2ND UPDATE, 7:03 PM PT: Paramount has confirmed Deadline’s earlier scoop, saying in a press release that the studio has picked up the Amy Adams sci-fi pic Story Of Your Life. It was the first big auction at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Read the full release at the bottom of the original post.

UPDATE, 4:29 PM PT: It’s all over but the press release as Paramount has prevailed in the first big auction on the ground at the Cannes Film Festival. The studio is paying $20 million for U.S. and Canada on Story Of Your Life, and there is discussion about China as well. This is a clear record deal brokered by Lava Bear’s David Linde with WME Global’s Graham Taylor and FilmNation’s Glen Basner. The latter was also in the middle of the $7 million Berlin deal with TWC for The Imitation Game, which was a record setter for that festival. So forgive these guys if they are strutting big on the Croisette today. This certainly marks an outstanding start for the Cannes market, as distributors clearly need product and are willing to spend if it’s good stuff.

EARLIER EXCLUSIVE, 3:29 PM PT: Prognosticators have said this Cannes might be light on deals. It isn’t starting out that way. A wild auction on the eve of the festival for the Denis Villeneuve-directed Amy Adams sci-fi film Story Of Your Life had five studios battling. It looks like it is down to Paramount and Universal, and that when the dealing’s done, it could go for $20 million, primarily for North American rights, which has got to be a record for the Cannes film market. Not a bad way to start a festival where there are plenty of bidders with money to spend, and doesn’t seem to be nearly enough blue-chip properties. Story Of Your Life is clearly an exception.

Villenueve, coming off Prisoners and Incendies, will direct an adaptation of a prize-winning Ted Chiang short story, scripted by Eric Heisserer. Adams will play a linguist who is tasked by the military with opening a dialogue with aliens whose crafts have landed on earth. Are they here to make friends, or take over?

This was expected to be one of the sexier pre-buy titles to hit the Croisette, and it’s being sold by WME Global’s Graham Taylor and FilmNation’s Glen Basner, with Lava Bear’s David Linde and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps producing it. Right away, the ask was around $18 million, but when there are five major studios battling, that minimum guarantee number inevitably escalates. Stay tuned as this one wraps up. None of the principals were commenting at this point.

Here is Paramount’s release: