Vincent Cassel to Play Quasimodo in Netflix's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" Remake

Netflix has landed its next big French project, “Quasimodo,” starring Vincent Cassel as the iconic character created by Victor Hugo in his cult 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”

The movie will begin filming this summer in France with Jean-Francois Richet (“Mesrine”) on board to direct, with a script penned by Eric Besnard (“Delicieux”). 

“Quasimodo” is being produced by Clément Miserez and Matthieu Warter at Radar Films, a Mediawan company.

Set in Paris on the eve of the July Revolution in 1830, the epic movie reimagines the life of the man who inspired the fictional character of Quadimodo, a disfigured man who as the bell-ringer for Notre Dame cathedral in Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”

“As the cholera epidemic spreads through the city, he’s caught between political turmoil and an impossible love,” reads the synopsis. 

While the plot remains under wraps, the movie is believed to have a dark edge.

The movie reteams Richet with Cassel, who starred in the hugely successful two-part crime thriller “Mesrine” as gangster Jacques Mesrine, and “The Emperor of Paris,” in which he played François Vidocq, an ex convict considered as the father of the French national police force.

Cassel has recently played in other period films in France, notably “The Three Musketeers,” based on Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel.

A number of illustrious actors ave played Quasimodo in fictional works, including Lon Chaney, Charles Laughton, Anthony Quinn, and Anthony Hopkins.

Besnard, who penned the script for “Quasimodo,” is also directing “Valjean,” a project that charts the origin story of Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece “Les Misérables.”