THE SWIMMER
In 2026, a female-led reimagining of the 1968 cult classic
Reimagining THE SWIMMER with a female protagonist naturally aligns with Sharon Stone’s long standing commitment to the visibility and liberation of women in cinema. Relocating the story from suburban Connecticut to the Hollywood Hills roots the narrative in the cultural heart of this obsession.
Hollywood becomes the perfect setting to explore the cost of integrity, aging, and resistance within an industry that devours its own.”​
Meeting Sandrine Bonnaire to collaborate on a subject like this was pivotal. We needed an actress-director to guide this exploration of the subtle and delicate issue of women’s position in the film industry. Throughout her career as both an actress and a director, Sandrine Bonnaire has taken many risks.
Her authenticity has undoubtedly earned her the privilege of pursuing her career with total freedom. She has not compromised with the system to craft an image of herself that conforms to the norms. In the films she has directed or has in the works, she tackles powerful, sometimes unsettling subjects and makes her mark with what is
undoubtedly most dear to her: reality, even when it is painful.​
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Director: Sandrine Bonnaire (confirmed)
Actress: Sharon Stone (agreement in principle)
Coproduction: RnB!FILMS & Artak Pictures
“ Sandrine BONNAIRE
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When RNB Films approached me with the idea of directing a female-led remake loosely inspired by the film The Swimmer by Frank Perry, I immediately accepted.
This film carries within it a timeless substance: the appearances of social success, cosmetic surgery, small deceptions, humiliation, money, and more broadly, the values upon which our world is built.
Originally, the main character is a man, played by Burt Lancaster. I would like to replace the male character with a woman and show how, in our societies, the gaze directed at her is even more scrutinizing, harsher, and more relentless.
When we thought of Sharon Stone, beyond her immense talent as an actress and her undeniable beauty, we could talk about integrity and how to deal with our society’s violent obsession with youth and the conformity of female bodies.
In this new approach to The Swimmer, our heroine embodies this dissidence. She is an actress who refused cosmetic surgery, who refused to submit to the injunction of perfection imposed on women in direct opposition to a system that demands women correct, erase and alter their faces to remain desirable.
She paid the price for it: the price of her integrity, but also that of her exclusion.
Underwater, the world dissolves, sounds fade away, and gazes disappear…
In this landscape, Hollywood, this seductive yet brutal paradise, becomes the ideal setting to explore the cost of integrity, aging, and resistance within an industry that ultimately devours its own.
