Serge Gainsbourg Biopic On the Way

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Nov 25, 2008

Late iconic French pop chanteur Serge Gainsbourg is set to receive his very own biopic. Titled Serge Gainsbourg (Vie Heroique), the Universal-helmed film is to be directed by graphic novelist Joann Sfar, who will chronicle Gainsbourg’s youth growing up in Nazi-occupied Paris in the 1940s and follow his rise to becoming one of France’s biggest musical exports before his death in 1991 at 62.

The film will mark 37-year-old Sfar’s first move to the director’s chair after doing such graphic novel’s as Le chat du rabbin (The Rabbi's Cat) and Les olives noires (Black Olives), a series that told the tale of a Jewish child in Palestine during the time of Jesus.

"Sfar's cutting-edge creativity and unique take on the character of Serge Gainsbourg is what really drew us to this project," the head of Universal Pictures International Studio, Christian Grass, told Variety magazine.

French actor Eric Elmosnino (above, posing as Gainsbourg) is set to play the Gainsbourg, an artist known as much for such classic tracks as "Bonnie and Clyde” and "Je t'aime ... moi non plus” as for his erotically-charged persona, glamorous lovers and train-wreck public appearances. French model Laetitia Casta will play Gainsbourg’s one-time belle Brigitte Bardot, while Mylene Jampanoi will portray his final partner, Bambou (aka Caroline von Paulus). There's no word yet on who will play Jane Birkin, or his daughter Charlotte, who once performed a duet with her father about incest.

Sfar, who also penned the screenplay, is scheduled to begin shooting Serge Gainsbourg (Vie Heroique) in January, with a theatrical release due in France sometime in 2010, Variety reports.

Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot "Bonnie & Clyde”

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