Nicolas Winding Refn’s Amazon series sets a path… | Little White Lies

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Nico­las Wind­ing Refn’s Ama­zon series sets a path for Cannes

15 Apr 2019

Words by Charles Bramesco

A man operating a video camera on a film or TV set.
A man operating a video camera on a film or TV set.
Too Old to Die Young will pre­mière in an Out of Com­pe­ti­tion slot next month.

Tak­ing the Best Direc­tor prize at Cannes pret­ty much guar­an­tees a life­time pass at the fes­ti­val for a film­mak­er. Nico­las Wind­ing Refn has con­sis­tent­ly found a home on the Croisette fol­low­ing his big win in 2011 for Dri­ve, scor­ing key Com­pe­ti­tion slots for his last two fea­tures, and now he’s book­ing plane tick­ets once again.

While the offi­cial selec­tion won’t be announced until Thurs­day morn­ing, Dead­line con­firmed today that Refn’s upcom­ing minis­eries Too Old to Die Young will indeed bow at Cannes next month before appear­ing on Ama­zon in June.

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Refn will return to the Los Ange­les of The Neon Demon with his newest project, a crime epic trawl­ing through the city’s seedy Russ­ian, Japan­ese, and Mex­i­can under­bel­lies. Miles Teller and Bil­ly Bald­win lead us on this tour through a law­less hell, lead­ing a cast that also includes Jena Mal­one, John Hawkes, and Cal­lie Hernandez.

Cin­e­ma purists may take the appear­ance of a TV series – even one from a big-name auteur – on the Cannes dock­et as a sign of the apoc­a­lypse, but let’s not for­get that Twin Peaks: The Return opened at the fes­ti­val two short years ago. Let’s also keep in mind that each ​“episode” of this ​“series” will be nine­ty min­utes long, call­ing both clas­si­fi­ca­tions into question.

Audi­ences at Cannes may won­der at what point TV turns into movies while drink­ing in what looks from the trail­er to be anoth­er typ­i­cal­ly Refn-esque joint, with all the splotch­es of lurid col­or and sev­ered body parts that implies.

Too Old to Die Young comes to Ama­zon on 14 June.

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