Jesse Eisenberg to play Marcel Marceau in Resistance

Jesse Eisenberg has been cast as mime artist Marcel Marceau in new film Resistance.

The casting for the film, which will be written and directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz, was announced at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film will focus on Marceau’s life before he became famous, showing how the Jewish star, best known for his Bip the Clown character, helped the French Resistance during World War II, when his home country was under Nazi rule.

Marceau, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 84, first used mime as a way to keep Jewish children quiet while he helped them escape to Switzerland.

During the war, Marceau and his younger brother Alain both worked with the French Resistance, helping save the lives of numerous children from race laws and concentration camps, and then they joined the French army. Because he could speak English and German, as well as his native French, Marceau worked as a liaison officer with army general George Smith Patton, Jr.

The mime artist’s oldest son Baptiste Marceau is on board as executive producer, reports Deadline, and has worked closely with the research team.

Director Jakubowicz’s wife Claudine is producing, along with Carlos Garcia de Paredes.

Like Emmy Award winner Marceau, Eisenberg hails from a Jewish background. He’s also well versed in the mime artist’s history, as his mother previously worked as a professional clown.

The 33-year-old Oscar nominee showed his own magic skills off in the Now You See Me films.

He can next be seen as DC Comics baddie Lex Luthor in Justice League, a role he first played in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.