According to his lawyers, French literary star Michel Houellebecq is attempting to have a sexually explicit film starring him banned from being released.
According to reports, the global bestselling author also wants the trailer for the film "Kirac 27" by Dutch filmmaker Stefan Ruitenbeek removed.
A shirtless Houellebecq kisses a young woman in bed in the trailer, which was released in January.
It contains an off-camera commentary by Ruitenbeek saying that Houellebecq had written to him saying that his honeymoon in Morocco had been called off after his wife had "spent a month booking prostitutes".
Houellebecq and his wife, Lysis, "discovered with shock and disgust" that the trailer contained "serious and false statements that violently attacked their dignity," according to their lawyers Angelique Beres and Maia Kantor.
The couple said they had filed "civil and criminal proceedings" to stop the film, which was set to be released in March, and the trailer with its "defamatory" commentary.
They want to "put an end to these attacks immediately" by removing the trailer from all internet platforms and banning the director and his team from showing the film, "or any other images they may have of the Houellebecqs".
In a message to the director seen by AFP, Houellebecq said that the trailer was an attack on his honour and his personal life and, “worst of all” on his wife, who he said was “devastated by the lies” in the clip.
Ruitenbeek meanwhile told the Vice news site last week that the idea to shoot a porn movie had come from Houellebecq and his wife after they had seen “Honeypot”, a previous film by the “Kirac” collective.
“That made them want to do something similar,” he said in an interview with the site, quoting Lysis Houellebecq as telling Ruitenbeek that if he wanted to do something for her husband “you’ll have to turn him into a porn star”.
A first scene was shot the next day with Houellebecq and a young woman called Jini van Rooijen who works with the director and “adores Houellebecq”, Ruitenbeek said.
“It was incredible, they did all kinds of positions,” he said.
Shooting went on for six days in Amsterdam in Paris, and also included scenes of Houellebecq discussing philosophy with sexual partners, four in total, and restaurant visits, the director said.
Houellebecq is a controversial writer, and often accused of tapping into right-wing fears over Islam in France.
Prime9jaOnline learnt that the Union of Mosques in France said last month it was suing Houellebecq for discrimination, hate speech and inciting violence in remarks to an interviewer.