In 1988, John Malkovich donned a periwig to play the predatory Vicomte de Valmont in Stephen Frears's film Dangerous Liaisons. Almost 25 years later, the actor has stepped into the director's shoes with a French language version of the original play in Paris.

Malkovich's production of Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses – itself an adaptation of a novel by Choderlos de Laclos – retains traces of period costume, but gives the play several modern twists, with the characters' letter-writing replaced by texts and tweets. "We're doing a kind of mix between the 18th century and now," Malkovich told Agence France-Presse.

Rehearsals began in November, before the production opened at the Théàtre de l'Atelier in the Latin Quarter of the French capital in January, where it is booking until 30 June. Malkovich auditioned over 300 student actors for the production, seeking a cast as young as the characters, who are all in their late teens to mid-20s. Yannik Landrein plays Valmont.

However Bloomberg's critic Jorg von Uthmann was unimpressed, likening the production to a drama school showcase: "Julie Moulier and Yannik Landrein are simply too young to be convincing," he wrote.

Malkovich was 34 when he played Valmont, starring opposite Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer in Frears's film , which won three Academy Awards. He recently told French reporters that he hadn't watched the film for more than 20 years.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which was first produced in Stratford by the RSC in 1985 before transferring to the West End and Broadway, is Malkovich's third directorial outing in France. In 2008, he was awarded a Molière award for his production of Zach Helm's Good Canary, having previously transferred his Steppenwolf production of Terry Johnson's Hysteria to Paris in 2002.

Malkovich told reporters that he had wanted to direct Hampton's play since he first read it in the 1980s.