She may already have two big projects on the go with A Wrinkle In Time and Intelligent Life, but Selma director Ava DuVernay is still finding time for other movies. She's now also developing The Battle Of Versailles.
It's not, as you might suspect from the title, a war film in the traditional sense, but it will chronicle the real-life fight for respect by American fashion designers. The film follows the 1973 fashion show at the Palace of Versailles, a fundraiser to help pay for the restoration of the building. The cream of French designers working at the time (Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro and Christian Dior's Marc Bohan) went up against five American designers who, though they were unknowns at the time, went on to become world famous (Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Halston, Stephen Burrows and Anne Klein, who brought along her then-assistant Donna Karan).
Despite the French designers kicking off with a lavish, two-house extravaganza backed by a classical orchestra, the US group won the day with a 35-minute show that broke colour barriers and used an Al Green soundtrack.
DuVernay is working with The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister And Pete writer Michael Starrbury on the script, with the director planning to make it for HBO Films when it's ready to go.