21/02/2013 - Luc Besson’s company is partnering the project casting Gaspard Ulliel, Jérémie Renier and Léa Seydoux. Filming will begin in June

In an alliance as surprising as it is promising, Luc Besson’s company EuropaCorp, which specializes in films with wide international targets, has decided to partner the Saint-Laurent project directed by Bertrand Bonello (photo), one of the most talented French directors of "cinéma d'auteur" of his generation.

The film, whose screenplay co-signed by Bonello and Thomas Bidegain (A Prophet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Audiard
interview: Jacques Audiard and Tahar R…
film profile], Rust&Bone [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Audiard
interview: Jacques Audiard
film profile]) focuses on the 1965-1976 period in the life of the famous designer Yves Saint-Laurent, will feature in the cast Gaspard Ulliel (Hannibal Rising, The princess of Montpensier [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Belgian actor Jérémie Renier (favourite actor of the Dardenne brothers and starring last year in My Way [+see also:
trailer
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film review
trailer
interview: Kacey Mottet Klein
interview: Ursula Meier
film profile], soon in Blue is the Warmest Colour by Abdellatif Kechiche and Beauty and the Beast by Christophe Gans). Produced by Eric and Nicolas Altmayer for Mandarin Cinéma and co-developed with Films Distribution, the film, whose shooting will begin in June for ten weeks, will be co-produced by EuropaCorp, which will handle distribution in France and also international sales.

Bertrand Bonello’s four previous feature films were all presented on the Croisette. Revealed during the Critics’ Week in 2001 with The Pornographer, the filmmaker has participated twice in competition in Cannes (in 2003 with Tiresia and in 2011 with House of Tolerance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adèle Haenel
film profile]) and was selected for the Directors' Fortnight in 2008 with On War [+see also:
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trailer
film profile].

The announcement of EuropaCorp’s involvement is a new twist in the battle opposing Bonello’s project to that of Jalil Lespert (Yves Saint-Laurent with Pierre Niney, Guillaume Gallienne and Moritz Bleibtreu - WY Productions – sales SND – news).

(Translated from French)