There was some speculation at the beginning of the year Fabrice Luchini, Lily-Rose Depp, Adèle Haenel and Virginie Efira were looking to board the L’Empire ship – but finally the leading fleet will see Depp and Luchini be joined by Anamaria Vartolomei and Camille Cottin. Bruno Dumont (France wowed us here – read review) will populate his film with some non-actors and some cast members seen in Lil’ Quinquin. Screen Daily reports that the project is currently in pre-production and is due to start shooting this summer for delivery in 2023 — if all goes well this will be another Croisette hopeful same time next year. We haven’t been this excited for art-house type sci-fi since Claire Denis’ take in High Life. The production is coining this as a space and earth opera.
The story revolves around two opposing forces from the depths of outer space, who unleash an apocalyptic conflict on Northern France’s picturesque Opal Coast.
Dumont will be shooting in Northern France, Italy and Germany for what will be an unconventional backdrop to say the least. Jean Bréhat will produce. This is co-produced by Red Balloon, Ascent and Novak, with the support of Canal+, Cine+, Pictanovo, CNC CVS, CNC Mini Traité Franco Allemand, Eurimages, Mibact, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Filmfund Hamburg – Schleswig Holstein.
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
