Deadline reports that HBO Films has tapped Ava DuVernay to direct The Battle of Versailles, a film about the legendary 1973 Palace of Versailles fashion show. DuVernay will also co-write the film with Michael Starrbury. The fashion show served as a fundraiser for Versailles and pitted the five best French designers, Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro, and Marc Bohan, against five American designers the world had not yet heard of: Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, Halston, and Stephen Burrows. Spoiler alert: The Americans won. The show was also a trailblazer for diversity: Ten of the 30 models from the winning American side were African-American. This film will likely be Selma levels of inspiring with fashion-battle–worthy levels of shade.
