rewrite this title Vincent Cassel and Jean-Francois Richet team for Netflix’s Quasimodo

Back in 1831, author Victor Hugo brought the world the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, telling the 1482-set story of Quasimodo, a deformed fellow who served as the bell-ringer of at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Nearly two hundred years later, versions of Hugo’s story are still being told on a regular basis – with the most recent adaptation being a film that’s set up at the Netflix streaming service. Deadline reports that Vincent Cassel (Black Swan) is set to play the title character in Quasimodo, which has Jean-François Richet attached to direct.

Richet may be best known for his work on action films like Plane, Blood Father, and the Assault on Precinct 13 remake, but he has also directed multiple dramas (État des lieux, Ma 6-T va crack-er, De l’amour), the crimes films Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, the period adventure film The Emperor of Paris, and the comedy One Wild Moment, a version of the story we’ve previously seen in In a Wild Moment and Blame It on Rio. Cassel and Richet worked together on One Wild Moment, The Emperor of Paris, and the Mesrine films.

Eric Besnard (Wrath of Man) has written the screenplay for this take on Quasimodo, which has the following logline: Set in Paris on the eve of the July Revolution (1830), this film reimagines the life of the man said to have inspired Victor Hugo’s iconic character, Quasimodo. As the cholera epidemic spreads through the city, he’s caught between political turmoil and an impossible love.

Quasimodo is coming our way from Mediawan’s Radar Films, with Clément Miserez and Matthieu Warter producing. Filming is expected to take place in France this summer.

This is at least the second time Netflix has shown interest in the story of Quasimodo, as the streaming service announced back in 2018 that Idris Elba would be starring in, directing, producing, and providing original music for a modern retelling of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The project didn’t make it into production.

What do you think of Vincent Cassel and Jean-François Richet teaming up again, this time to tell the story of Quasimodo? Let us know by leaving a comment below.