Variety has reported that Johnny Depp will play French monarch Louis XV in the upcoming film directed by French helmer Maiwenn (“Polisse,” “Mon Roi”), with filming set to begin this summer.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star is getting ready to start filming at Versailles Palace. The filming at the Parisian sites is planned to last three months.

The premise and title of the film have yet to be announced. However, King Louis XV was known as Louis the Beloved and reigned from 1715 to 1774, the second-longest reign of any French king. Historians have been harsher on the monarch, blaming him for corruption and pointless, costly wars. Satellifax, a French website, was the first to report about the project.

Mawenn, 45, will also play alongside Depp as Countess Jeanne du Barry, Louis XV’s final mistress, according to the publication.

Depp’s career has been in limbo since ex-wife Amber Heard accused him of domestic violence. After losing his libel lawsuit against the Sun, which he sued for branding him a “wife-beater,” the “Donnie Brasco” actor was sacked from “Fantastic Beasts 3” in 2020.

Depp’s most recent feature was Andrew Levitas’ Minamata, in which he plays W. Eugene Smith, an American photojournalist who documented the horrific effects of mercury poisoning in Japanese coastal villages in the 1970s. Minamata debuted at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020, and MGM picked it up for a US distribution, but it was stalled due to the Depp scandal. The film was eventually sold to independents ILBE and Samuel Goldwyn, who released it in a limited run last December.

Depp hasn’t experienced much criticism in Europe, despite falling out of favor in Hollywood following the allegations and his libel fight against U.K. newspaper The Sun. He was recently honored at the Karlovy Vary and San Sebastian Festival with honorary awards. In 2020, Depp was honored at the Deauville American Film Festival in French Normandy, where he got an award from Catherine Deneuve.

Maiwenn, an actor who later became a filmmaker, received critical praise with the 2011 drama Polisse, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Mon Roi, her 2015 follow-up, won best actress at Cannes for Emmanuelle Bercot. Her most recent film, DNA, was chosen for the official selection at Cannes in 2020. It will be Depp’s first time acting in a historical drama. The new project might possibly be Depp’s first in the French language. The actor spent several years in France and speaks the language fluently, but with a heavy American accent.