French actress Fanny Ardant has joined the cast of The Year Of The Flood (El Ano Del Diluvio), a new feature film in development from Spanish director Jaime Chavarri (Tangos Are For Two).

Ardant will play Sister Consuelo, a nun in 1950's Catalonia who falls in love with a wealthy landowner. The love affair is set against a period of torrential rainstorms which wash a group of remnant Spanish Civil War rebels out of the Pyrenees.

The story is based on Eduardo Mendoza's novel of the same name. Mendoza and Chavarri collaborated on the Spanish-language script, which is likely to be adapted to make Ardant's character French.

Producer Juan Gona of Madrid's GonaFilm is negotiating the entrance of French and Italian co-producers. A budget for the picture has not yet been set.

Gona is currently shooting Toni Salgot's Dama De Porto Pim, a $2.6m love story set against World War II and starring Emma Suarez (Kisses For Everyone) and Antonio Resines (The Girl Of Your Dreams).