Fox's ``Moulin Rouge'' to Open Cannes Film Festival, Followed by June 1 National Release

Business Wire, March 20, 2001

Entertainment Editors

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LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--March 20, 2001

The Cannes Film Festival has selected Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge" as the festival's opening-night film on May 9, 2001.

The film will be screened in competition.

The Cannes response to "Moulin Rouge," as well as reactions to early test screenings and showings of a special promotional reel, have led Fox to move the film's release date to place it squarely into the prime summer release period. Twentieth Century Fox will release the film nationally on June 1.

Fox will also platform "Moulin Rouge" in a single run each in New York and Los Angeles on May 18. Commented Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes International Film Festival: "I am particularly happy to welcome `Moulin Rouge,' a major studio film that renews the best tradition of spectacle, as the opening-night film of this year's festival, and also, of course, to reconnect with director Baz Luhrmann, whom we know very well from having discovered his first film in 1992."

Commented Luhrmann: "I still have wonderful memories from when Cannes launched my first film, `Strictly Ballroom,' so this is indeed an exciting announcement for me. I am particularly gratified that an American-financed film almost completely created in Australia, and specific to French culture and history, has been embraced this way by Cannes."

Added Robert Harper, vice chairman, Twentieth Century Fox: "We always knew Baz was creating something very special with `Moulin Rouge.' But after seeing the film this month, we were completely blown away by what he's done -- and we're thrilled that the Cannes Film Festival agrees. `Moulin Rouge' is a film for everyone, and we wanted to give audiences their best opportunity to experience it for themselves by releasing the picture on these prime summer dates."

"Moulin Rouge" is a celebration of love and creative inspiration set in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. Luhrmann ("William Shakespeare's Romeo Juliet") brings together gorgeous period design and modern-era pop tunes to create a unique motion picture experience. Nicole Kidman plays the club's most notorious star, forced to choose between a young writer's inspiration and another man's obsession. Ewan McGregor is the writer who finds himself plunged into this decadent world where anything goes -- except falling in love.

The film also stars John Leguizamo as Toulouse-Lautrec, Jim Broadbent and Richard Roxburgh. It was written by Baz Luhrmann & Craig Pearce, and the producers are Martin Brown, Baz Luhrmann and Fred Baron.

Twentieth Century Fox is a unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group.

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