Uzbek president daughter's film 'casts Depardieu'

The eldest daughter of Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov, already a pop star and fashion designer, is now writing a screenplay for a historical serial that could star French actor Gerard Depardieu as a monk, reports said Wednesday. "The script was written jointly by the writer Akbar Khakimov and Gulnara Karimova. The French actor Gerard Depardieu has given prior consent to act" in the film, olam.uz Internet portal reported. The reports said that Gulnara Karimova's story would be set in the 5th-6th centuries in Central Asia and Depardieu would appear as a monk from Europe. A source at the Fund Forum for Culture and Arts that Karimova runs told AFP that the initial announcement about the film had been made by the president's daughter in the Art Week Style.uz-2012, which took place early this month. "However, these were was initial plans and writing the screenplay is under development. The involvement of Depardieu to the film is also being negotiated," said the source, who did not wish to be named. Harvard-educated Karimova, 40, has become the public face of the ex-Soviet country, serving as its permanent representative in the United Nations in Geneva and as its ambassador in Spain until last year. She also runs jewellery, cosmetics and clothing lines internationally under her Guli label, while heading a number of charity projects at home. But it is as a pop star under the name of GooGoosha that she has attracted the most attention. However during the press conference earlier this year she said that she does not consider herself a professional singer and her true talents lay in diplomacy.