Baz Luhrmann sets sights on French hero Joan of Arc for next movie project but risks criticism

Baz Luhrmann has set his next project, an epic feature about French hero Joan of Arc.

Warner Bros, who worked with Luhrmann on Elvis, confirmed to Deadline that it will be called Jehanne or Jehanne d’Arc and has been described as “the ultimate teenage girl coming of age story, set in the Hundred Years’ War”.

Joan of Arc is a historical figure who lived from 1412 to 1431. Under what she claimed was divine guidance, the teenage Joan became a military leader and was instrumental in the siege of Orleans.

She eventually fell into English custody and was declared a heretic and burned at the stake at the age of 19. Today, Joan of Arc is a patron saint of France and was canonised by the Catholic church in 1920.

Casting for Luhrmann’s film is set to begin this week.

One person likely gunning for the role could be Jenna Ortega, who revealed in a recent interview, “I feel like a dream character for me would be Joan of Arc”.

Ortega said she considered Renee Falconetti’s performance in the 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc as “absolutely insane”.

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 French movie is one of the best known screen versions of Joan of Arc’s story as well as a classic of the silent film era, cited for its pioneering production.

It was a financial flop on its release but has consistently ranked high on cinema history lists in the century since. Legendary critic Pauline Kael wrote Falconetti’s work “may be the finest performance ever recorded on film”.

Ingrid Bergman has also played Joan of Arc, in the 1948 version by Victor Fleming.

Especially given the regard in which Dreyer’s film continues to be held, Luhrmann will have a challenge in convincing cinephiles of his version.

There’s also the factor that the French are protective of their national heroes and can be resistant to non-French filmmakers taking the stories on. Even Dreyer, a Dutchman, caused controversy at the time.

More recently, Ridley Scott was derided in France for his film about Napoleon Bonaparte. French critics were scathing of the English filmmaker’s efforts, labelling it lazy and pointless.

Luhrmann is one of Australia’s best-known filmmakers having worked on high-budgeted and big scale films including Elvis, Australia, The Great Gatsby and Moulin Rouge as well as earlier works Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet.

Luhrmann had been set to make an adaptation of Russian novel The Master and Margarita but dropped out earlier this year.