News

While Hollywood has been exploiting comic books and YA novels as intellectual property for a long time, French cinema has only recently begun to feed its wealth of 19th century novels into the content machine, churning big-budget epics out of classic books in the public domain.

Last year, a two-part version of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers hit local screens, raking in $45 million off a combined $80 million budget for both films. Directed by Martin Bourboulon and featuring a who’s who of Gallic stars, including Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, Romain Duris and Louis Garrel, the Musketeers movies were marked by nonstop action and relentless storytelling tailor-made for the streaming age.

Both films were written by the duo of Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, who previously helmed a series of hit comedies (Daddy or Mommy, Divorce French Style, What’s in a Name?) with a fast-paced Hollywood edge to them.

“The Three Musketeers – d’Artagnan” and “The Three Musketeers – Milady,” the $85 million epic two-part saga based on Alexandre Dumas’ masterpiece produced by Dimitri Rassam’s Paris-based banner Chapter 2 and Pathé Films, has kicked off filming in France. Variety can reveal a first still of the movie (pictured).

The ambitious two-part feature, directed by Martin Bourboulon (“Eiffel”), and based on a script by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière (“What’s in the Name?”), will be shooting entirely in France for 27 weeks through May 2022 for an expected release on Oct. 13.

Prestige locations will be featured in the movie franchise, such as the Louvre Palace, the Hôtel des Invalides, the Castles of Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Fort la Latte and Chantilly, as well as the citadel of Saint-Malo and the historic city center of Troyes. The star-studded cast is headlined by François Civil, Eva Green and Vincent Cassel as D’Artagnan, Milady and Athos.

The duo shine leading the cast of Martin Bourboulon’s new film, produced by Vvz Production and sold by Pathé, which follows in the trail blazed by the Eiffel Tower’s inventor. The first clapperboard slammed on 13 August for Eiffel, Martin Bourboulon’s third feature film after Daddy or Mommy (2.8 million admission in France in 2015) and Divorce French Style (Daddy or Mommy 2) (1.36 million viewers by the end of 2016). Standing tall among the cast are Romain Duris and the French-British rising star Emma Mackey (discovered in the series Sex Education and soon to be seen in the Irish film The Winter Lake).Written by the director, alongside Caroline Bongrand, Tatiana de Rosnay...

French actor and comedian Laurent Lafitte will serve as master of ceremonies of the 69th Cannes film festival, presiding over its opening and closing ceremonies in May. Organizers praised their pick, saying: "He has excelled in a range of registers from comedy (The Other Side of the Tracks, 16 ans... ou presque, Papa ou maman etc), to drama and arthouse film (Little White Lies, Bright Days Ahead, Tristesse Club, Boomerang)." They added: "Having appeared in Love Punch in 2013 alongside Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson, he has just finished filming Elle by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven and is currently

read more...

Exclusive: Beta, Celluloid Dreams, Protagonist, The Match Factory, Feltrinelli join indie distribution schemes.

European distribution schemes The Tide Experiment and Walk This Way have seen 2016 EU funding injections of €500,000 ($545,000) and €650,000 ($710,000), respectively.

Walk This Way aggregates and promotes films for straight-to-vod distribution in the EU.

In 2015, the network - co-ordinated by industry consortium Under The Milky Way, Europa International and The Film Agency - supported 280 multi-territory releases of independent films.

Sales agents to join the scheme for 2016 include Beta Cinema, Celluloid Dreams, New Europe Film Sales, Protagonist Pictures and The Match Factory. Existing partners include Autlook Film Sales, Gaumont, Pathé, Films Boutique, Films Distribution, Memento Film International and The Yellow Affair.

For its second edition, Walk This Way will help distribute 50 titles in more than 15 territories, which will require the creation of 400 subtitles. According to organisers, each film will be available in an average of eight territories on global and local platforms.

Key titles...