June 6 (UPI) -- Christoph Waltz will play the lead role in "Billy Wilder & Me," adapted from Jonathan Coe's partially true book about the Hollywood director from a young Greek woman's perspective.
The film follows the young Greek woman who begins working for Billy Wilder and his screenwriter Iz Diamond during the filming of Fedora on a Greek island in the summer of 1977, according to the official synopsis. She then follows Wilder to continue shooting the film in Germany, where he sifts through memories to get to the core of his family's history.
The No Time to Die actor will play Wilder, whose career in Hollywood spanned five decades, with some other credits including, The Seven Year Itch, Sunset Blvd., Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, in the film adapted from the book by Stephen Frears and Christopher Hampton.
"From the time of our first meeting in Los Angeles in the early '80s, Billy Wilder was extremely kind and encouraging to me," Hampton said. "Jonathan Coe's wonderful novel has provided the perfect opportunity to express my gratitude and my admiration for one of the undisputed giants of cinema history."
Jeremy Thomas, whose last film, EO, won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, will produce the new film, which reunites Frears and two-time Oscar winning screenwriter Hampton for their third collaboration since Dangerous Liaisons and Cheri.
Thomas and Frears also previously worked together in the cult road movie The Hit in 1984.
"Billy Wilder said, 'You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning,'" Waltz said. "A Stephen Frears movie from a Christopher Hampton script produced by Jeremy Thomas should do the trick for me."
Production is slated to begin in spring of 2023 in Greece, Munich and Paris with other cast members to be announced shortly.
