Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo (L’Ecume des Jours) to start shooting April 10 for StudioCanal

French director Michel Gondry will start shooting his adaptation of Boris Vian’s fantastical romance L’Ecume des Jours (Mood Indigo) next week, StudioCanal have confirmed.

Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou are set to star as wealthy newlyweds Colin and Chloe, whose charmed life is destroyed after Chloe falls ill with a water lily in the lung during their honeymoon, a rare condition that can only be treated by surrounding her with flowers.

Gondry, who has just come off the set of The We and the I, will also appear on screen as Mangemarche, the clownish doctor who attempts to treat Chloe for her ailment.

The rest of the supporting cast has been confirmed as Gad Emaleh as Colin’s best friend, the feckless Chick, opposite Aissa Maiga, as his long-suffering girlfriend Alise.  

Untouchable star Omar Sy will play Colin’s faithful man-servant Nicolas. He replaces Jamel Debbouze, who was originally announced for the role. Canadian actress Charlotte Lebon will play Isis, a wealthy heiress who falls for Nicolas.

Léa Seydoux, who was originally due to feature in the cast, has since dropped out due to other commitments.

Other cast members include Alain Chabat, in the role of Jules Gouffe, a reincarnation of a legendary French chef; Philippe Torreton, as Jean Sol Partre, a character sending up the late real-life intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre; and Belgian actress Natacha Regnier, who will put in an appearance as the “the remedy seller”.

StudioCanal, which is co-producing and handling international sales on Mood Indigo, being lead produced by Luc Bossi’s Paris-based Brio Films, confirmed the film would start shooting in the Paris region from April 10, with a brief stint in Belgium.

Gondry’s seventh feature-length picture, Mood Indigo is only his second French-language film after the 2006 The Science of Dreams (La Science des reves), starring Gael Garcia Bernal opposite Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Tautou and Duris, who have a long history of working together on Cédric Klapisch’s L’Auberge Espagnol and Russian Dolls, are also set to shoot their sequel Chinese Puzzle (Casse-tete Chinois) later this year.