{"id":647779,"date":"2026-05-17T02:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/647779\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T02:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:00:09","slug":"scarlett-johansson-declines-call-during-paper-tiger-cannes-ovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/647779\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarlett Johansson Declines Call During ‘Paper Tiger’ Cannes Ovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDirector James Gray tried to call Scarlett Johansson<\/a> on his cellphone so she could bask in the 7-minute standing ovation for \u201cPaper Tiger<\/a>\u201d at the film\u2019s Cannes premiere on Saturday night. But the star, who couldn\u2019t be on hand in the South of France because she is busy filming \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d reboot, didn\u2019t pick up his FaceTime.<\/p>\n

\n\tGray shook his head in mock frustration and gestured at his phone as the call went to Johansson\u2019s voicemail. She may not have made it to the big night, but her co-stars Miles Teller and Adam Driver<\/a>, who play brothers who run afoul of the Russian mob in the tragic crime thriller, flanked a boisterous Gray. The director served as ringmaster after the credits rolled, gesturing to each of his leading men so they could get their own moment in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCinema needs you guys more than ever,\u201d Gray earnestly told the crowd of studio executives, artists, and film fanatics. \u201cReally, this is a very important time, and Cannes is so important for that reason, and you are so important for that reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year\u2019s Cannes lacks any studio blockbusters, but \u201cPaper Tiger\u201d did manage to deliver some A-list sizzle to a festival lacking Hollywood talent. Teller and Driver walked the red carpet, signing autographs and posing for selfies with screaming fans. <\/p>\n

\n\tGray is a Cannes mainstay, with \u201cPaper Tiger\u201d being his sixth film to premiere on the Croisette following \u201cArmageddon Time,\u201d \u201cThe Immigrant,\u201d \u201cTwo Lovers,\u201d \u201cWe Own the Night\u201d and \u201cThe Yards.\u201d He was also part of the competition jury in 2019, when Isabelle Huppert served as president.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s not my first time here,\u201d Gray said, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s actually number six. I will say that there\u2019s much more gray now in the beard, not just the name, but the beard. And I have learned finally to appreciate it\u2026it always moves me greatly to see you here in this theater where I have very many great memories and I love you all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPaper Tiger\u201d is Gray\u2019s first film since 2022\u2019s \u201cArmageddon Time.\u201d Neon, which has won the Palme d\u2019Or for the past six years running, will release the film domestically. Set in 1986, the story follows two brothers, Irwin and Gary Pearl, whose get-rich scheme to help clean up the Gowanus Canal ends in disaster after Irwin (Teller), a nebbish family man, angers Russian mobsters by unwittingly witnessing their criminal activity. It falls to Gary (Driver), a former cop, to bail him out, but his efforts to make a deal only drag them deeper into a world of violence.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the initial Cannes lineup was announced in early April, artistic director Thierry Fremaux admitted he was still courting \u201cPaper Tiger\u201d for competition. \u201cIt\u2019s the James Gray who has never stopped being himself,\u201d Fr\u00e9maux told Variety, noting the project was \u201ccomplicated to put together\u201d and that there were \u201cstill some contractual issues to resolve.\u201d\u00a0By the end of April, the film was officially added to the competition.<\/p>\n

\n\tVariety\u2018s Owen Gleiberman gave \u201cPaper Tiger\u201d a mixed review. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018Paper Tiger\u2019 adds up on paper, and I suspect that Gray, a longtime critics\u2019 darling, will get some of his best reviews for it,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe movie is engineered to be seen as \u2018powerful.\u2019 Right now, though, I\u2019d say that he\u2019s an ace director who\u2019s still being undercut by the holes in his screenplays.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director James Gray tried to call Scarlett Johansson on his cellphone so she could bask in the 7-minute…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[35657,32176,236,88,279316,4114],"class_list":["post-647779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-adam-driver","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-paper-tiger","tag-scarlett-johansson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}