Katrina Kaif has announced that she will be stretching her wings into the field of production and hopes to do a remake of a French movie from 2006. She expects to star in the movie herself. “My role in the film has dark shades to it. I play a conniving, ambitious woman. It’s a gloriously grey character, the kind I haven’t played before.” However, at the moment, the deal for the rights has not been finalised so she has been cagey about the title.
The film buffs here at Bollyspice have been scratching their heads in an effort to pin down the movie in question. It could well be the amazing Tell No One – a labyrinthine thriller about murder and corruption that you really need to see twice to understand fully. The film stars Francois Cluzet and Marie-Josee Croze. Produced by Luc Besson, and based on a novel by Harlan Coben, the role of Margot could easily be portrayed by Katrina.
The drawback to Tell No One, however, is that the female lead is not a conniving ambitious woman – so perhaps we need to look further and all fingers point towards the wonderful romantic comedy Priceless (Hors de Prix) starring the extraordinary Audrey Amelie Tautou, looking like an identikit of Katrina with her hair up. Essentially a remake of Breakfast At Tiffany’s, the 1961 Blake Edwards comedy with Audrey Hepburn, the film is of course about a conniving, ambitious woman clawing her way up through a world of luxury hotels and glamour, using only her wits and charm to aid her.
Although the hot money is clearly on Priceless, there’s an outside chance that it could be the latest OSS 117 movie – Cairo, Nest of Spies. The delightful eurospy movies of the sixties have been updated in this latest outing of the French equivalent of James Bond. Full of action, comedy, adventure, romance and two very beautiful women – Berenice Bejo and Katrina lookalike Aure Atika. Even if Katrina isn’t remaking this movie, someone else in Bollywood should – especially with Bollywood films being so popular in Egypt.
Conceivably, The Page Turner could be the target as Katrina is known to enjoy classical music. Starring the lovely Catherine Frot, this is a movie about a 10-year-old girl who fails to make it into a select academy of music, almost on the whim of the academy president. She harbours her revenge carefully and obsessively, eventually as an elegant, charming woman, she achieves the role of page-turner to the academy president – and it’s just before a crucial concert at which she will perform her magnum opus.
A very unlikely, but possible contender would be Sheitan – the Vincent Cassel horror and very black comedy. The movie is about a group of youngsters who are led by the beautiful Eve (Katrina lookalike Roxanne Mesquida to a country house to continue their party – but in reality into the hands of mad shepherd devil-worshipper Vincent Cassel who has other plans for them.
So there we are – as always, the French cinema industry is full of imagination, drama, high production standards and variety in any one year – so Katrina has had much to choose from – but for my money, it has to be Priceless.
