Two years after the heated controversy surrounding the release of J’accuse and the César 2020, Roman Polanski began filming his new film The Palace, in Gstaad, Switzerland. His casting has not yet been officially communicated.
Roman Polanski has just started filming his 24th feature film, The Palace. Three years after J’accuse, the filmmaker set up his cameras in Switzerland, in the 5-star hotel Gstaad Palace.
After a postponement of filming (previously announced for a kick-off in the fall of 2021), the first clap took place during this month of March 2022, for a film which will take the form of a camera, in this luxurious setting.
The action of the film will take place in this grand hotel, on the evening of December 31, 1999. At the dawn of the new millennium, The Palace depicts the crossed destinies of several customers and staff of this establishment located in the Swiss Alps.
Unlike his last films, there would seem to be no French producers. The Palace is financed by RAI, the main Italian public audiovisual group, the Swiss production company CAB Productions, as well as Polish producers. The budget would amount to 13 million euros.
Casting rumors and petition
Although filming has begun, the casting has yet to be officially announced. The IMDB site announces several names, including John Cleese and Joaquim de Almeida, which we are unable to confirm.
Foreign sites have also mentioned, in the form of rumours, the name of Catherine Deneuve in the casting, which we are able to deny. Contacted by us, the Artmedia agency told us that Catherine Deneuve was not part of the cast of this film.
The cast of this film should in any case call on international talents, of all ages. This Instagram post from influencer Marina Strakhova seems to confirm that she will indeed be in the credits of the film.
Moreover, as relayed the Swiss television channel RTS, a petition has been launched to oppose the shooting of this film. “Not saying anything when a man like Polanski, who has a large media base, makes a film is also sending the signal to all potential aggressors or in action that in fact it does not matter. They can totally commit sex crimes without facing the consequences.“, lamented Elena Avdija, member of the collective of this petition, questioned by the RTS.
Roman Polanski: rare testimonies in Additional investigation on France 2
Roman Polanski is still the target of several charges and could possibly soon be the subject of a trial before the 17th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court for defamation against Charlotte Lewis, a British actress who claimed to have been “sexually abused” by the filmmaker, in the early 1980s, when she was 16 years old.