Looking to capitalize on upcoming Sophia Coppola pic, Marie-Antoinette, and recently released Phantom of the Opera, Griot Pictures Entertainment has retained screenwriter Paris Qualles (A House Divided, Tuskegee Airmen) through International Creative Management (ICM) to write “Chevalier”, based on the historical story of Le Chevalier de Saint-George, also known as The Black Mozart.

A confidant and music instructor to Marie-Antoinette, Saint-George was a superstar violinist and opera composer who influenced Mozart. He was also Europe’s fencing champion, an infamous playboy, and a military hero in the French Revolution.

Griot producers see “Chevalier” as the natural evolution in the recent explosion of period-piece fare. “Saint-George was adored by the French and British public as a music and fencing superstar, but he is only recently being re-discovered because much of his musical material was destroyed during the French Revolution, and later, by Napoleon’s regime.”