Cannes: IFC Picks Up 'Tale of Tales,' Starring Salma Hayek

Italian director Matteo Garrone — whose previous two Cannes entries, grand jury winners Gomorrah (2008) and Reality (2012), were grounded in present-day realism — takes a leap into fantasy-horror with this feature, loosely based on a series of 17th century Italian fairy tales. John C. Reilly , Salma Hayek and Vincent Cassel star. (Sales: HanWay Films)

The fanciful film, directed by Italy's Matteo Garrone, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.

IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to Matteo Garrone’s Tale of Tales, based on the fairytales of Giambattista Basile, which debuted in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

The first English-language film from the Italian director, Tale stars Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, John C. Reilly, Toby Jones, Shirley Henderson, Hayley Carmichael, Bebe Cave and Alba Rohrwacher. It was produced by Jeremy Thomas, Jean Labadie and Garrone, from a screenplay by Edoardo Albinati, Ugo Chiti, Massimo Gaudioso and Garrone, and executive produced by Alessio Lazzareschi, Peter Watson, Nicki Hattingh, Anne Sheehan and Sheryl Crown.

“We are thrilled to be working again with Matteo Garrone, who has a truly unique and inspired vision, whether he is adapting Neopolitan tales of kings and ogres as he has done magnificently in Tale of Tales or painting a portrait of the real-life Mafia as he did in Gomorrah,” said Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects/IFC Films. “With his latest masterwork Tale of Tales, Matteo demonstrates once again that he is not just one of the world’s leading auteur filmmakers but that the scale and range of his projects are so incredibly diverse that he is accomplished in almost every filmmaking genre possible.”

The deal was negotiated by Arianna Bocco from Sundance Selects/IFC Films, with Thorsten Schumacher at Hanway Films on behalf of the filmmakers.