Tradecraft: Jean Dujardin Spies For Real

Tradecraft: Jean Dujardin Spies For Real

Well, not for real... but, you know, not for funny, either. For real in a movie. Variety reports that OSS 117 star Jean Dujardin (now generating serious Oscar buzz for his performance in The Artist, a re-teaming with director Michel Hazanavicius) will play a spy again, but a serious one this time as opposed to his brilliant send-up of James Bond and Sixties Eurospies in OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies and OSS 117: Lost in Rio. Will audiences be able to take Dujardin seriously in such a role? I think he's a wonderful actor, but I'm afraid I'll automatically crack up if he ever raises an eyebrow, so well did he do his job in those French spy parodies! According to the trade, Dujardin will play "an experienced spy tracking a powerful oligarch suspected of laundering money through his bank" in Eric Rochant's romantic, contemporary, Monte Carlo-set high finance thriller Mobius. Cecile de France (Mesrine, Hereafter) will co-star as "a bright young trader." Luc Besson's EuropaCorp will distribute the film in France and is currently shopping the project to U.S. distributors at the American Film Market. While the trade claims that the film will feature an "international cast," there's no word on whether it will be in French or English. I'd assume French, though EuropaCorp has had a lot of worldwide success with English-language thrillers like Taken and the Transporter films, so you never know. Mobius is slated for delivery in winter 2012.