Heirs of Marcel Marceau Deny Involvement in Jesse Eisenberg Film ‘Resistance’

By Elsa Keslassy

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Descendants of Marcel Marceau have disavowed World War II drama “Resistance,” saying that they are “in no way associated with the production,” which stars Jesse Eisenberg as the legendary performer and mime artist.

In a statement to Variety, children and heirs of Marceau said the project was erroneously “reported in the press and on social media as ‘the true story of and the French .’” They said that Baptiste Marceau, one of the performer’s sons, “was wrongly cited as an associate producer, although he and the rest of his family have in no way agreed to participate in the production of this American film.”

“Resistance,” directed and written by Jonathan Jakubowicz (“Hands of Stone”),  follows the story of Marceau and his efforts to save Jewish children whose parents were killed in the Holocaust. Marceau’s own father died in Auschwitz.

His descendants object to the film as only a partial view of their famous ancestor. “The life of the artist cannot be summed up into one period, even one as important as his time in the French Resistance,” they said in their statement.

They have given exclusive rights to a French company, Æternam Films, to produce a film that will show “all the different periods and dimensions of [Marceau’s] life.” Details of the project will be unveiled during the first half of 2019.

Marceau was born the son of a Jewish butcher and managed to escape deportation before becoming a member of the Resistance. He went on perform around the world for more than 60 years.

Marceau gave his first show after the liberation of Paris in August 1944 and later won a flurry of honorary awards, including France’s National Order of Merit, an Emmy Award, and even a National Treasure nod in Japan.