Neon Closing In On Rights To Natalia Portman Cannes Animation ‘Arco’

EXCLUSIVE: Neon is closing up a deal for rights to Natalie Portman-voiced animation Arco, which recently launched at the Cannes Film Festival.

French director Ugo Bienvenu’s animated feature, which has been described as “France’s answer to Studio Ghibli”, is about a boy who uses rainbows to travel through time and his adventures as he gets stuck in the wrong era.

Oscar winner Portman is also producing with Sophie Mas under their joint Paris and New York banner MountainA with Félix de Givry at Paris-based Remembers.

It’s another win for Neon, which has been voracious once again at Cannes, also acquiring The Secret Agent, It Was Just An Accident and Sirat, in addition to Sentimental Value, which they already had.

Taking its cue from the fantasy premise that rainbows are time machines, the movie revolves around 10 year old rainbow-child Arco, who lives in the distant future, 2932. His maiden journey in his multi-colored suit does not go to plan. He loses control and veers off course to land in a near future, 2075, where Iris, a girl the same age as Arco, witnesses his fall and then makes it her mission to get him home.

Arco is the first feature for Bienvenu after short films Maman and L’entretien and comic books. His multi-awarded best seller System Preference has been translated in over 10 languages and was released by Penguin in the US, England, and Canada at the end of 2023.

Bienvenu, who studied and now teaches at France’s famed Gobelins animation school in Paris, has built his production team from talent he trained and nurtured there.

Portman is joining the English-language voice cast for the film alongside Louis Garrel.

The French language voice cast will feature Alma Jodorowsky (Blue Is The Warmest Colour), Swann Arlaud (Anatomy of a Fall), Vincent Macaigne (C’est La Vie, Suspended Time) and Louis Garrel (Little Women, The Dreamers) and rapper Oxmo Puccino.

Arco marks the first feature animation for Portman and Mas’ MountainA since its launch in 2020. The company made its festival debut last Cannes with Todd Haynes’ May December.

Goodfellas and CAA Media Finance are repping rights.