Next time you're stuck in a passport renewal queue, consider the plight of Frédéric Bourdin, a man who changed his identity a grand total of 39 times in little more than 20 years. Based on a New Yorker articlepublished as recently as August, Bourdin's extraordinary story is being brough to the screen in The Chameleon, director Jean-Paul Salomé's English language debut, with Marc-Andre Grondin (Che Part 2) appearing as the slippery Frenchman.
Salomé (Female Agents), who also co-wrote the script, will focus on one of Bourdin's adopted identities, Nicholas Barclay, the missing son of a Texan family, as whom he resurfaced in 1997, claiming to have escaped from a child prostitution ring. With the plot carrying shades of The Changeling, the film has a particularly strong female cast with Ellen Barkin playing the mother and Famke Janssen as the FBI agent hot on Bourdin's heels.
Nick Stahl and Emilie de Ravin will also appear in the film which is slated for release next year. [