Netflix France has given a taster of the 25 original French series and films due to be launched on the platform this year at a press event in Paris on Thursday (March 10) and revealed a further 20 titles are in production.
The French hub, which officially opened on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020, also confirmed it would be investing €200m in French content this year.
The Paris team announced two new French feature projects, the presidential election comedy En Place and Le Roi Des Ombres, a family drama set in a tough outer Paris suburb.
En Place is co-created by Jean-Pascal Zadi and François Uzan. Comedian and actor Zadi made his feature directorial debut in 2020 with Simply Black for Gaumont. Uzan was one of the lead writers on hit series Lupin, starring Omar Sy.
Zadi will star as a teacher who decides to run as a presidential candidate. Other cast members will include Benoit Poelvoorde and Eric Judor.
Le Roi Des Ombres (which translated as King of the Shadows) is based on an original idea by French rapping star Kaaris and directed by Marc Fouchard, it transposes an African folktale to a tough outer suburb of Paris.
“It’s a family drama, which is quite complex. It’s shooting now and will be on Netflix on 2023,” explained Sara May, Netflix France director of film acquisitions, who works closely with Gaëlle Mareschi, director of film production for the territory.
Further upcoming original French features include Romain Gavras’s directing Athena. Described as an immersive and modern tragedy, it is co-written by Ladj Ly. Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon feature in the cast. The slate also includes Dangerous Liaisons, a contemporary and teenage adaptation of the classic novel by Rachel Suissa, who makes her feature directorial debut.
The Paris team also revealed that the second film in Guillaume Pierret’s hit action thriller trilogy Lost Bullet was currently in post-production for an end 2022 release after a 10-week shoot at the end of last year.
The presentation also teased first images from Louis Leterrier’s action-comedy The Take Down, reuniting Omar Sy and Laurent Lafitte as two police officer partners, with very different approaches.
Theatrical strategy
The presentation was hot on the heels of Netflix France’s landmark deal agreement with the country’s main cinema guilds last month, raising the platform’s commitment to French and European features for theatrical release. Under the deal, which is a result of France’s overhaul of its media chronology laws, Netflix France pledged to invest at least 4% of its annual turnover, or at least €40m, in 10 French and European feature films which will launch in cinemas first and then be available for Netflix viewers 15 months later. May explained these films would be acquisitions rather than original productions.
“It’s in constant evolution,” she said of the streamer’s strategy.”We’ve been a partner of French cinema for a while working with producers not only on originals but also in pre-buys. The new obligations are a continuity of what we did before.”
May acknowledged the new obligations would likely result in the platform investing in a broader variety of films, and even getting involved in more auteur- type works. Up until now, the feature slate has veered towards genres works such as Dany Boon’s lockdown comedy Stuck Together and Stray Bullet.
“The idea is to flesh out the offering of Netflix, with films that are very different, whether that’s through the films that come out in theatres – and are on Netflix 15 months later - or our own originals,” she explained. ”We want to respond to the demand in a territory that is very cinephile and where the audience, which is very diverse, wants to see different stories… and it will permit us to reply to the demands of cinephiles, to go towards auteur films as investments progress.”
The presentation also highlighted a raft of original French series and documentaries coming down the line this year, kicking off with Standing Up. The new series from Call My Agent! creator and showrunner Fanny Herrero, about four twentysomethings attempting to break into stand-up comedy, launches this month.
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