Cantet to adapt Joyce Carol Oates bestseller Foxfire.

Memento Films International is back in business with Palme d’Or winner and Oscar nominee Laurent Cantet.

Cantet will move into English-language filmmaking with an adaptation of bestseller Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates.

The $12 million project will be the director’s sixth collaboration with French powerhouse Haut et Court Production. Set in 1950s America, the story follows a group of headstrong teenage girls. Uniting into a sisterhood of blood, they form the Foxfire gang, a secret female-only society, recognised by the flame tattooed on the back of its members’ shoulders.

Foxfire is currently in pre-production and will start shooting in summer 2011. The film will be co-produced with Canada’s Film Farm. Memento will launch pre-sales on the new project here at the AFM.

Cantet’s Cannes winner The Class grossed $30m worldwide.