Over the years, Quentin Tarantino has built up a familiar stable of stars he likes to work with, including Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Now, two Tarantino alums are teaming up for a French-language Netflix thriller set in the aftermath of World War II: Projet K.
According to Deadline, Diane Kruger and Dany Boon will appear in Projet K as Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, a real-life husband-and-wife team of Nazi hunters who pursued Nazi officer Klaus Barbie, known as the “Butcher of Lyon,” for years. Tim Roth will play Barbie. Read the official synopsis below:
Nothing destined Beate, a German, and Serge Klarsfeld, a French Jew, to meet. But their love and their shared thirst for justice would drive them to relentlessly hunt down Klaus Barbie, who was head of the Gestapo in Lyon. A ten-year pursuit waged against every power that tried to stop them.
Laurent Turner wrote Projet K with Yvan Attal, who will direct.
Kruger, who appeared in movies like Troy and National Treasure, worked with Tarantino in the 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino’s own World War II movie. She played Bridget von Hammersmark, a German film star who turned spy for the United Kingdom. In Projet K, she’ll go from fighting the Nazis from within to hunting them down.
Meanwhile, Tim Roth is one of Tarantino’s earliest recurring players. He played Mr. Orange in Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino’s first film, and then played one of the robbers in the opening and closing scenes of Pulp Fiction. He worked with Tarantino again 21 years later in The Hateful Eight, where he played hangman Oswaldo Mobray. In between, Roth became known for villainous roles like Emil Blonsky in The Incredible Hulk (2008) and Archibald Cunningham in Rob Roy (1995), the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination. He should have no problem playing a monster like Klaus Barbie, who fled to Bolivia after the end of World War II. Barbie was actually assisted in his flight by U.S. intelligence services, who employed him for his anti-communist efforts. He advised the dictatorial regime in Bolivia on how to repress opposition through torture, something he had a lot of experience with having overseen the deaths of thousands of Jews while posted in Vichy France.
Dany Boon has not worked with Tarantino before, but is well known in France for his stand-up comedy and for movies like Welcome to the Sticks; he also voices Olaf the snowman in the French dubs of the Frozen movies.
Cameras are rolling on Projet K now, although no release date has been set. It will eventually join other popular French-language content on Netflix such as the crime thriller Lupin as well as the comedy series Call My Agent!, which has a movie adaptation on the way.
