Filming is currently underway on the HBO Film Production of the true story behind Fantasy Island star Hervé Villechaize, My Dinner with Hervé, and the first official image featuring Jamie Dornan and Peter Dinklage has surfaced.

Jamie Dornan is to portray the character of the fictional journalist Danny Tate alongside Dinklage as the troubled Villechaize is a story which focuses on an unlikely friendship which evolves over one wild night in L.A. The film focuses on the relationship between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world’s most famous gun-toting dwarf, which results in life-changing consequences for both.

My Dinner with Verve

Written and directed by Sacha Gervasi who had interviewed Villechaize back in 1993 just a few days before he committed suicide, “He interviewed Hervé right before he killed himself,” Dinklage told The New York Times of the project back in 2012. “…After he killed himself, Sacha realised Hervé’s interview was a suicide note.”

Villechaize shot to fame back in 1974 when his standout performance in The Man with the Golden Gun where he was a killer associated to the villain Scaramanga (played by Christopher Lee), made him a household name. He went on to inspired the TV-series Fantasy Island (1977) where he took the role of “Tattoo”, the faithful servant of “Mr. Roarke” (Ricardo Montalban). This series was a great success and, thanks to it, Villechaize became famous and rich, mostly because of his enigmatic and charming smile. In his later life, depression, alcohol and severe health problems plagued him ultimately leading to Villechaize taking his own life in 1993.

My Dinner with Hervé also stars Oona Chaplin (Taboo, The Longest Ride), Mireille Enos (World War Z, The Catch) and Harriet Walter (Babel, Atonement). It is executive produced by Gervasi and Dinklage alongside Jessica de Rothschild, Ross Katz, Richard Middleton and Steven Zaillian. Garrett Basch and David Ginsberg will serve as co-executive producer.