Naomi Watts and Will Sharpe have rounded out the cast of Audrey Diwan’s English-language feature Emmanuelle that has just wrapped production in Paris. Pathé will release the film in France and France Télévisions has pre-bought the film for local TV broadcast.
Emmanuelle is Diwan’s first English-language feature from Venice Golden Lion-winning Happening director Diwan also features Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong in supporting roles. Shooting started in October and took place in Hong Kong and Paris.
Noémie Merlant plays the titular role in the erotic drama based on a script co-written by Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski, renowned for Other People’s Children and An Easy Girl and adapted from Emmanuelle Arsan’s French novel about a sexually adventurous heroine and her explicit erotic fantasies. Diwan is keeping plot details for her version of the story minimal, but the film is inspired by the character and world created by Arsan. The story was previously adapted into a 1974 film directed by Just Jaeckin.
Diwan reteamed with Happening producers Rectangle Productions who produce alongside Chantelouve and Goodfellas. The Veterans is handling international sales with CAA Media Finance handling the US. The Veterans’ Vincent Maraval confirmed to Screen no US deal has yet been done.
Originally set to star Léa Seydoux, Merlant came on in early 2024. The actress, known for her breakout role in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, has been ubiquitous on big screens in recent months from Todd Field’s 2022 Tár to Louis Garrel’s César-winning The Innocent and the just-released A Difficult Year. Two-time Oscar-nominated Watts has recently been seen in Prime Video’s Goodnight Mommy and headlined Ryan Murphy’s Netflix thriller The Watcher.
Sharpe, who plays the male lead in the film, is best known for his award-winning breakout role in The White Lotus season 2.
Rectangle Productions is also behind Valerie Donzelli’s 2023 Cannes drama Just the Two of Us and upcoming May 2024 release The Fantastic Three. GAGA Corporation will distribute Emmanuelle in Japan, Wild Bunch has German rights, Beta Fiction will release in Spain, Cinemundo in Portugal, Ascot-Elite in Switzerland, Nashe Kino in CIS, and Vertical in Eastern Europe.
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