Focus Features will distribute the fashion designer’s film around the world.

Focus outbid every other distributor at the Cannes Film Festival this past weekend for fashion designer Tom Ford‘s newest film, starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal, Variety reports.

This is by far the biggest deal to go down at Cannes this year, especially strange considering that Ford demanded that he have complete creative control over the project, even threatening to self-finance if need be. Ford won, I guess.

George Clooney and Grant Heslov were originally attached to produce through Smokehouse, but backed out last minute due to scheduling conflicts.

Nocturnal Animals is based on the 1993 novel “Tony and Susan” and is a two-part “story within a story”. Part 1 focuses on Susan receiving the book manuscript for “Nocturnal Animals” from her ex-husband, and part 2 is the manuscript itself, a story about a family vacation gone wrong.

This is Ford’s second directorial effort, six years after the release of the Colin Firth-starring A Single Man. No word on a release date, but keep it locked here for more info.

– Dylan “CineMasai” Green