The French crooner Serge Gainsbourg isn’t the original hard-drinking singer, but thanks to a string of relationships with women like Brigitte Bardot, in addition to his significant success as an artist, he’s become one of a few de facto templates for rock stardom. Never mind that he mined the chanson, jazz, pop and electronics rather than rock. 

That a Gainsbourg biopic is finally in the offing via Universal (the studio’s first French language film, actually) isn’t exactly news — there’s been info floating around for a couple of months, though I don’t think we reported on it. But Variety has picked up more info. The film will be directed by prolific graphic artist Joann Sfar and star Eric Elmosnino as Gainsbourg and Laetitia Casta as Bardot. The film will encompass Gainsbourg’s entire life, from his childhood and teen years during the Nazi occupation of Paris to the varied stages of his wildly successful career as a singer, songwriter, actor and director. Can’t wait to see how the recording of the song ‘Lemon Incest’ (with his daughter Charlotte) is handled.