"I never did an opera on a stage. Filmmaking is a piece of cake compared to theater," The Associated Press quotes the 75-year-old director as saying at a press conference yesterday in the Czech capital.

The work itself is familiar to Forman, at least: he saw the piece, written by Jir‹ Suchy and Jir‹ Slitr, during its initial run in Prague in the 1960s and directed a television version of it in 1966, according to the AP.

Among the other well-known films by Forman, who came to the U.S. in 1968, are Ragtime, Hair and The People vs. Larry Flynt.