EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based SND is reuniting with Yves Saint Laurent producer Wassim Béji and star Pierre Niney on Yann Gozlan’s psychological thriller A Perfect Man, about a writer who rips off a dead soldier’s diary as his own work.
The company will launch sales on the project at Cannes.
It is the second time SND has worked closely with Béji and Niney, who garnered worldwide praise for his performance as legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the recent biopic by Jalil Lespert.
Upcoming French actress Ana Girardot, whose credits include the hit TV series The Returned (Les Revenants) is also attached.
In A Perfect Man, Niney will play aspiring writer Matthieu Vasseur, who takes on a job as a removal man to pay the bills.
While clearing the house of a recently deceased soldier he comes across the man’s hand-written diary. He is captivated by the soldier’s story and decides to send it to a publishing house. He gets a publishing deal and the resulting book is a bestseller. But his success comes at a price.
“Pierre Niney is a perfect match for Matthieu Vasseur,” said Lionel Uzan, head of acquisitions and sales at SND. “There is no question of his ability to embody the inner struggles of Mathieu Vasseur, a fascinating and complex character.”
Béji’s WY Productions, which he co-founded in 2002 with media empire heir Yannick Bolloré, is producing the film with Paris-based 24 25 Films.
Gozlan’s previous works include the 2010 horror film Caged, about an aid worker who is kidnapped by a Serbian gang of human organ traffickers.
“Yann Gozlan is a gifted director with a unique vision and rare knowledge of how to build atmosphere and push his characters to their very limit. Working with 24 25 Films and Wy Production on this project, we are confident that we will bring a hard boiled thriller to the screen that will make audience hearts pound all over the world.”
Shooting will start in early June in Paris and the South of France. Mars Distribution will release the film in France in 2015.
Other films on the Cannes slate of SND, the film production, distribution and sales arm of popular commercial network M6, include Eric Lartigau’s coming-of-age tale La Famille Bélier, about a young girl growing up in a family of deaf people, Fréderic Tellier’s thriller SK1 and Sex, Love & Therapy. The company is also handling sales of Fabrice du Welz’ Alleluia, which is playing in Directors’ Fortnight.
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