The leaders of the Cannes Film Festival are unimpressed: a producer of Terry Gilliam’s “The Man Who Killed Dan Quixote” is trying to stop its showing there as the closing film on May 19th. Thierry Fremaux and Pierre Lescure are like, Go away (say it with an Inspector Clouseau accent, it’s better).

Gilliam has been working on this film project since 1998. Sounds like Paulo Branco is a trouble maker.

Here’s the statement from Cannes:

On April 25, Paulo Branco and his production company Alfama Films took legal action aimed at preventing the planned screening of Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote on Saturday, May 19 at the closing event of the 2018 Festival de Cannes.

The legal application will be considered at an urgent hearing next Monday, May 7: the day before the Festival opens.

As Mr Branco has so far been very prominent in the media and legal spheres it seems necessary to state the reasons which led us to choose the film and risk action by the producer, whose lawyer, Juan Branco, likes to point out that his image and his credibility are essentially built on his numerous appearances at Cannes and by his closeness to the great auteurs honoured by the Festival. The latter is true, which adds to our bemusement.

During the winter, just as The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was presented to us by Terry Gilliam, by the sales company Kinology Films and by the distributor Océan Films, Mr Branco informed us of his legal action against the director, following the breakdown of relations between them after the film’s pre-production.

Such legal disputes are not unusual. The Festival is regularly informed of them, but it is not in its remit to take a position on these sorts of matters. Therefore, after careful consideration and because it seemed possible the film would be released at the same time, we decided to feature this work in the Official Selection.

The Festival de Cannes’ mission is to choose works purely on artistic grounds and the selection must, above all, be with the agreement of the film’s director. This is the case here. Past experience had made us aware of possible legal action and of the risks we were running, but as it happens, when we took our decision, there was no opposition to the screening of the film at the Festival.

We therefore did not act carelessly or in any way “force matters” as Mr Juan Branco has said in the press. Our entire profession knows that “forcing matters” has always been Mr Branco’s favourite method, and we should recall that he organised a press conference a few years ago where he denounced the Festival de Cannes because it had not kept a “promise to select” one of his films. This was an accusation which didn’t go anywhere, because the Festival does not make promises to select films: it either selects them or it does not. Today, Mr Branco has allowed his lawyer to use intimidation and defamatory statements, as derisory as they are ridiculous, one of which targets the former President of an event which he has made use of throughout his career to establish his own reputation.

The Festival de Cannes will respect the legal decision, whatever it may be, but we strongly affirm that we stand squarely on the side of filmmakers and in particular on the side of Terry Gilliam. We know how important this project, which has gone through so many trials and tribulations, is to him. The trouble were caused on this last occasion by the actions of a producer who has shown his true colours once and for all during this episode and who has threatened us, via his lawyer, with a “humiliating defeat”.

Defeat would be to succumb to threats. At a time when two filmmakers invited to take part in the Official Selection are under house arrest in their own countries, at a time when Wanuri Kahiu’s film Rafiki, which is part of the Official Selection, has just been struck by censorship in Kenya, the country where it was produced, it is more important than ever to remember that artists need us to support them, not attack them. That has always been the tradition of the Festival de Cannes and so it will remain.

The screening at the closing event of the Festival is subject to the decision of the judge at the hearing on May 7. The release of 300 copies of the film in France is currently scheduled for Saturday, May 19.

The Festival de Cannes calmly awaits the court’s decision.

Pierre Lescure, President, & Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate

It was a really MARVEL-ous weekend more than anyone thought.

Not only did “Infinity War” break records and have the biggest opening weekend ever…

The Marvel super hero extravaganza took in $8.2 million more than estimated.

The total US was $258.2 million, with a total worldwide of $640.8 million. Yowza!

Now all Marvel has to figure out is how to un-dead all those franchise characters. Maybe they can make it like Bobby Ewing’s dream on “Dallas.” Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye– not in this movie– will wake up, turn to Scarlett Johansson, and tell her last night’s pepperoni pizza didn’t agree with him! Nightmare!

MONDAY UPDATE: The US total was $258.2 million, way higher than originally thought.

SUNDAY: Disney was once a company known for animated movies. No more. Thanks to acquisitions of Marvel and LucasFilms, Disney now holds 8 of the top 10 opening weekends of all time.

“Avengers: Infinity War,” from Marvel, is now the BIGGEST opening weekend ever, beating two  “Star Wars” films from LucasFilms. “Infinity War” took in $250 million and is now the all time opening weekend box office take for any movie.

Including all countries worldwide, including theaters in Wakanda, “Infinity War” stands at $630 million since Wednesday.

Only one actual Disney film — last year’s live action “Beauty and the Beast” — is part of that top 10 now.

“Infinity War”– which really should be titled Part 1 — topped “Black Panther”‘s opening weekend by about $42 million. “Black Panther,” which was only released 10 weeks ago, was considered to be a phenomenon as it made its way to number 3 on the all time box office list.

SPOILER ALERT STOP READING NOW

But now the Black Panther himself, T’Challa, is dust in the wind thanks to the shocking ending of “Infinity War” along with several other signature Marvel characters. A bunch of them are turned to gray soot at the end of the movie, with no redemption in sight. Before that even happens, a few others are simply killed the old fashioned way, including Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Paul Bettany’s Vision.

Ironically, the one Avenger everyone assumed would die– Chris Evans’s Captain America– is just fine, thank you. But his buddy, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) isn’t so lucky.

The death toll is high in “Infinity War, Part 1.” After the credits, two more Marvel heroes become dust including Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury– and this years before he wore an eye patch. Some kind of time travel fix will have to retroactively reboot everyone or Disney-Marvel will suddenly lose its main revenue stream. It could be “Infinity War, Part 2” aka “Avengers 4,” will begin with Bob Iger and Alan Horn visiting a CGI young Stan Lee in the 1960s and breaking all his pencils!