PARIS (AFP) — The director of Oscar-winning French biopic "La Vie en Rose" said Tuesday he would start work straight away on his next film, set in the US South and Midwest and featuring a star-studded American cast.
"I recently wrote my next film and I am leaving on a location shoot on Wednesday," Olivier Dahan, who directed 32-year-old Marion Cotillard's academy award winning performance as the chanteuse Edith Piaf, told RTL radio.
Speaking from Los Angeles, Dahan said the movie was "a surrealist drama set between Kansas and Louisiana," and would "normally" star Forrest Whitaker and "perhaps Sharon Stone".
An Oscar win "gives me access to all the actors I want today, and that's a good thing," he said.
Cotillard paid a personal tribute to Dahan, who reportedly insisted on casting her for the film, as she scooped the best actress Oscar Sunday, capping previous honours at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs as well as a French Cesar.
Dahan said his team had celebrated Cotillard's triumph at a private party at the home of the singer Prince.
"We had the fortune to see Prince and Stevie Wonder play in a living room to a group of 80 people," he said.
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