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 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 it is certainly not a biopic.
Here’s Wes Anderon talking about Jacques-Yves Cousteau and The Life Aquatic from an interview with National Geographic News.
The inspiration for this one is Jacques Cousteau and his films. I’ve always been curious about and fascinated by Cousteau. He had the kind of mind that allowed him to invent all kinds of things that, before he came along, people had never dreamed of. He helped invent scuba and developed some of the first submersibles.
I remember watching an old National Geographic [TV] special on Cousteau narrated by Orson Welles. I was fascinated. To me Cousteau, his crew, and their adventures seemed an idea for a movie as much as they seemed like an actual group of explorers.
I do love The Life Aquatic but I would also really like to see an actual biopic of Cousteau, whose life was truly remarkable. I’ll be following the news surrounding this film closely and I’ll be keeping you all informed of any further developments.
