Roman Polanski plans erotic comedy

Roman Polanski has chosen an erotic dark comedy, Venus In Fur, as his next film.

The Rosemary's Baby director is making a film adaptation of the play by David Ives, which played on Broadway and won a Tony Award for Best Actress for Nina Arianda, Deadline reports.

The story follows a playwright and director who's trying to stage a work based on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's 1870 book Venus In Furs. After struggling to find a suitable actress to cast as his leading lady, he suddenly finds the perfect candidate, only to find her strong personality massively clashes with his own.

The Oscar-winning director is to shoot the film in French, with his wife Emmanuelle Seigner and The Dreamers actor Louis Garrel in the lead roles.

Polanski said: "I've been looking for a chance to make a film in French with Emmanuelle for a long time.

"Reading Venus In Fur I realised the moment had arrived. I got so fired up to put this brilliant black comedy on film that I decided to fit it in before D, whose screenplay and pre-production will demand a few more months. Louis Garrel and Emmanuelle Seigner will make for a stunning duo."

The director announced in May his plans to make D, a drama about the notorious Dreyfus affair, where a Jewish French officer was wrongly accused of passing secrets to the Germans in the 1890s.

Polanski will adapt Ives' play for the screen himself and is due to begin filming in Paris this November.