Netflix Lands ‘May December’ Starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman for $11 Million

After recently debuting at the Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, earlier today Netflix acquired North American rights to the Todd Haynes’ romantic drama May December. Netflix emerged with the film rights after a bidding war was reported with other distributors, including Neon, involved, but as the price rose from $6 to 11 million, Netflix’s pocketbook proved deep enough.

Featuring Julianne Moore and Charles Melton as the two halves of a scandalous 20-year age-gap relationship, their romance is tested when an actress (Portman) travels to study Moore’s character who she is set to play in a film. The streamer is aiming to position the film as an Oscar contender in the fall.

The script is written by Samy Burch based on a story she wrote with Alex Mechanik. Jessica Elbaum and Will Ferrell of Gloria Sanchez Productions and Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler of Killer Films are producers alongside Portman and Sophie Mas of MountainA.

Haynes (Far From Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, Carol) is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter set to possibly return to the awards conversation with Netflix now backing the film’s distribution. 

Source: Variety