Studiocanal is to finance, distribute and co-produce a French remake of hit Canadian comedy Starbuck.

The film, directed by Isabelle Doval, will star Jose Garcia as a blundering fortysomething who discovers he has spawned 533 children after a prolific spell as a sperm donor 20 years before. Not only that but 142 of those offspring are looking to identify their father, known only to them as “Starbuck”.

Filming will begin on March 4 for release on Oct 30, 2013.

It is based on a Quebecois comedy directed and co-written by Ken Scott, which proved the most successful Canadian film of 2011 and made nearly $3.4m at the box office.

DreamWorks acquired US remake rights last April. Re-titled Delivery Man, Vince Vaughan will star alongside Chris Pratt and Cobie Smulders. Producer is Andre Rouleau.

Scott will return to write and direct and executive producers are Ray Angelic, Scott Mednick and Mark Sourian. It will be released in the US on Oct 4, 2013, where it will be distributed by Touchstone Pictures.

The French remake reunites Doval and Garcia, who previously worked together on Laughter and Punishment in 2003.

Produced by Made in PM, co-producer TF1 has secured free-to-air broadcast rights and Canal+ has acquired pay-TV rights.

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