A favourite of francophone children everywhere and the first experience of French literature for many French students abroad, writer René Goscinny and illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempe's classic Le petit Nicolas (Nicholas) will finally get the big screen treatment. The film project will be directed by Laurent Tirard (Molière) and will star Kad Merad (Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis / Welcome to the Sticks) and Valérie Lemercier (Les fauteuils d'orchestre / Avenue Montagne) as Nicolas's parents. The title role of the mischievous little pupil -- who tells the story from his unique point of view -- still remains to be cast. (source: allocine)

Antichrist, the much-anticipated return to the horror genre of director Lars von Trier (Manderlay) will be filmed over 25 to 35 days at the tail end of the summer in Germany. It tells the story of a wedded couple who retreat to an isolated forest cabin after the woman starts suffering from an anxiety neurosis following the death of their 3-year-old son. Her husband, who is an experienced psychologist and seems to suffer less from the loss, hopes his isolation experiment will help his wife. The screenplay of Antichrist, a co-production involving Denmark, Germany, France and Italy, was co-written by the prolific Anders Thomas Jensen. (source: Filmstiftung NRW) 

German actresses Iris Berben (the upcoming Buddenbrooks) and Katharina Schüttler (Sophie from Sophiiiie!) will play the leads in Es kommt der Tag ("There Will Be A Day"), the directorial debut of screenwriter Susanne Schneider. The film tells the story of a German woman (Berben) who gave up her daughter for adoption before turning to terrorism in the 1970s and who is confronted with the past when her grown-up daughter (Schüttler) finally finds her again. Es kommt der Tag started filming earlier this week. The Franco-German co-production will be shot in Baden-Württemberg and the French Alsace region. (source: kino zeit)

German actress Heike Makatsch (Love Actually) will play German post-WWII acting legend and singer Hildegard Knef (Die Mörder sind unter uns / The Murderers Are Among Us). The biopic, simply titled Hilde, will be directed by Kai Wessel (Die Flucht / March of Millions) and will also star Monica Bleibtreu, Michael Gwisdek, Johanna Gastdorf and Henry Hübchen. Hilde will start filming this summer  in North Rhine-Westphalia. The film will be released in 2009. (source: filmecho)

Catalan director Isabel Coixet (The Secret Life of Words) will film her next project, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, almost entirely on location in the Japanese capital. The story centres on an obsessive man who collects both sounds and women. Coixet will again work with Spanish diva Pénelope Cruz (Volver), who also starred in Coixet previous project, the US-funded Elegy. Like Elegy, the Spanish-produced Map of the Sounds of Tokyo will be mostly in English. (souce: cineytele)

(photo: Kad Merad in Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, (c) Pathé France)