The US actor will play a writer who causes the accidental death of a child.

James Franco has signed to star in Wim Wenders’ new film, Every Thing Will Be Fine.

Production will begin on location in Montreal from August 15 and continue in January 2014. The screenplay is by Norwegian writer Bjørn-Olaf Johannessen. The film will be shot in 3D.

Gian-Piero Ringel will produce the film through his and Wenders’ Neue Road Movies banner.

HanWay Films will handle international sales and introduce the film to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival.

Franco will play Tomas, a writer, who accidentally causes the death of a child. The story follows Tomas through the next twelve years, searching for the footprints of the accident on his life, as well as on the life of Kate, the child’s mother.

Wenders, whose last film Pina was Oscar nominated and grossed more than $30m worldwide, said: “Every Thing Will Be Fine is a family drama, unravelling over the course of 12 years.

“A story of guilt and forgiveness, and of accepting things you cannot change anymore. We wrote it with 3D in mind, and I’m convinced that the medium lends itself really well to an intimate story.”

Franco recently starred in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers and Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful. He is currently filming True Story opposite Jonah Gill for 20th Century Fox.

Franco is represented by Kami Putnam-Heist at CAA and Miles D Levy at James/Levy Management.

HanWay Films’ current slate includes Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes Competition entry Only Lovers Left Alive; James Toback’s Seduced and Abandoned; Mark Cousins’ The Story of Children and Film; and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor 3D

Also on the Cannes line-up are Richard Shepard’s Dom Hemingway starring Jude Law; A Long Way Down starring Pierce Brosnan; Tracks starring Mia Wasikowska; God Help The Girl starring Emily Browning from director Stuart Murdoch and producer Barry Mendel; Reykjavik starring Michael Douglas and Christoph Waltz; Carol starring Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska; Oscar nominated Kon-Tiki; Almost Christmas starring Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd; and Errol Morris’ new documentary The Unknown Known.

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