Warner Bros. is coming aboard to finance and produce the Coco Chanel biopic "Coco Avant Chanel," starring Audrey Tautou, with production starting Sept. 15 in Paris.

Anne Fontaine will helm the pic, with French shingles Haut et Court and Cine @ producing. Tautou's attachment was announced during last year's Cannes Film Festival.

"Coco Avant Chanel" is set for a 12-week shoot and has been scheduled for release next year. It will be distributed in France by Warner Bros. Entertainment France and handled internationally by Warner Bros.

Screenplay's penned by Anne Fontaine and Camille Fontaine, along with script consultant Christopher Hampton. It's based on the Chanel biography "L'Irreguliere" (The Nonconformist) by Edmonde Charles-Roux.

The film will feature dresses from the Chanel collection. Karl Lagerfeld, art director of the House of Chanel, will supervise the re-creation of costumes and accessories.

More sentimental than chic, Gallic biopic "Coco Before Chanel" nonetheless knits a convincing portrait of the designer's journey from her humble beginnings as a provincial seamstress to the halls of Parisian haute couture. Focusing on the era in which Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (winningly played by Audrey Tautou) served as mistress of an eccentric millionaire, the film reveals, via meticulous period imagery, how the couturier forged a style that would change the way women dressed in the 20th century. Warner Bros.' April 22 Gaul release should scoot gracefully down the theatrical runway before wafting overseas like a splash of No. 5.