Roman Polanski picks France over Poland to shoot new movie on Dreyfus affair

Roman Polanski is planning to shoot his next movie in France and not Poland, as previously announced, his producer has confirmed. But the change isn’t connected to the Polish government’s recent decision to revive efforts to extradite the filmmaker to the U.S., the producer said.

Polanski has decided to shoot a historical movie about the Dreyfus affair in France because of a new 30% tax credit, producer Robert Benmussa said via email. The decision to film in France was made months ago, he said, and isn’t related to the extradition efforts.

On Tuesday, Poland’s Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said the government would appeal a Polish court’s decision in October that rejected an extradition request by the U.S.

Ziobro said he believes that Polanski received preferential treatment during the trial last year.

Polanski was born in France but grew up in Poland. He holds dual French and Polish citizenship.

The filmmaker is still wanted in the U.S. in connection to his 1977 case in which he pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor. The director was released after staying 42 days in a Chino prison as part of a judge-ordered psychiatric study but fled the country when he feared the judge would send him back to jail.

Polanski’s new movie is based on the infamous Dreyfus affair that shook France around the turn of the 20th century.

Alfred Dreyfus, a military officer of Jewish descent, was tried and convicted of treason. The movie will tell the story from the point of view of another officer, Georges Picquart, who worked to exonerate Dreyfus.

Polanski has been working on the screenplay with British writer Robert Harris. In 2014, Harris published the novel “An Officer and a Spy,” about the Dreyfus affair.

The start of filming has been postponed until 2017 at the earliest, according to a recent report in Le Parisien.

Benmussa said that the postponement is due to casting problems. The movie is expected to be shot in English.

France has recently introduced new tax incentives in part to reverse the exodus of movie productions to cheaper locations, many in central and eastern Europe.

Benmussa has produced several of Polanski’s films, including “The Pianist,” “The Ghost Writer” and “Venus in Fur.”

Polanski, who won an Oscar for “The Pianist,” has kept a high public profile in recent weeks, making the rounds on French talk shows to promote the re-release of his 1984 memoirs.

david.ng@latimes.com