Although A Separation should have took home the top Academy Award altogether this year, director Asghar Farhadi was certainly content on receiving the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Now, according to reports out of France, he’ll be working with the female lead of the Best Picture winner The Artist.

Film France is reporting that Bérénice Bejo is set to replace Rust & Bone and The Dark Knight Rises star Marion Cotillard in his next feature, because due to scheduling issues the actress unfortunately had to depart. Bejo will join  A Prophet star Tahar Rahim for the drama, which we only know as an “emotional social thriller” — which, while similar to A Separation, is said to have a twistier screenplay.

While her co-star and Oscar winner Jean Dujardin is breaking out in Hollywood with a role in Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street, Bejo has still stayed in foreign territory. She had a wonderful spark in The Artist, so hopefully she’ll be able to bring out a more dramatic side here. Among other dramas, she’s also set to re-join her husband Michel Hazanavicius in his Artist follow-up.

Rehearsals have started for an October Paris shoot, with a likely Cannes premiere happening in 2013 for Farhadi’s next.

Does Bejo make a worthy replacement?