“The Artist” actor Jean Dujardin is to director Michel Hazanavicius what Ryan Gosling is to Nicolas Winding Refn. With the former’s silent movie sensation winning over audiences and poised to become a Best Picture nominee at the Oscars, it marks their third film together following the two very popular French-language spy spoof ‘OSS 177‘ films, and what do you know, the pair have already collaborated on another project that is gearing up for release next spring in France.
Among the many films Wild Bunch will repping at the American Film Market will be “The Players” (aka “Les infidèles“), an omnibus comedy that is enticingly/bizarrely described as a mix of “Viva Italia!,” “The Hangover,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Sex And The City.” Okay, then. Dujardin penned the film with Gilles Lellouche (who you’ll see next month in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows“) in the movie that will present seven sketches, each helmed by a different director, riffing on the theme of, you guessed it, infidelity.
The directors getting behind the camera are Hazanavicius, Dujardin, Lellouche, Fred Cavaye (“Pour Elle,” “Point Blank“), Jan Kounen (“Dobermann,” “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky“), Emmanuelle Bercot and Eric Lartigau. Dujardin, Lellouche, Alexandre Lamy, Melanie Doutey, Guillaume Canet, Sandrine Kiberlain and Isabelle Nanty will star in the picture as well.
We’ve said it before, but omnibuses tend to be a mixed bag at best, with only the rarest of projects every providing a solid menu of shorts from front to back. That said, we’re curious. This one is already in the can and being prepared to hit theaters in France in March via Mars Films. No word yet if it will make it’s way stateside, but we have a feeling there will be a new appetite for both Dujardin and Hazanavicius when “The Artist” begins to roll into theaters later this month. [ScreenDaily]