Daisy Ridley Gets into Spycraft in 'Cleaner'

While most have heard of the Cannes Film Festival, one of the oldest international competitions, far fewer are aware of the Cannes Market, which happens simultaneously with the festival. The market is where executive producers with money to spend go to find their next films. Production studios with empty release slots to fill show up and sample what's available — aka indies made outside the studio system looking for buyers — and what could be available. The latter is usually the bulk of what you find at Cannes Market: semi-finished scripts, sometimes packaged with actors attached, sometimes with a filming berth reserved, who need to close funding gaps to get started.

Cannes Market is famous among a certain Hollywood set for drawing out some of the most outlandish packages put together by producers, with pie-in-the-sky ideas from producers who really ought to know better or pitched by the publicists for actors in the twilight of their careers, hoping to score one last blockbuster. It sometimes makes divining which will come to fruition and which are just hyperbole a complex effort. However, the 2023 Cannes Market was good to the "Daisy Ridley Hot Package," which offered her up to star in a James Bond-esque tale under the working title The Cleaner — the title was eventually reduced to Cleaner — that will hit theaters in February 2025.

The project initially only had Ridley attached, but Clive Owen (Monsieur Spade) was added to sweeten the deal, which was enough. Filming began in September 2023, and by mid-2024, Sky Original Films was on board. However, the film did not land an American distributor until December 2024. Now, with weeks to go before the February release date set by Sky, there's a trailer.