Wild Bunch, 68productions prep biopic

Film pioneer Alice Guy and Jean-Jacques Annaud

Wild Bunch TV and 68productions have teamed up with French director, producer and screenwriter Jean-Jacques Annaud to make a TV series about Alice Guy, the world’s first female filmmaker.

Based on Emmanuelle Gaume’s novel Alice Guy, the series will be directed and co-written by Annaud (The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair) and feature an international cast.

Franco-German producer and distributor Wild Bunch TV, Paris-based 68productions and Jeff Berg have partnered to develop the series, which is currently at the writing stage. Wild Bunch TV is handling international sales.

68productions bought the rights to Gaume’s novel in 2016, following which it produced a documentary for France 3 in 2017.

The pioneering filmmaker was active from the late 19th century, working first with Gaumont in France and then becoming director and co-founder of Solax Studios in New York.

Annaud said: “It’s the story of the meteoric life of an extraordinary young woman, so rapidly celebrated and so quickly forgotten, who happens to be the world’s first female filmmaker. After becoming acquainted with this pioneer, so crucial to the evolution of our society, I want to bring her out of the oblivion into which she has fallen. Telling this story is also a wonderful way for me to pay tribute to my craft.”