The new Jacques Audiard film, Emilia Perez, is a musical crime comedy that the director told Variety will be shot at a studio near Paris and not in Mexico, as originally planned.

Emilia Perez will tell the story of a Mexican cartel leader who undergoes a sex change to run from the law, becoming the woman she has always wanted to be.

The idea for Emilia Perez came to the director more than two years ago as "an opera libretto in four acts," he told the magazine. 

"It was the first time an idea [for a film] came to me in this form and that might explain why I will direct the film in a studio," Audiard said. 

The film will star Gomez, along with Zoe Saldaña and Spain's Karla Sofía Gascón.

So far, no further details have been released about Gomez's casting, who is known for her work in the Hulu TV show Only Murders in the Building. 

Emilia Perez will be produced by Pascal Caucheteux's Why Not Productions, and Audiard and Valérie Schermann through Page 114, their Paris-based company. Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox's The Veterans is handling international sales, with CAA Media Finance representing North American territories.