Patrice Leconte is preparing to shoot his latest comedy, La Guerre Des Miss , which begins production on March 25, Gaumont announced today.

Starring Benoit Poelvoorde, Olivia Bonamy, Christian Charmetant, Laurent Gamelon and Jacques Mathou, the film is to be produced by Franck Chorot.

The story of a decades-old rivalry between two towns which finally comes to a head, the film will shoot for three weeks in the Franche-Comte region before moving to just outside Paris and has a release date of January 7, 2009.

Leconte has had a run of successful films recently, most notably with 2006's Les Bronzes 3 Amis Pour La Vie which took in nearly 10.5 million admissions and was France's highest-grossing film that year.