John Gore's My Duchess Brings Wallis Simpson to Cannes — With Joan Collins Leading the Charge
TL;DR: Broadway mogul John Gore is making his film debut at the 2026 Cannes Market with My Duchess*, a Wallis Simpson biopic starring Dame Joan Collins and Isabella Rossellini. The project — the first from his newly launched John Gore Studios — is currently seeking distribution. Streaming availability has not yet been confirmed, but Netflix is being discussed as a long-term destination.*
"TV is certainly product and film is art. I've no doubt on that now."
That's John Gore — Broadway's most powerful touring impresario, the man behind Broadway Across America's fifty-plus theater circuit — speaking at the Cannes Market in May 2026, days after launching his first proper foray into film production. It's a confident line, maybe even a slightly provocative one, coming from someone who built his fortune on the live entertainment business. But Gore isn't hedging. He's made a royal biopic starring a 91-year-old screen legend and an Oscar-nominated Italian icon, and he's here on the Croisette to sell it.
What My Duchess Actually Is — And Why the Title Matters So Much
The film is My Duchess, a biopic centered on the final years of Wallis Simpson, the American socialite for whom King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne in 1936. Dame Joan Collins plays Simpson herself. Isabella Rossellini — fresh off her acclaimed turn in Conclave (2024) — portrays Suzanne Blum, the Duchess's controversial French lawyer who, according to Collins's own research, effectively controlled Simpson's life during her declining years.
The film is the debut production from John Gore Studios, which Gore launched after acquiring Hammer Films out of bankruptcy. It's a bold first entry: a prestige period piece with two genuine legends, shot in the UK, and premiering commercially at the 2026 Cannes Market.
The title itself went through several iterations — and this is a detail Gore was surprisingly passionate about. The Bitter End was rejected immediately. The Duchess & I and The Duchess & Me were considered and discarded. Gore even floated The Last Duchess of Windsor internally (accurate, he notes, since the Windsor title has been dormant since the Duchess's death in 1986 — fourteen years after the Duke died in 1972), but worried it would invite legal complications. He settled on My Duchess because he wanted the word "Duchess" to do work — to make audiences think of Sarah Ferguson, of Meghan Markle, of the whole fraught modern history of women and royal titles. That's not accidental branding. That's a producer who understands how cultural memory operates.
Key details confirmed so far:
- Stars: Dame Joan Collins (Wallis Simpson), Isabella Rossellini (Suzanne Blum), Charles Dance (Lord Mountbatten)
- Studio: John Gore Studios
- Status: In distribution talks as of May 2026 Cannes Market
- Runtime: Not yet confirmed
- Streaming home: Unconfirmed; Netflix mentioned as a future possibility
Why Casting Charles Dance Was a Fight Worth Having
One of the more revealing behind-the-scenes details Deadline reported from Cannes concerns Charles Dance's casting as Lord Mountbatten. Gore apparently faced real resistance from collaborators who felt Dance was too closely associated with the role from The Crown, where he appeared in five episodes as Mountbatten. Gore overruled them.
His reasoning is hard to argue with. Dance had just a day and a half of filming on My Duchess — a cameo-level appearance — but Gore wanted an actor who could register instantly, without setup, without explanation. "You just go, 'It's Lord Mountbatten,'" Gore said. He also made an observation that's genuinely clever: he predicted that when My Duchess eventually surfaces on Netflix in twenty years' time, viewers will assume the Dance casting was a deliberate creative decision linking it to The Crown universe. "But it really was that he was the best guy to land it," Gore said.
That's the thing about casting instincts — they don't always make sense to committees, but they tend to make sense on screen.
Movie OTT will be tracking distribution announcements for My Duchess as they come through, including any confirmed streaming windows for UK, US, and Indian audiences.
The Broadway-to-Hollywood Transition — And What Gore Actually Thinks About It
Gore's leap from stage to screen isn't unique in the industry, but his perspective on the difference between the two mediums is worth sitting with. According to his comments at Cannes, he finds film's permanence genuinely uncomfortable — the "picture lock" conversation being something he resists viscerally. In theater, nothing is ever truly finished. Cameron Mackintosh has reportedly revised Les Misérables through approximately twenty versions over its lifetime. Film doesn't allow that.
What's striking is how Gore frames the distinction not as a hierarchy but as a different relationship with uncertainty. Film, he argues, is sculpture — you chip away until something emerges, and the editing process is as creatively rich as the shoot itself. TV, by contrast, he sees as structurally formulaic, even when it's excellent. Strong words for someone whose film may well end up on a streaming platform.
For readers curious about how stage-to-screen adaptations tend to work — and why they so often struggle or surprise — the LA Times has a useful breakdown of what separates successful stage adaptations from failed ones, covering everything from tonal translation to casting philosophy. Gore's instincts here seem to align with the better outcomes that piece describes.
What John Gore Said About Joan Collins — And Why He Pushed Ahead
"I just saw the audience go crazy over her. She's not forgotten and she seems as beloved, if not more so."
Gore made that observation after watching Collins present at the 2024 Emmy Awards alongside Taraji P. Henson — the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series category. Collins was 90 at the time. The audience response, Gore told Deadline, confirmed something he'd been circling: that there was an appetite for seeing Collins in something genuinely demanding, something that asked her to be unglamorous. The film's final scenes, he confirmed, were shot without makeup — and Collins committed fully, without, in Gore's words, "going, 'I need to be pretty.'"
The insurance situation — which anyone producing with a 91-year-old star has to address — was also navigated. Gore said he was prepared to proceed without a completion bond if necessary, but Collins "checked out amazingly." Honest, practical, and a little funny. That's a producer who's done the work.
How My Duchess Lands for Indian Audiences — And Where to Watch
For Indian viewers, My Duchess isn't available on any streaming platform yet — distribution is still being negotiated as of the Cannes Market in May 2026. However, given Gore's comments about Netflix as a long-term home, and given Isabella Rossellini's recent profile boost from Conclave (which streamed on various platforms internationally), a Netflix India landing seems plausible when the film eventually finds a home.
Joan Collins has a genuine fanbase in India, particularly among audiences who grew up with Dynasty reruns and her various television appearances from the 1980s and 1990s. Charles Dance is also well-known to Indian streaming audiences through Game of Thrones (as Tywin Lannister) and his role in The Crown. That crossover familiarity with The Crown specifically — a show with strong viewership in India on Netflix — could help My Duchess find its audience here.
Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker will be updated as soon as Indian streaming rights are confirmed. For now, the film doesn't have a confirmed OTT home in any territory.
Comparable titles that have found Indian audiences on Netflix include Spencer (2021, Pablo Larraín's Diana biopic with Kristen Stewart) and The Crown itself — both proving that British royal drama travels well across markets. My Duchess sits comfortably in that company, at least in concept.
John Gore Studios — The Hammer Films Connection and What Else Is in the Pipeline
John Gore is best known outside Broadway circles as the founder of Broadway Across America, which controls more than fifty theater venues across the United States and Canada. His move into film is relatively recent, and My Duchess is the first production out of John Gore Studios.
The studio's origin story involves one notable acquisition: Gore bought Hammer Films out of bankruptcy. Yes — that Hammer Films. The legendary British horror studio behind decades of Gothic horror, now part of Gore's portfolio. What he does with that legacy remains to be seen, but it gives John Gore Studios an immediate heritage and a library to work with.
Other projects in development or production at John Gore Studios include:
- Onward and Sideways — directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), starring Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans
- The Return of Stanley Atwell — produced by Liza Marshall, starring Nicholas Galitzine
- A Luke Hemsworth horror project (details limited)
It's a varied slate — prestige drama, comedy, horror. Not a studio that's locked into one lane. For an overview of John Gore Studios' emerging slate, Movie OTT will be covering each title as release windows are confirmed.
What Comes Next for My Duchess — Distribution, Release, and the Netflix Question
Gore met with market buyers at Cannes on May 12, 2026, hosting a luncheon with Collins and Rossellini. Collins also walked the red carpet at the Cannes opening ceremony that evening — which, given she's 91 and apparently in dancing lessons (per separate Deadline reporting), is its own kind of statement.
Distribution deals, if struck at Cannes, would likely determine the film's theatrical and streaming path. Gore's aside — that My Duchess might "creep up on Netflix in 20 years' time" — reads partly as a joke, partly as a genuine prediction about how prestige period films find their second life on streaming platforms. Hard to say if a theatrical run is planned first, or whether this goes straight to a streamer.
For the latest confirmed streaming availability across UK, US, India, and Spain, Movie OTT has the most current picture as deals are announced.
My Duchess. Worth watching for. Just don't expect picture lock anytime soon — if Gore has his way.
