Johnny Depp’s upcoming French film “Jeanne Du Barry” is set to open the Cannes Film Festival.
The film marks Depp’s acting comeback following a high-profile defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard and a three-year hiatus.
Depp stars as France’s King Louis XV in the film from the French director Maïwenn, who also stars in the title role. King Louis XV was known as Louis the Beloved and had the second-longest reign of any French monarch, between 1715-1774. Historians have been less kind to the king however, citing corruption and fruitless, expensive wars.
“Jeanne Du Barry” will have its world premiere in the Palais on May 16. The film will also be released in France on the same day.
The film’s official synopsis is as follows: Jeanne Vaubernier, a young working-class woman hungry for culture and pleasure, uses her intelligence and allure to climb the rungs of the social ladder one by one. She becomes the favourite of King Louis XV who, unaware of her status as courtesan, regains through her his appetite for life. They fall madly in love. Against all propriety and etiquette, Jeanne moves to Versailles, where her arrival scandalizes the court.
The Louis XV film is also Depp’s first project since his failed libel lawsuit against the British tabloid The Sun, in which a judge ruled that The Sun’s claim he was a “wife-beater” was “substantially true.” In the wake of that trial, Depp was asked to resign from the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise of films.
Maïwenn is an actress and a director known for films “Polisse,” “My King” and most recently “DNA,” in which she also starred.
Variety first reported the news.
