UK sales outfit HanWay Films has taken worldwide rights to Catherine Hardwicke’s A French Pursuit, a re-imagining of France’s box office hit Antoinette Dans Les Cévennes, and starring Toni Colette.
The comedy is due to start shooting late spring, and marks the third creative alliance between Collette, Hardwicke and producer Christopher Simon. Simon will produce via New Sparta Productions alongside Collette with her outfit Vocab Films.
The trio previously worked together on Miss You Already and most recently on Mafia Mamma, while Hardwicke’s further directorial credits include Twilight and Thirteen.
The film is about a British art teacher who falls head over heels with a fellow rebel spirit, only to have plans of a romantic getaway dashed when he must join his family on a donkey trek in the Cévennes. She decides to follow them, while managing the grief of the loss of her father and a strained relationship with her mother.
The English-language screenplay has been adapted and written by Olivia Hetreed, whose credits include Mrs Harris Goes To Paris and A Girl With The Pearl Earring. “Olivia has brilliantly captured the magic of the French hit film, while bringing in new original layers to the story and character of Zoe, one she was able to collaborate closely with Toni and Catherine to develop,” said HanWay Films CEO Gabrielle Stewart.
A French Pursuit was developed by CCM, the London-based development company jointly run and owned by distributors Curzon, Cineart and Madman. CCM acquired the remake rights from Chapka Films and La Filmerie, the production companies behind the original film Antoinette Dans Les Cévennes.
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