The Fast & The Furious and 8 Other Bizarre Times That Hollywood Came to Cannes

When we think about Cannes, we tend to picture something like the Leo meme from The Great Gatsby—a dignified place full of dazzling stars, sparkling beverages, red carpet galas, and impossibly chic locations.

But among all that, it’s also a place where less glamorous movies are launched and a lot of cold, hard business gets done.

For a taste of this, you can look to the journalists who report on the weirdest posters in the festival's market—a Gerard Depardieu pig flick here, a football-themed zombie movie there—but I’ve personally always had a soft spot for the phenomenon of the Cannes promotional stunt.

A tasteful version of this took place in the festival’s Grand Theatre Lumiere on Tuesday night for the 25th-anniversary screening of The Fast and the Furious—a joyful and emotional event for which Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster and Paul Walker’s daughter Meadow were in attendance. 

In the list below, I’ve looked back on eight of the weirdest and most notorious times that Hollywood blockbusters descended on the French Festival, whether they were invited to be screened or not. Read on to learn a bit more about each one and use the guide to find out where to stream them on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.

The Expendables Arrive in a Tank (2014)

My first taste of Cannes as an accredited journalist came in 2014, the same year that Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep—a dense,196-minute study of middle-aged male anxieties—won the Palme d’Or and the cats of Expendables 3 rolled down the Croisette in a tank. There are truly two wolves inside us all. 

Looking back, that unforgettable image of Jason Statham, Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger cruising past the Ritz Carlton on top of an armoured vehicle was probably the perfect introduction to Cannes—a festival as known for celebrating the upper heights of the art form as it is for being a hotbed for ruthless, gun-toting capitalism—that you could ask for. 

A French Air Force Flyover for Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

And while we’re on the topic of armoured vehicles, we might as well get to the most recent promotional stunt to grace the red carpet—or at least pass by just overhead.

In 2022, as moviehouses around the world started to tentatively open their doors, the festival returned from a two year COVID hiatus and, with the help of the French government and Paramount Studios, decided to mark the occasion by not only premiering the excellent Top Gun: Maverick, but to announce its arrival with a flyover by eight French military jets that decorated the sky with streams of blue, white and red—or was it red, white and blue—smoke.

Having also been present for this one, I can confirm that some attending members of the Ukrainian film board were none too pleased with such a bombastic show of militarism mere months after Russia had invaded their country—as they had every right to be. The movie was, however, a banger, and no less than Steven Spielberg said that it saved cinema, so credit where credit is due. 

Borat on the Beach (2006) and The Dictator Dictates (2012)

It probably won’t come as a surprise to hear that Sascha Baron Cohen twice brought his signature brand of stunt comedy to Cannes, most recently when he arrived in full costume and full character to promote the release of The Dictator in 2012—alongside a couple of models armed with faux AK47s and a not entirely cooperative camel.

That aside, the most famous SBC Cannes moment came in 2006 when he took to the town’s glistening beach to promote Borat, again in full character and sporting his iconic lime green mankini. Unfortunately, it didn’t manage to start a trend in Riviera beachwear.

Jerry Seinfeld Makes a Beeline (2007)

A stunt that I really wish I had been present for came in 2007, when Jerry Seinfeld dressed up in a rather capacious bee costume and slowly descended by zipline from the roof of the Ritz Carlton all the way down to a stage across the road—purely to create a little (ahem) buzz for Bee Movie, which was set for release later in the year. 

“You know one thing I hate,” the comedian quipped before taking flight, “is any kind of movie promotion that smacks of desperation in any way.” He then went on to make a pretty good Scorsese joke. What a pro.

Emoji Parasailing (2017)

Ten years after Seinfeld’s beautifully goofy stunt, T.J. Miller went for something similar to promote The Emoji Movie by flying along the Mediterranean coast under a remarkably yellow, and remarkably garish, smiley-print parasail.

Upon landing, the Deadpool star danced around with someone in a Squidward coloured ice cream suit and various other people dressed as characters from the movie. This happened in the same year that the festival celebrated its 70th edition, and I can think of no better way to mark such a significant moment in its history. Philippe Erlanger and Jean Zay likely raised a glass of pastis in the afterlife.

Jack Black Panda-monium (2008)

One of the few movies on this list that actually did screen at the festival was the mega-popular Jack Black animated caper Kung Fu Panda, which premiered out of competition at the festival in 2008 and was greeted with warm reviews and a standing ovation.

For this one, Black arrived at a dock near the festival’s Palais by speedboat, where he was greeted by two lines of dancers in gigantic panda costumes. He then, in typical Jack Black fashion, began to dance, goof around and strut his stuff for the cameras. No complaints here.

A Vulture Walks the Carpet (2006)

Along with all that panda-monium, Dreamworks animation has actually had a long and storied relationship with the festival—they even famously managed to get Shrek 2 into the main competition in 2004, where it competed for the Palme d’Or alongside a host of other masterpieces from that era, including Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady. But unfortunately, Quentin Tarantino’s jury sent it home with no prizes.

In 2006, DreamWorks’ big movie was Over the Hedge. Even though the studio didn’t bring quite the same energy as Black had mustered two years later, they did convince the festival authorities to let them bring a live vulture down the red carpet, where it even stopped to pose for some paparazzi photos, which likely resulted in some snappy jokes about the less palatable tendencies of that particular profession.