Despite Variety confirming yesterday that a new David Lynch film would world premiere at Cannes (not to mention Kaleem Aftab doubling down on the rumor) Lynch went on a denial spree today, telling the media he had no idea what the hell people were talking about.
Lynch was promoting the digital restoration of “Inland Empire” when he got bombarded with Cannes-related questions. It was actually amusing watching Lynch go through denial after denial this afternoon.
The strangest answer he gave was when he told Entertainment Weekly that the “rumor” was unfounded. “It is not happening,” he explained. “I don’t have a project. I have nothing at Cannes. It’s unfortunate. It got built up that people thought, Oh, that’d be nice. But there is something new, but it’s not mine. I don’t know whose it is. They say there’s something new at Cannes, and they don’t say whose it is, and some people thought it was my film, but it’s not. So we’ll wait and see and see whose it is.”
Whether he’s telling the truth or not (and we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here), that must undoubtedly be the most Lynchian response to such a simple question.
Of course, Lynch has purposefully lied and deflected in the past. When rumors were swirling that “Twin Peaks: The Return” had been shot, Lynch flat out denied anything new was coming. He kept denying it until the TV series was finally announced a few months later. So, there is hope.