Louis de Funès still looms large in the imagination of French cinema, between popular legacy and an instantly recognizable silhouette. The portrait accompanies the bet entrusted to Pierre Lottin without yet promising the future portrayal. Credits: Vintage Printery / Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Pierre Lottin will portray Louis de Funès in a Louis de Funes biopic developed by UGC. Le Film Français published the announcement on July 7, 2026. BFM TV, Le Figaro, and RTL picked it up on July 8, 2026. The film, still in preproduction, is set to revisit the turning point of the 1960s. This is when the actor moved from supporting roles to nationwide popularity.
An UGC Project Still In Preproduction
Le Film Français was the first to reveal the project, presented as a biopic led by Romain Rojtman, a producer at UGC. The full article is reserved for subscribers. Its opening, however, confirms the production company, the producer, and the publication date, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.
The open reports from BFM TV, Le Figaro, and RTL all converge on the key point. Pierre Lottin, 37, has been chosen to play Louis de Funès. BFM TV specifies that filming is targeted to begin in April 2027, between Paris and Italy. RTL and Le Figaro more broadly refer to filming in spring 2027. No release date has, at this stage, been officially announced.
The film is to be directed by Benjamin Euvrard. Final credits, however, remain to be confirmed, as no official UGC project sheet has been published at this stage.
Portrayal Rather Than Imitation
The stakes of the role lie in Louis de Funès’s unique place in French memory. The actor is not only associated with films. He is associated with an immediately recognizable style of performance: a nervous body, bursts of voice, sidelong glances, quick flashes of anger. The risk, for a biopic, would therefore be turning a beloved figure into little more than a collection of mannerisms.
Romain Rojtman frames the challenge in exactly that way. According to the quote reported by Le Film Français and repeated by RTL, Pierre Lottin will need to “embody the truth of Louis de Funès.” So this would not simply be about reproducing his mannerisms. The phrasing is promotional, but it also states the project’s real problem. How do you approach a comedian whom everyone already thinks they know by sight, without reducing the role to his most famous gestures?
The choice of Pierre Lottin partly answers that tension. First becoming widely known through the Les Tuche franchise, where he plays Wilfried Tuche, the actor then broadened his path. It moves from popular comedy to drama and auteur cinema. Le Figaro specifically cites En fanfare and Just an Illusion. Those two titles take him away from pure slapstick and place him in more melancholy characters. His career gives the casting a logic: start with a face identified through comedy, but now also recognized for other registers.
The Turning Point Of The 1960s
The announced story is set to begin around the mid-1960s. For now, that choice avoids a full biopic that would trace an entire life from childhood. Instead, it targets a turning point. Louis de Funès, long confined to supporting roles, then became one of the most bankable faces in French cinema.
The sources cited mention Pouic-Pouic, Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez, The Troops of St. Tropez, and Fantômas. The timeline needs a little precision: Pouic-Pouic was released in 1963. The year 1964 then brought a decisive acceleration with Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez and Fantômas, followed by The Corniaud in 1965. The film therefore seems to want to tell less a single year than a threshold being crossed. An already very active actor then becomes a central box-office figure.
This moment is also the most dramatically interesting. It makes it possible to show the construction of comedic power, rather than its late exploitation. It returns to an actor at work, not just the familiar statue of reruns.
What Pierre Lottin’s Casting Says
Pierre Lottin comes to the project with recent critical recognition. The Académie des César names him César 2026 for Best Supporting Actor for The Stranger by François Ozon. The award matters in how the casting is read: popular comedy no longer fully defines him.
This trajectory echoes, at a distance, the one the biopic intends to tell. Louis de Funès worked for a long time before achieving recognition. Pierre Lottin, for his part, moves from a highly identifiable role in a popular franchise to a legacy character. The comparison should remain measured: it says nothing about the future performance, which is still unseen, but it sheds light on UGC’s bet.
According to press reports, the project also benefits from the approval of the de Funès family. Here again, the wording should be attributed rather than turned into an artistic endorsement. Family approval can secure a story, open archives, or make certain production choices easier. By itself, it does not guarantee a film’s accuracy.
For UGC, the Louis de Funès biopic checks several industrial boxes. It brings together an instantly identifiable figure, a popular imagination, and an actor able to connect with multiple audiences. But its interest will depend on its ability to go beyond nostalgia. Telling the story of Louis de Funès today is not just about revisiting a filmography. It is also about asking what French cinema does with its myths. It then turns its best-known actors into fiction characters.