“The number one question I get asked is, ‘Do you think Jim Morrison’s really dead?’” says Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist of The Doors.  In response, Manzarek wrote the novel The Poet in Exile, which imagines Morrison coming out of hiding forty years after his staged death in 1971.  Tim Sullivan (Driftwood) has optioned the rights to the novel with plans to write and direct the adaptation.  Sullivan will co-write the script with Gavin Heffernan (Chillerama) and Liz Sullivan (Icons and Outcasts).  Manzarek will produce.

The casting process should be fun.  Who would you want to see play a 67-year-old Jim Morrison?  Full pres release after the jump.

French actress Virginie Ledoyen, whose claim to international fame was a starring role in The Beach alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, will appear in a movie inspired by Doors singer Jim Morrison.

The Last Beat is loosely based on his last days in Paris, where he died in 1971. Ledoyen will play Clémence, a countess and one of the two love interests of Jay Douglas, the Morrison-inspired character played by Shawn Andrews. Hit the jump for the synopsis and more.

Mystery and lore have always surrounded The Doors. To uncover the personal truth behind the legend and reveal it as accurately as possible, independent filmmaker Tom DiCillo drew upon a wealth of original documentary footage shot by Paul Ferrara, frontman Jim Morrison’s UCLA film school buddy, and wove into it scenes from HWY, Morrison’s unreleased experimental film from 1969, in which he starred and made with a group of filmmaker friends. The end result is When You’re Strange, a riveting account of the creative journey of one of the most revolutionary bands seen through the unique prism of America 40 years ago. Narrated by Johnny Depp, the film provides an amazingly perceptive perspective on The Doors.

We sat down with director Tom DiCillo and former Doors drummer John Densmore at a recent roundtable interview to discuss their new film. DiCillo’s most recent feature film, Delirious was released in 2007. When You’re Strange is his first full-length documentary. Densmore was far more than merely the rhythmic engine of The Doors. He brought a highly evolved sense of dynamics, structure and musicality to his beats. DiCillo and Densmore talked to us about the challenge of combining an overwhelming amount of 40-year-old footage into a cohesive narrative to capture the zeitgeist and fraction of an era while providing insight into who The Doors were, what they became and what they meant to our culture.