Actor and filmmaker Rupert Everett will direct “Lost and Found in Paris,” based on his own true-life experiences.
Kit Clarke (“Get Even”) will play Everett’s younger self – an unruly teenager sent by his exasperated parents to live with a Parisian socialite family to learn French and grow up.
The cast also includes John Malkovich, Kristin Scott Thomas as well as Everett himself in a supporting role.
Written by Everett, this will be his second film as writer/director after “The Happy Prince.”
The film is produced by Jeremy Thomas at Recorded Picture Company (“Pinocchio”), and will go into production in Spring 2022. HanWay Films is handling worldwide sales and distribution and will commence sales at the American Film Market.
Presentation of the film at the AFM is supported with funds awarded by the U.K. Global Screen Fund – a Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport fund administered by the BFI.
The film will follow Rupert (Clarke), a seventeen-year-old art student in Paris in 1977 who is seduced into the hedonistic world of rival fashion designers Gary Saint Lazare (Everett) and Wim Waldemar (Malkovich) in the dying days of disco. Rupert has a sexual awakening and experiences a dark first love. Only after tragedy strikes does he realise that some loyalties don’t last forever.
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The film will feature a soundtrack filled with some of the greatest hits from the disco and punk era.
Everett said: “’Lost and Found in Paris’ is a film about the rollercoaster of life, the exuberance and glamour of youth, seen through the lens of a life well lived. I went to Paris on an exchange trip in 1977. I was supposed to learn French. Instead I discovered fashion, disco, drugs, rent boys and finally – right at the edge of the abyss – myself.”
Thomas said: “I’ve known Rupert since his incredible screen debut in ‘Another Country,’ and his multifaceted talents and personal story makes Lost and Found in Paris an unusual blend of comedy with true-life adventure.”
HanWay Films MD Gabrielle Stewart added: “What fun, what pleasure to experience the freedom, party and disco of 1970s Paris through the unique personal lens of someone who tasted every last drop of it. It’s the perfect moment for the market to embrace the celebration of such a hedonistic time full of spirit and life.”
