In what appears to be a newfound quest to portray all of the fashion world's historically eccentric elites on the silver screen, Jared Leto is set to follow up his role as Paolo Gucci in last year's House of Gucci by starring as Karl Lagerfeld in a newly announced biopic.
According to a report from WWD, Leto and Emma Ludbrook's production company, Paradox, is set to make the film in partnership with Karl Lagerfeld's estate. “Karl had a career that spanned 50-plus years so both personally and professionally he was close to a number of people,” Leto told the publication. “I can say we are going to home in on key relationships that convey different parts of his life.”
The upcoming biopic doesn't have a director attached yet, but three of Lagerfeld's close friends and confidants, Pier Paolo Righi, Caroline Lebar and Sebastien Jondeau are signed to consult for the film. Leto went on to add that “Karl has always been an inspiration to me. He was a true polymath, an artist, an innovator, a leader and, most importantly, a kind man. When we came together with the KARL LAGERFELD team, we immediately shared a creative vision of doing a respectful ode to Karl while pushing the artistic boundaries of what a biopic can be.”
The biopic announcement follows the news that next year's Met Gala theme would be Karl Lagerfeld. As is tradition, the theme will coincide with the museum's upcoming "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty" exhibition which celebrates the life and work of the late Chanel creative director. The announcement notably drew backlash from Jameela Jamil, who announced that she would not be attending the Met Gala, citing Lagerfeld's history of controversial comments that she described as a "public disdain for marginalized people." Lagerfeld was criticized for his contentious behavior, from open fatphobia to victim-blaming remarks in relation to the #MeToo movement.
"Why is THIS who we celebrate when there are so many AMAZING designers out there who aren't bigoted white men? What happened to everyone's principles and 'advocacy,'"Jamil wrote. "Sorry, but no. This isn't the 90s. We didn't fight all this shit just to throw it all away because some white guy made some pretty clothes for people's skinny faves... come on now."
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