Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges, Tracy Letts To Star In ‘French Exit’ Comedy
Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges, and Tracy Letts will headline French Exit, a surrealist comedy that Azazel Jacobs is directing. The pic, which will be presented at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, is based on the international bestselling book of the same name by Patrick deWitt, who also adapted the screenplay. deWitt is the author behind The Sisters Brothers, which was recently adapted into a film starring John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Thorsten Schumacher is financing and producing the film, via his Rocket Science label, along with Elevation Pictures. Rocket Science and Wild Bunch are handling international sales, beginning in Cannes, while CAA Media Finance reps the U.S. rights.
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The pic follows 60-year-old penniless Manhattan socialite Frances Price (Pfeiffer), whose plan to die before her money ran out doesn’t pan out. Her husband Franklin has been dead for 20 years and with his vast inheritance gone, she cashes in the last of her possessions and resolves to live out her twilight days anonymously in a modest apartment in Paris, accompanied by her directionless son Malcolm (Hedges) and the embodiment of Franklin in the form of ‘Small Frank’ (Letts), the family cat.
Pfeiffer, a three-time Oscar nominee, was most recently seen Disney/Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Endgame as well as 20th Century Fox’s Murder on the Orient Express. Repped by CAA and Management 360, she next stars opposite Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning in Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Since receiving an Oscar nom for his role in Manchester by the Sea, Hedges has been on a hot streak, starring in acclaimed films like Boy Erased, which earned him a Golden Globe nom, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lady Bird, Ben is Back with Julia Roberts, and Sundance hit Honey Boy. He’s repped by CAA and Anonymous Content.
Letts, a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award Winning actor, was most recently seen in The Post, Lady Bird (along with Hedges), and The Lovers, a comedy/drama was written and directed by Jacobs. His forthcoming slate includes Fox films Ford v. Ferrari, in which he plays Henry Ford II, and The Woman in the Window. Letts is with Innovative Artists.
Jacobs additional credits include Terri starring Jacob Wysocki and John C. Reilly, which was written by deWitt and directing episodes for Mozart in the Jungle and HBO’s Doll & Em starring Emily Mortimer and Dolly Wells.
Jacobs is repped by CAA and Novo. deWitt is repped by Foundry Literary Media and Novo.
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