By all accounts, this is the Year of the Woman. (Though I personally thought that was every year.) The #MeToo movement has been bringing sexual offenders down, empowering women to speak up and encouraging women to run for political office in record numbers. But what about Hollywood? That’s where this whole mess started, right? Never fear. Riding to the rescue is the announcement that a new movie is beginning production brought to you by none other than convicted child rapist, pedophile, monster and internationally wanted fugitive criminal Roman Polanski. And you’ll never guess what it’s about (Vanity Fair)
Bill Cosby may be in jail. Harvey Weinstein may be in hiding. But Roman Polanski is alive and well, and planning his first movie in the #MeToo era. He even has an Oscar-winning actor attached.
French producers Légende Films confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Polanski will begin filming his next movie, the political thriller J’Accuse, this fall in Paris. Louis Garrel will star as Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the real-life French-Jewish soldier wrongly accused of spying for the Germans in the 1890s. The scandal, which divided the country, concluded dramatically in 1906 when Dreyfus was exonerated after spending five years in the Devil’s Island penal colony for high treason.
Yes, capping off this delightful analysis is the fact that Polanski’s new film is based on the story of a man who is wrongly accused finally be exonerated. What could be more perfect for the Me Too moment?
Just as a reminder for any younger readers who might not be familiar, Roman Polanski was convicted back in the 70s of drugging, raping and sodomizing a 13 year old girl in Hollywood. Following his guilty plea but before sentencing, he fled the country and has been on the run ever since. Many more women have since come forward with details of how Polanski had sexually abused them as children. One was as young as nine years old.
I’m not really familiar with any of the names on this list of people signed on to take part in this project, though they claim it includes an Oscar winner. They are:
- Louis Garrel
- Jean Dujardin
- Mathieu Amalric
- Robert Harris
The film also includes his (very young) wife, but I suppose that’s to be expected. If you happen to see any of these other players showing up in projects in the United States, you might ask why they are still getting work here when they choose to knowingly take part in one of Polanski’s films.
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