Producers have confirmed that disgraced director Roman Polanski’s new film ‘J’Accuse’ will tell the story of a miscarriage of justice.
French producers Légende Films told The Hollywood Reporter that the film will star Jean Dujardin, who won an Oscar for his role in The Artist, and filming will begin in late 2018 after a six year development period. Polanski’s wife Emmanuelle Seigner will also star.
Polanski has been living in France for four decades, since he fled the US while awaiting final sentencing for statutory rape. The fugitive director had pleaded guilty to the charge in 1977 when Samantha Geimer accused him – then aged 43 – of drugging her and sexually assaulting her at a party.
‘J’Accuse’ will follow the real-life story of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was accused of spying for Germany in the 1890s and sent to Devil’s Island penal colony for high treason. He was finally exonerated and freed in 1906.
In May, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science voted to expel both Polanski and Bill Cosby, following the rise of #MeToo movement and the widespread condemnation of sexual abuse and harassment in Hollywood.
The director also gave a controversial interview a few days before Oscar organisers took the decision to expel him, in which he referred to #MeToo as “collective hysteria”.
Polanski threatened to sue Oscars organisers and is asking them to give him a fair hearing and “avoid an expensive lawsuit”. His lawyer in Poland, Jan Olszewski, claimed to The Associated Press that Polanski’s expulsion bears “psychological abuse of an elderly person” for “populist goals.”
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Earlier this year, Quentin Tarantino apologised to Samantha Geimer, admitting that he was wrong to say it was consensual.