Gaumont boards François Ozon’s feature adaptation of Albert Camus’ ‘The Stranger’ starring Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder and Swann Arlaud

EXCLUSIVE: French powerhouse studio Gaumont has taken on international sales rights to prolific French filmmaker François Ozon’s adaptation of Albert Camus’ literary masterpiece The Stranger.

Ozon reteams with his Summer Of ’85 breakout star Benjamin Voisin who plays main character Meursault, a Frenchman living in 1930s Algeria whose apathy and indifference to the surrounding world culminate in cold-blooded murder and a trial that explores both the crime and his character.

The Swimming Pool, Under The Sand and 8 Women director also reteams with Rebecca Marder, who starred in Ozon’s 2023 courtroom comedy The Crime Is Mine, and Pierre Lottin, who starred in his 2024 San Sebastian prize-winner When Fall Is Coming.

Anatomy Of A Fall’s Swann Arlaud and Holy Motors’ Denis Lavant round out the starry French cast. The French-language film is produced by Ozon’s production house FOZ and is currently shooting in Morocco with expected delivery in 2026.

Published in 1942, The Stranger is Camus’ first novel and is one of the most popular books in French literature. It has been translated into some 75 languages and explores themes including human cruelty, existentialism and post-colonialism.

‘‘The themes in the book could hardly be more topical: an emotionally absent hero detached from the world, confronting our mortality, the individual’s quest for meaning in an increasingly alienating world,” Ozon said of his desire to adapt Camus’ heady tome.

The directed added: “Adapting the story for the screen struck me as a great way to echo the existential and social questions raised by Camus while engaging contemporary audiences.”

The genre-hopping auteur said he plans to put his own twist on Camus’ celebrated story for what will be his 24^th feature.

“It will be necessary to tend stylistically towards a form of abstraction, strangeness and distancing, focusing on details, inserts, gazes and closeups of objects, so that we may better grasp Meursault’s perception of the world,” he said. “We will work with colour as if it were black and white, employing striking, expressionistic contrasts to lend a timeless, classic dimension to the film.”

Gaumont’s EVP of international distribution and co-productions Alexis Cassanet said of the project: “Gaumont, a cornerstone of cinema for over 130 years, is supporting this exceptional encounter between Albert Camus – an iconic figure of world literature – and François Ozon, one of the most prolific and internationally acclaimed French filmmakers of our time. This adaptation is bound to be a French major cinematic event in 2026.”

Gaumont will be launching the film at the upcoming Cannes Marche. It heads to the market with a robust slate that also includes Olivier Assayas’s The Wizard Of The Kremlin starring Paul Dano and Jude Law, about Vladimir Putin’s rise to power; High In the Clouds, an animated feature co-produced by Paul McCartney; and Yann Gozlan’s psychological thriller Dalloway which will play as a Midnight Screening.

• Nadav Lapid’s ‘Yes’ added to Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, boarded for sales