In The Hollywood Reporter (via Crooked Timber):
Haitian auteur Raoul Peck will direct “Karl Marx,” tracing the young adventures of the German philosopher and revolutionary, producer Jacques Bidou said Thursday.
The picture will cover the period 1830-1848, including Marx’s time in Paris before being expelled to Brussels and culminating with the publication of the Communist Manifesto. “Marx was considered a young genius at the time, but it was also a period marked by the birth of a great movement in thinking,” Bidou said.
The story also will encompass Marx’s love for his aristocratic wife Jenny von Westphalen, and his friendship with Friedrich Engels, with whom he co-authored the Manifesto.
No cast is yet attached, but Bidou said the principal characters will necessarily be young. “Raoul very definitely wants to make this a film for a wide public,” he said.
The English-language movie will be produced by Bidou’s JBA Prods. and, with a budget of about $20 million, will be the Paris-based production house’s most ambitious project to date.