Scarlett Johansson joins Driver and Teller as Paper Tiger opens New York Film Festival
Scarlett Johansson finally took her place beside Adam Driver and Miles Teller for the New York premiere of "Paper Tiger" on Sept. 25.
The screening at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall opened the 64th New York Film Festival, with the three stars walking the red carpet alongside director James Gray before sitting for a post-screening Q&A, Variety reported on Sept. 26.
Johansson told the crowd she was running on empty. "I'm hallucinating," she said on stage, explaining she had just stepped off a long international flight from the set of another film she is shooting.
It was a first for her with this project. "Paper Tiger" had its world premiere in May at the Cannes Film Festival, but Johansson missed it because she was filming "The Exorcist: Martyrs."
New York was the catch-up. The Alice Tully Hall gala was the film's North American premiere, meaning its first screening in the United States and Canada, after Cannes. The Opening Night slot is the festival's launch title, the film chosen to start the programme.
"Paper Tiger" is a crime thriller set in 1986 in Queens, New York, Deadline reported. It follows brothers Irwin and Gary Pearl, whose plan to get rich from cleaning up the Gowanus Canal puts them in the path of the Russian mafia.
Johansson plays Linda, the wife of Teller's character. Driver plays the other brother at the centre of the scheme.
The 64th edition runs through Oct. 12, according to Film at Lincoln Center. The line-up still has several world premieres to come, meaning films never shown publicly before.
They include "Artificial," Luca Guadagnino's film about OpenAI founder Sam Altman, Ava DuVernay's documentary "14th," Tony Gilroy's music drama "Behemoth!" starring Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde and Will Arnett, and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju sequel "Godzilla Minus Zero."
What makes this stand out for festival watchers is the route "Paper Tiger" has taken. A Cannes launch in May, a New York opening in September, then a run of fresh titles behind it. That is the usual festival chain at work, with each stop bringing a different cast, audience and colour to the rollout.
