Cannes: Todd Haynes to Direct Doc on The Velvet Underground (Exclusive)

The untitled film marks the first secret project to hit the Croisette and the 'Carol' helmer's first documentary.

In the first secret project to hit the Croisette, buyers will get to see footage from an untitled Todd Haynes documentary about seminal rock group The Velvet Underground.

Footage from the music-themed film, which marks Haynes' first documentary, will be screened Thursday afternoon at the Cinema Olympia in Cannes and is expected to ignite a frenzy among doc-hungry distributors looking for the next Amy.

The group, initially active between 1965 and 1973 and fronted by the late Lou Reed, is considered one of the most influential bands in rock history. It also became synonymous with avant-garde and experimental culture (pop artist Andy Warhol briefly managed the group). Haynes, who is one of the most respected directors working in film, secured the cooperation of surviving members of the band, including John Cale.

Cinetic and Submarine — which recently sold such big-ticket Sundance docs as Knock Down the House and American Factory, respectively — are teaming to sell the untitled Velvet Underground doc.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Haynes would tackle The Velvet Underground for his first doc. The Oscar-nominated writer-director has been circling '60s and '70s music groups in his narrative features for some time, including the Bob Dylan film I'm Not There and the fictitious glam rock chronicle Velvet Goldmine starring Ewan McGregor and Christian Bale.

Haynes, whose films include Carol and Far From Heaven, is repped by CAA and Sloss Eckhouse. He currently is in postproduction on an untitled Anne Hathaway starrer about a corporate defense attorney who takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company and is attached to direct Reese Witherspoon in a Peggy Lee biopic.