After taking on the King of Rock n’ Roll, Elvis director Baz Luhrmann is developing a biopic on another famous figure of far different renown. Luhrmann will direct a Joan of Arc film for Warner Bros. which is currently titled Jehanne or Jehanne d’Arc and has already begun searching for a young actress to play the historical heroine.
Jehanne is described as “the ultimate teenage girl coming of age story, set in the Hundred Years’ War.” For anyone unaware, Joan of Arc was a young French peasant woman who believed she had a divine connection with God and the archangel Michael who chose her to defend France in their bitter war against Britain. She successfully led French armies against the British during the war, but at the age of 19 she was captured and burned at the stake for heresy.
A couple of decades after her death, Joan of Arc’s conviction was overturned and she has become symbols of French pride, freedom and feminism in the centuries since. In the early 20th century she was officially declared a patron saint of France and has been a source of many tellings of her life through art, film, TV, stageplays and literature.
No other details for Jehanne are known beyond Luhrmann’s direction. Presumably the script has been written by Luhrmann and his frequent co-writer Craig Pearce as has been the case with Elvis, Moulin Rouge! and Australia.
With casting now underway for Joan of Arc, it might not be long until we learn more about the film and when Luhrmann intends to begin production.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
