunate. It got built up that people thought, ‘Oh, that’d be nice.’ There is something new, but it’s not mine… So we’ll wait and see whose it is.” The filmmaker goes on to state that he has been working every day, but on painting and sculpture, as well as colour-correcting his 1997 film Lost Highway.
