Florian Zeller, the internationally acclaimed playwright who made his directorial debut with the Oscar-winning film The Father starring Anthony Hopkins, has been inducted into the Académie Française, the prestigious French literary society founded by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635.
Founded during the prolific reign of Louis XIV, the Académie Française has played an important role in shaping French culture, preserving and updating the country’s language, grammar, and usage through the ages.
The 40 members of the Académie Française, known as the “Immortals”, are famous writers, philosophers and scientists, including Victor Hugo, Corneille, Edmond Rostand, Jean Cocteau and Eugène Ionesco. Mr. Zeller, 46, is the second-youngest member ever elected by the society, after Cyrano de Bergerac, who was 33 years old when he joined in 1901.
Director Zeller is currently in pre-production on his highly anticipated third film, The Bunker, which follows the emotional The Sun, starring Hugh Jackman. Psychological thriller ‘The Bunker’, starring Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Stephen Graham (‘Adolescence’), will begin filming in Spain next month. The film revolves around an architect who takes on an ethically ambiguous project to build a survival bunker for a high-tech billionaire and his wife, who begins to question their marriage after 17 years together.
“The Father” and “The Son” are part of Zeller’s trilogy of plays that toured around the world. He has written more than a dozen plays. The Parisian writer and filmmaker runs the production company Blue Morning Pictures, part of Media One, with Federica St. Rose. Zeller’s upcoming production credits include the next film with Ben Sherlock (“Limbo”) and “Alone Together,” starring Callum Turner (“Masters of the Air”) and Adria Arjona (“Splitsville”).
