“Farewell, My Queen” director Benoit Jacquot is preparing “Mr. Casanova”, a film about the life of Giacomo Casanova, the famed Italian libertine, adventurer and author, who will be played by French star Vincent Lindon, Variety reports.
Lindon, who won a prize in Cannes for his role in Stephane Brize’s “The Measure of a Man” and served on Cannes’ jury last year, last worked with Jacquot on “Diary of a Chambermaid,” which competed in Berlin in 2015.
Kristina Larsen, who produced “Diary of a Chambermaid” and “Farewell, My Queen,” is producing “Mr. Casanova.”
Written by Jacquot, Chantal Thomas and Jerome Beaujour (“The Nun”), the film centers on Casanova’s life in exile in London at the age of 45 and will shed light on his unrequited passion for a 25 year-old woman, the first and only who ever resisted him, Larsen said.
Thomas, an expert on Casanova, wrote the novel “Casanova, Un voyage libertin” in the 1980s. Her book “Farewell, My Queen” served as a basis for Jacquot’s movie.
“Mr. Casanova” will start shooting in January 2018. Jacquot is about to start shooting “Eva,” a psychological thriller with Isabelle Huppert (“Elle”).
Larsen recently wrapped the shoot of “Rodin,” Jacques Doillon’s biopic of the legendary sculptor Auguste Rodin, starring Lindon. The film is expected to play in Cannes.
Larsen’s development slate includes “Le Siege du palais” by Argentine up-and-comer Pablo Aguero (“Salamander”), which chronicles a courtroom hostage situation sparked by a high-profile criminal, Georges Courtois, in 1985 in Nantes. The film is written by Aguero, Thomas Bidegain (“A Prophet,” “Deepan”) and Patricia Tourancheu (“L’affaire SK1”). Shooting is set to start in October.
Aguero won the jury prize in Cannes for his short “First Snow” and had his directorial debut “Salamander” play at Cannes’s Directors Fortnight.
