With all the attention on Cannes the last two weeks, the rest of the French film industry has been busy at work on other projects and 'Antoine' is here to fill us all in on the details:
- Mathieu Kassovitz' $75 million-$100 million English-lingo book adaptation "Babylon" is currently casting.
- Jan Kounen's $15 million book adaptation "99 francs" aims to begin shooting early in 2006
- The $24 million "La Vie en Rose," a biopic about Gallic chanteuse Edith Piaf, with Marion Cotillard in the lead, is scheduled to shoot in October.
- "Tiger Brigades," an ambitious $24.4 million Gallic actioner, is helmed by Jerome Cornuau. Clovis Cornillac and Diane Kruger star in pic set in 1912 about the exploits of France's first motorized police brigade. Cast also includes Stefano Accorsi, Olivier Gourmet, Jacques Gamblin, Thierry Lhermitte and Gerard Jugnot. Shooting begins mid July in the Paris region.
- Director Jean-Jacques Beineix ("Diva, "Betty Blue") has optioned the adaptation rights to the philosophical thriller "For a Long Time I Used To Go To Bed Early" by much-adapted French author Jean-Pierre Gattegno. Novel takes its title from the opening words of Marcel Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past," and a stolen manuscript of the work plays a key role in the action. Story line also involves the theft of famed Courbet painting "L'Origine du Monde" from Paris' Musee d'Orsay. Beineix has yet to pen the script, he says, "but I've started working on it in my mind."
Thanks again to 'Antoine'.
