UPDATE: Shooting has wrapped in Hong Kong and a first look image has been released — Merlant can be seen lying naked on the bed of a luxurious hotel room.
We can also add Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) to a cast that already includes Merlant, Naomi Watts Luàna Bajrami and Anamaria Vartolomei. I’d be shocked if the film isn’t submitted for next year’s Cannes Film Festival. Whether it’s good enough for competition is a whole other story.
Also, I’m hearing the film was shot in English. So Sharpe and Watts’ casting does make sense now.
EARLIER: In November, NEON bought Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle.” The film started production in September, and will wrap up this month.
In this new version, Noémie Merlant will play the famous character. Some intriguing news we can report: Naomi Watts has been added to the cast of “Emmanuelle”, which already included the likes of Anamaria Vartolomei and Luàna Bajrami.
The film is an adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsan's erotic novel — which was originally made into a series of popular softcore porn movies in the ‘70s and ‘80s. “Emmanuelle” does come with some hefty expectations as it’s been a little over two years since Diwan won the Golden Lion at Venice for her last film, “Happening.”
As for Watts — she’s known for her work in “Mulholland Drive” and “The Ring.” She also speaks decent French, but isn’t that fluent in the language of Molière. She was all the rage in the early aughts, but I haven’t really seen too much of her on the big screen in well over a decade.