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Lagerfeld, Leto at a Chanel show in Paris (July 2014): »Karl was always an inspiration for me«
Photo: Getty Images
Jared Leto is set to star in an upcoming film about acclaimed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
Leto will also produce the feature film with the company Paradox, which he runs together with Emma Ludbrook - in cooperation with Maison Karl Lagerfeld, the company founded by Lagerfeld.
This is reported by the US entertainment website Deadline.
Three of Karl Lagerfeld's closest confidants are personally involved as executive producers: Caroline Lebar worked as communications consultant with Lagerfeld for 35 years, Pier Paolo Righi has been Lagerfeld's chief executive for over a decade, and Sébastien Jondeau was the personal assistant and bodyguard for two decades the fashion icon.
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Lagerfeld and Leto on the sidelines of the 2012 Dior Homme show: »In an artistic way, as Karl would have liked to see«
Photo: Michel Dufour/WireImage
"Karl was always an inspiration to me," Deadline quotes Jared Leto as saying.
The film star and musician (30 Seconds To Mars) describes Lagerfeld as a »universal genius.
He was an artist, an innovator, a leader and above all: a kind person.« The film about his life will be »a respectful ode to Karl«, but at the same time they want to push »the artistic boundaries of what a biopic can be« , says Leto.
Jared Leto won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Dallas Buyers Club.
More recently, he has appeared in the film »House of Gucci« about the Italian fashion dynasty.
He last appeared as a producer on the documentary »A Day in the Life of America« in 2019.
The German-Italian Pier Paolo Righi, who runs the Maison Karl Lagerfeld, says in the message quoted by Deadline: In the time since Lagerfeld's death in February 2019, several Hollywood production companies have approached him and asked for a partnership to save Lagerfeld's life to film.
"But it wasn't until we met Jared and Emma that we really had confidence that his story would be told in an artistic way that Karl would have liked."
Met Ball 2023 in Lagerfeld's honor
The New York Metropolitan Museum will also posthumously celebrate Lagerfeld next year.
Around 150 works by the Hamburg-born designer are to be on display in the spring in the exhibition "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty", as the renowned museum in Central Park in Manhattan announced.
The show will show the "unique working methods" of the longtime chief designer of the fashion brand Chanel.
"Karl Lagerfeld was one of the most compelling, prolific and recognizable forces in fashion and culture, known both for his extraordinary designs and tireless creative work and for his legendary personality," said the Austrian director of the Metropolitan Museum, Max Hollein.
The exhibition is to be opened on May 1st with the so-called »Met Ball«.
Often dubbed the "Party of the Year," the gala is an annual star-studded fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute.
The income from the Costume Institute Benefit, estimated at several million dollars, forms the annual budget of the institute, which is now named after Vogue boss Anna Wintour.
Wintour is considered a big Chanel fan and almost always appears at the gala in the fashion brand's robes.
feb/dpa