Famed filmmaker Olivier Assayas (“Carlos,” “Personal Shopper”) is reportedly writing a television series adaptation of his own 1996 feature “Irma Vep” with indie distributor A24 producing the new project.
The original film followed washed-up French director Rene Vidal (Jean-Pierre Léaud) who hopes to turn his career around with an update of silent-era masterpiece “Les Vampires” about a notorious ring of thieves, led by crafty female crook Irma Vep.
Vidal brings in Chinese star Maggie Cheung (played by Cheung herself) to play the latex catsuit wearing Vep, but unexpected roadblocks arise on the set and Cheung is pursued by obsessive lesbian crew member Zoe (Nathalie Richard). Soon her character’s criminal ways begin to rub off on her and the overall feature questions the worth of French cinema in the modern age and satirises the industry overall.
Assayas, who says he’s not really disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, says he has carte blanche on the new project which wil allow him to enter “the weirdest area”.
Assayas initially expected to only write and direct a couple episodes, but added time has led him to write and possibly direct the whole eight-part series in total which will include “a little bit more of the remake of the Feuillade serial [Les Vampires] and having fun with that.”
Source: Indiewire (via The Film Stage)
