European film producers Pan Europeenne are making quite a name for themselves at Cannes, announcing a slew of projects, the most prominent of them a $37 million-budgeted Jacques Cousteau film to be shot in 3D. The film is set to be a standard biopic, but they also claim it will be an “adventure film featuring many underwater scenes.” So we can expect Cousteau to be joined by a cast of vengeful sharks, scheming jellyfish and whipsmart, wisecracking dolphins?
The project is being adapted from the book “Capitaine de la Calypso,” written by fellow sea explorer Albert Falco, with Jerome Salles directing. This will be an international co-production, so we’re guessing a healthy amount of the film will be in English — leaving the role of lead jellyfish wide open for Jack Black.
Pan Europeenne is also working on a number of other projects at Cannes, including a badass-sounding movie from actor-director Tomer Sisley called “The Champion.” Based on a true story, the film follows Tunisian Jew Victor Young Perez, a boxing champion sent to a concentration camp during the Holocaust, who then went on to box his German commandants. Whoa. Shooting starts in March 2011, though we have to say, we want that one now.
