Canadian director Ron Mann will make a feature-length documentary about the life of American filmmaker Robert Altman.

The project, unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday (May 17), is a partnership between Mann’s Sphinx Productions, Astral’s The Movie Network, EPIX and sales agent Submarine Entertainment.

The film will chronicle the iconoclastic filmmaker’s life from his early years in Depression-era Kansas City through the production of landmark films such as M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville, The Player and Short Cuts up to his death in 2006. It will feature interviews with key actors, collaborators and family members, archival footage of Altman and clips from his films.

Mann (Grass, Comic Book Confidential) will also produce along with Altman’s widow, Kathryn Reed Altman, and long-time producer Matthew Seig.

“Robert Altman reinvented not only what a movie might be, but how we might view ourselves,” Mann said in a statement. “His films continue to inspire us today.”

“I am pleased and honored to have acclaimed documentarian Ron Mann shepherd this long overdue project,” Reed Altman added. “Ron’s prodigious, challenging, engaging, and one-of-a-kind films revealed him to be the perfect choice to examine and celebrate Bob’s monumental life and art. I have no doubt Bob would be happy and may well be smiling right now.”

Submarine Entertainment is presenting Altman to buyers at the 2012 Cannes Film Market. The film is due to be completed in mid-2013 and a touring exhibit, illustrated companion book and soundtrack will accompany the release.