Dreamworks has released a press release confirming that the production of The Hundred-Foot Journey starring Helen Mirren has begun in southwest France.

The Hundred-Foot Journey‘s script was written by Steven Knight and is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by author Richard C. Morais. Possibly the most interesting part of production is that the movie’s producers include Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Juliet Blake.

The film focuses on a rivalry between an Indian restaurant which is 100 feet away from a Michelin-starred restaurant in France. Its eccentric French chef reluctantly forms a bond with a young Indian boy whose family happens to own the beloved Indian restaurant.

Academy Award winning actress Helen Mirren has been cast to play the chef, with Manish Dayal playing the young Indian boy. Dayal has been involved with Outsourced, as well as The Good Wife.

Helen Mirren is best known for her Academy Award winning role as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006). Mirren has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards. In 2003, Helen Mirren received a damehood for her services to the performing arts at a ceremony which took place at Buckingham Palace

Check out the official synopsis of The Hundred-Foot Journey via the official press release below:

“In “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) is a culinary ingénue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, the Kadam family, led by Papa (Om Puri), settles in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Filled with charm, it is both picturesque and elegant – the ideal place to settle down and open an Indian restaurant, the Maison Mumbai. That is, until the chilly chef proprietress of Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin starred, classical French restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant a hundred feet from her own escalate to all out war between the two establishments – until Hassan’s passion for French haute cuisine and for Mme. Mallory’s enchanting sous chef, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), combine with his mysteriously delicious talent to weave magic between their two cultures and imbue Saint-Antonin with the flavors of life that even Mme. Mallory cannot ignore. At first Mme. Mallory’s culinary rival, she eventually recognizes Hassan’s gift as a chef and takes him under her wing.”

Also included in the cast are Charlotte Le Bon and Om Puri. DreamWorks Studios is producing, with Participant Media co-financing. Mister Smith Entertainment is handling foreign sales to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Disney will be in charge of distributing the film theatrically in the U.S. The Hundred-Foot Journey’s release date is set for August 8, 2014.