CANNES -- French sales and distribution company StudioCanal is backing the upcoming project from David Lynch titled "Inland Empire," sources in Cannes confirmed Wednesday.

StudioCanal, a division of Vivendi Universal's French pay TV company Canal Plus, declined to talk about the project, which it has been trying to keep top secret. Even posters for the film on the Croisette and around the Cannes market have been covered until a grand unveiling scheduled for Thursday.

StudioCanal is expected to handle world sales on the title, with its French distribution company Mars Films handling theatrical in France. It is unclear whether any cast is attached to "Inland Empire." Buyers already looking at the project say details remain hazy, in typical Lynch fashion. "It's about a film within a film. There's nothing to see, there's no script," one top international buyer said.

"But when have you ever seen a David Lynch script in advance?" said another, implying that this did not affect the project's attractiveness.

StudioCanal financed Lynch's movies "The Straight Story" and "Mulholland Drive," both of which unspooled In Competition at Cannes, with Lynch picking up the best director prize for the latter.