Rihanna has recently been confirmed to join the cast of Annette, a new movie in the making from French director Leo Carax. The movie will also feature actor Adam Driver, whose previous roles include TV show Girls and Star Wars. Rooney Mara, known for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was also set to join the cast, but has since dropped from the project. Rihanna is expected to have a singing role in the film, which will be an English-language musical based on the ‘70s art-pop glam band, Sparks.
Sparks was formed in Los Angeles in 1971 by brothers Ron and Russell Mael, and is known for their style of combining keyboard with falsetto vocals and intelligent lyrics. The duo has had several songs to top both European and American charts, and is still active today. Sparks’ latest project developed in March of 2015 when the duo joined indie rock band Franz Ferdinand to create a side project called FF5, with which they produced an album and completed a tour of Europe. As Sparks, their most recent album was The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, released in 2009.
For the movie, Sparks has helped developed the script as well as the songs. Carax is known for creating French art films, both dark and eclectic, but Annette will be his English language debut. His most recent movie was released in 2012, titled Holy Motors, which was a French-Garman fantasy drama that competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
Annette was picked up by Amazon studios earlier this month, which has acquired both Canadian and U.S rights to the title for the project, and it is set to begin production shortly. Rihanna will also be starring in the final season of Bates Motel as the character Marion Crane.
UPDATE 17/03: Rihanna will not star in new film by Leo Carax
A representative for Rihanna has told Consequence of Sound that reports of her joining the cast of Annette are incorrect. We will continue to update if more information is released.