Woody Allen Film That Replaced Bruce Willis Will Open the 2016 Cannes Film Festival | Playbill

News Woody Allen Film That Replaced Bruce Willis Will Open the 2016 Cannes Film Festival Starring Steve Carrell, Café Society will bow at Cannes in May.
Woody Allen Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Woody Allen's new film, Café Society , will make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as the prestigious opening attraction, according to Deadline.com. The 69th festival kicks off May 11.

As is traditional for Allen's movies, it will not be in competition for prizes.

Bruce Willis was originally scheduled to star, but last fall it was announced that conflicting schedules forced Willis to choose between two tantalizing career opportunities: his Broadway debut in Stephen King's Misery or his first starring role in an Allen film. He chose Broadway.

Comic actor Steve Carrell was tapped to replace Willis in the movie, which will also feature Kristen Stewart, Stephen Kunken, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Jeannie Berlin, Corey Stoll, Ken Stott, Anna Camp, Sari Lennick and Paul Schneider.

Shooting took place in New York and Los Angeles. The title is also the name of a Manhattan nightclub that was trendy in the 1930s, the time period of the film.

Willis appeared on Broadway in a 16-week engagement of Misery, based on Stephen King's horror best-seller. It began previews October 22, 2015, and opened November 15. With rehearsals, that left too narrow a window for Allen to complete shooting, which ran into the fall.

 
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