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Jérôme Salle on Lambert Wilson as Jacques-Yves Cousteau: "It helps when you ask a very nice person to be a very tough person."

Once again, inside the Furman Gallery at Lincoln Center during the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema exhibition of Paul Ronald's color photographs from Federico Fellini's 81/2, where I met Christophe Honoré for a conversation on Les Malheurs De Sophie, The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) director Jérôme Salle spoke with me on the performances of Lambert Wilson and Audrey Tautou. Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, composer Alexandre Desplat, Calypso captain Albert Falco (Vincent Heneine), nicknamed Bébert (which recalls for me the cat featured in Emmanuel Bourdieu's Louis-Ferdinand Céline), were also washed ashore.

Jérôme Salle at Paul Ronald's 81/2 circus photos: "Audrey is wonderful." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Odyssey (shot by Matias Boucard, screenplay, co-written with Laurent Turner) is...

Jérôme Salle: "I'm the kind of director who loves to tell stories with pictures more than words." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In 2015, at an Oceana event hosted by Cobie Smulders, I spoke with Jacques-Yves Cousteau's granddaughter and Expedition Blue Planet filmmaker, Alexandra Cousteau. In my conversation with The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) director, Jérôme Salle, we explore the world around Alexandra's grandfather portrayed by Lambert Wilson in his film with Audrey Tautou as Jacques' wife Simone, Pierre Niney (Adrian in François Ozon's Frantz) and Benjamin Lavernhe as their sons.

Simone (Audrey Tautou) and Jacques Cousteau (Lambert Wilson)

With a screenplay, co-written with Laurent Turner, loosely based on the books by Jean-Michel Cousteau (My Father, the Captain: Life with Jacques Cousteau) and Albert Falco (Capitaine de La Calypso) and a score by longtime Wes Anderson composer Alexandre Desplat, Salle takes us on a personal family journey at sea.

We go from "Cousteau...

Biopic based on the life of Jacques Cousteau.

The 64th San Sebastian Festival (Sept 14-24) is to close with the world premiere of The Odyssey, a film based on the life of Jacques Cousteau, written and directed by Jérôme Salle.

The €35m film looks at the challenging relationship between the underwater exploration pioneer and his son Philippe. The screenplay is based on the books Mon père, le Commandant Jacques-Yves Cousteau, by Jean Michel Cousteau, and Capitaine de la Calypso, by Albert Falco.

Salle is perhaps best known for writing action romance The Tourist, starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, and directing both Cannes 2013 closer Zulu and César-nominated Anthony Zimmer, which starred Sophie Marceau.

The Odyssey stars Lambert Wilson, Pierre Niney and Audrey Tautou in the parts of Cousteau, his son Philippe and his wife, respectively.

Wilson’s, known for performances in Xabier Beauvois’ Of Gods and Men and André Téchiné’s Rendez-vous, will make his...

According to a recent article at Variety we will soon be seeing a French Jacques-Yves Cousteau biopic and it will be released in 3D.

The French production company Pan Europeenne is behind the $37 million project which will be an adaptation of ‘Capitaine de la Calypso’, a biography of Cousteau written by Cousteau’s friend and colleague Albert Falco. There is no word yet on casting and in particular who will play Cousteau but Jerome Salles is set to direct.

Hopefully a resurgence in interest in Cousteau’s documentaries might result in new DVD/Blu-Ray releases and hopefully finally some English subtitled releases. I would love to own a Cousteau Blu-Ray box set that includes his original narrations.

There has, of course, already been a fictional film based on Jacques Cousteau in the form of The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Although the character of Steve Zissou was inspired by Jacques Cousteau...

Jerome Salles ("Largo Witch") will direct a $37 million 3D biopic of French oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau reports Variety

No-one has yet been cast as Cousteau in what's being described as an "adventure film featuring many underwater scenes" according to producer Nathalie Gastaldo.

Laurent Turner ("The Inner Circle") adapted the biography "Capitaine de la Calypso" penned by Cousteau's colleague of four decades Albert Falco.

While some icons of history and culture are in-demand for big screen stories that develop into dueling biopics (like the recent spawning of two Marilyn Monroe projects), some life stories have gone untold cinematically. One such story is now in the works for a big screen treatment as Variety reports a French production company (Pan Europeene) is developing a 3-D biopic of the famous French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Laurent Turner is adapting the script from Capitaine de la Calypso, a French language biography penned by fellow explorer Albert Falco, who worked alongside Cousteau for 40 years. Cousteau is quite a remarkable person, who can not only call himself an oceanographer, but also a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. His achievements include co-developing the aqua-lung, as well as pioneering marine conservation ...

We will now be seeing what I’m pretty sure is the first ever 3D biopic. Variety reports that there are plans to make an upcoming $37 million 3D biopic of French oceanographer, adventurer and filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Directed by Jerome Salles (Largo Witch) and written by Laurent Turner (The Inner Circle), the film will be an adaptation of the biography, Capitaine de la Calypso, by Albert Falco, who spent 40 years working alongside Cousteau. It’s still unknown who will be playing Cousteau.

According to the film’s producer, Nathalie Gastaldo, the film will be “a true biopic but also an adventure film featuring many underwater scenes,” I just hope that everyone has the common sense and respect to Cousteau’s legacy to film real sea animals and not use any CGI. Anyway, after the jump I’ve included a mini biography of Cousteau. Once you’ve read it, it’s...