Sofia Coppola films "Marie-Antoinette" at Versailles

[GardenStateGirlie]

Sofia Coppola films "Marie-Antoinette" at Versailles

PARIS - US director Sofia Coppola was due to begin filming scenes of "Marie-Antoinette", her biopic about the Austrian teen who became queen of France, inside the lavish Versailles palace, producers said.

Coppola, who took home an Oscar last year for best original screenplay for "Lost in Translation", has also written the screenplay for her latest effort, loosely based on Antonia Fraser's book "Marie-Antoinette: The Journey".

Kirsten Dunst -- the 22-year-old US actress who shot to fame as the girl who kissed Brad Pitt in "Interview with the Vampire" and recently starred in the popular "Spiderman" movies -- will portray the teenage French queen.

Dunst has already worked with the 33-year-old Coppola on "The Virgin Suicides", released in 1999.

Jason Schwartzman, Coppola's cousin who is best known for his role in Wes Anderson's quirky "Rushmore", will play her husband King Louis XVI, while Rip Torn will play Louis XV, after French actor Alain Delon turned down the role.

Coppola's set at the Versailles palace outside Paris -- where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette actually lived -- is closed to the press, the popular French daily Le Parisien reported.

Filming, which began last week, is expected to last 11 weeks. The entire shoot will take place in France.

Marie-Antoinette was beheaded in 1793, during the French Revolution.

Thanks for that last bit, yahoo news Okay, I absolutely LOVE historical pieces. However, this cast? Are you serious? I love Jason Schwartzman and I do think he's a good actor. However, to portray the King of France? And Rip Torn? Kirsten Dunst?? Hell, the last really outstanding film she starred in was Interview With A Vampire and she was what, 10?

I'm not sure i'm as stoked about this now that I know who is in the film