Jon Amiel's Period Drama 'Vermillion' Sets Q1 2027 Shoot Across Austria, Germany, and France

A lavishly scoped period feature is taking shape in Europe, and working professionals with an eye toward 2027 should get this one on their radar now. Vermillion, an adaptation of Joel Gross's play Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh, is currently in early pre-production with principal photography targeted for the first quarter of 2027 across Austria, Germany, and France. The project centers on the remarkable true story of Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, a portrait painter of modest origins who ascended into the royal court of Versailles and formed one of history's most unlikely and enduring friendships with Queen Marie Antoinette. With a multi-country European footprint, a period setting that will demand substantial art, costume, and locations resources, and an international co-production structure already in place, this is shaping up to be one of the more ambitious European-anchored features in the pipeline for that production window.

At the helm is director Jon Amiel, a filmmaker with deep roots in prestige drama on both sides of the Atlantic. Amiel is perhaps best known to mainstream audiences for the Nicolas Cage thriller Entrapment and the Charles Darwin biopic Creation, the latter of which demonstrated his affinity for intimate, character-driven historical narratives. Earlier in his career he earned considerable acclaim directing the original BBC miniseries The Singing Detective, which remains one of the most celebrated British television productions ever made. That combination of literary period sensibility and experience with character studies centered on creative artists makes him a genuinely well-suited choice for Vigée Le Brun's story. The screenplay is adapted by Joel Gross, who wrote the source material stage play on which the film is based. Emma Laird, who drew strong notice for her work in the Paramount Plus series Mayor of Kingstown opposite Jeremy Renner, takes on the demanding lead role of Vigée Le Brun. Isabella Rossellini, a screen legend with a career spanning decades from Blue Velvet to Green Porno to her recent acclaimed work in various European productions, plays Madame de Noailles, an aristocrat in devoted service to the Queen. Millicent Simmonds, the deaf actress who broke through in A Quiet Place and its sequel before earning further recognition in Todd Haynes's Wonderstruck, rounds out the announced cast.

The production is being lead-produced by Austria's Katharina Magdalena alongside Barrie M. Osborne, whose Academy Award-winning credit as producer on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King places him firmly among the most accomplished producers working in large-scale prestige filmmaking. Osborne's involvement is a significant signal of the ambition and pedigree this project is aiming for. The international co-production structure brings together Odeon Fiction from Germany, a company with a strong track record in European prestige television and film, Zephyr Films from the UK, known for co-producing internationally financed projects, and JewelLabs Pictures from Austria. The broader producing team includes Stefan Mentz, Nicholas de Graffenreid, Jon Mayfield, co-producer Adrienne McQueen, and executive producers Angus Finney and Rob Cowan, both of whom bring substantial European co-production and financing experience to the table. Finney in particular is well known in the industry as a strategist in international film financing. Notably, the project is currently being shopped at Cannes without a finalized sales agent, which means the financing and distribution architecture is still being assembled. That context matters for crew and agents tracking this: expect the production infrastructure to solidify over the coming months as deals close.

The filming locations are Austria, Germany, and France, a geography that reflects both the story's historical setting and the co-production financing map. Austria, and Vienna in particular, is home to some of Europe's finest period locations and architectural stand-ins for 18th-century Versailles-era interiors, along with established studio infrastructure at facilities like MR Film and the Wien Film Commission's well-developed support apparatus. Germany brings the considerable resources of Odeon Fiction's home market, with Bavaria Studios in Munich and the Babelsberg complex near Berlin among the continent's premier production facilities for large-scale period work. France, likely to include location shooting in and around Paris or possibly at Versailles itself, adds authenticity to the production's visual palette and opens access to the substantial French film tax rebate, one of the most competitive in Europe at roughly 30 percent for qualifying international productions. Across all three countries, local crew bases are robust and experienced with international co-productions of this scale, though department heads and key above-the-line crew are frequently sourced from a pan-European talent pool for projects structured this way.

For crew assessing the opportunity, the period setting is the loudest signal of all. A French Revolution-era drama set inside the court of Versailles, with real palaces and period locations on the shooting schedule, means this production will lean heavily on its art department, costume department, and hair and makeup teams from day one. Large-scale set dressing, historically accurate wardrobe construction, and period-appropriate wigs and makeup will drive significant crew needs across those departments. A locations department with deep knowledge of permitting and logistics across multiple European jurisdictions will be essential, and a strong assistant director team will be needed to manage the logistical complexity of a multi-country shoot. With Barrie M. Osborne's name attached and a Q1 2027 cameras-up target, this is a production that will be actively building its crew roster well before the end of 2025, particularly in the lead-producing country of Austria.

With production still roughly eighteen months out and financing conversations actively underway at Cannes, Vermillion is at the stage where the right professionals can genuinely get ahead of the opportunity. ProductionList.com carries the full listing for this production, including key crew contacts, production company information, and location details, all of which will be updated as the project moves through pre-production and a sales agent is attached. If you are a department head, European locations specialist, period costume professional, or line producer with multi-country co-production experience, this is exactly the kind of listing worth bookmarking and revisiting regularly over the coming months.

Click here for production info or to contact producers