So remember about a year ago when Abel Ferrara was talking up his next movie, one that would be inspired by/based on disgraced French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn? While producers were cagier, Ferrara suggested a shoot last summer with Gerard Depardieu in the lead role, with Isabelle Adjani to co-star. Well, that didn’t happen and now it looks like he’s going to have to find a new leading lady.
French media are reporting that Adjani has exited the project. The actress was apparently going to play Anne Sinclair, Strauss-Kahn’s wife, but left the movie given the new media scrutiny Strauss-Kahn is under thanks to the publication of a tell-all book by journalist Marcela Iacub, about her seven-month affair with him. The book, titled “Beauty And Beast,” is a semi-fictional account of their very real relationship, and it has made headlines in Europe for its salacious content. Adjani believes it will be difficult to press on and make a balanced movie about Strauss-Kahn in light of this new book.
So, who is Ferrara looking at to replace her? Well, apparently Juliette Binoche, Jodie Foster, Kristin Scott Thomas and Beatrice Dalle are being “discussed” but it doesn’t seem to be more than wishlist stuff at this point. Binoche seems unlikely given the unkind words Depardieu has lobbed at her in the press, not to mention she’s got “Godzilla” on deck. As for the others… maybe? It will depend on who is available, with the movie planning to shoot this month and in April, and also on who is eager to walk into the minefield of the subject matter of the film, which will indeed dramatize Strauss-Kahn’s shenanigans at the New York City Sofitel and the fallout from that.
Will we still be talking about this movie another year from now? Or can Ferrara get it made? [Le Figaro]
