The Artist's Bérénice Bejo is to replace Marion Cotillard in the new film from Asghar Farhadi, the Oscar-winning Iranian director of A Separation, according to Deadline.

Cotillard has been forced to quit production of the untitled project due to a scheduling conflict. Bejo, who was nominated for an Oscar following her turn in Michel Hazanavicius's silent paean to Hollywood's golden era, will take her place opposite Tahar Rahim, star of A Prophet.

The new film, described by its director as an "emotional social thriller" with multiple twists in the vein of A Separation, will be Farhadi's first shot outside Iran, and his first in the French language. It will be filmed in and around Paris in October on an 11m-euro budget. Producers hope to have it ready for the spring, which would place it in line for a debut at the Cannes film festival.

Farhadi's A Separation won the Oscar for best foreign language film at last year's Academy Awards, where it was also nominated for best original screenplay.