Claire Denis is moving forward with cannibal crime drama “The Soap Maker,” which the French auteur is now set to write and direct.
The project, which was first shopped around in 2025 at Berlin’s EFM, has now gained traction with producers Sacha Ben Harroche (“Butterfly Jam”) and Ivy Freeman-Attwood (“The Dispute”) boarding the film in Cannes alongside lead producer Gerry Pass via his New York-based Chrome Entertainment shingle. CAA is packaging.
“The Soap Maker” is an English-language film inspired by the true story of Italy’s Leonarda Cianciulli, who in the late 1930s and early ’40s murdered three local women in the central Italian town of Correggio and disposed of their bodies with chemicals — using what was left to make soaps, candles, cookies and cakes that she shared with people in her community.
Italian director Mauro Bolognini drew from the story to make his 1977 cult movie “Gran Bollito,” which starred Shelley Winters as the serial killer.
The Claire Denis project, however, is an original work, neither a remake nor an adaptation of that film.
Denis — whose vast body of acclaimed work comprises “Beau Travail” (1999), “Trouble Every Day” (2001), “35 Rhums” (2009), Berlin Silver Bear winner “Both Sides of the Blade” (2022) and Cannes Grand Prix winner “Stars at Noon” — more recently shot “The Fence,” with Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce and Isaach De Bankolé, which marked her return to colonial French Africa, where she was raised.
She is currently editing a film that is part of the Prada-commissioned Miu Miu Women’s Tales short film series that will be unveiled during the upcoming Venice Film Festival in the Venice Days section.
Denis was feted in Cannes this year with the honorary Golden Carriage (Carrosse d’Or) award bestowed by Directors’ Fortnight.
The plan is for “The Soap Maker” to be Denis’ next feature.
English (US) ·