Newen Connect has added a trio of star-powered French comedies – Meet The Leroys, Here & There and Karaoké – to its slate and the TF1-owned company will kick off sales for the new films at AFM.
Meet The Leroys (Nous, Les Leroy) is written and directed by International Emmy-nominated Florent Bernard (Le Flambeau) and stars Charlotte Gainsbourg and José Garcia in a story of a man facing divorce who attempts to rekindle his wife’s affections by taking her and their teenage children on a road trip down memory lane.
The film is produced by the TF1 group’s production arm TF1 Studio and French production house Nolita Cinema which are also behind Gainsbourg’s doc Jane By Charlotte, Christian Duguay’s Ride Above, hit Netflix feature franchise Lost Bullet and Thierry Klifa’s just-announced Rachel’s Game. Meet The Leroys is currently in post-production, with TF1 Studio and Apollo Films setting an April 2024 release in France.
Ludovic Bernard’s Here & There (Ici et là-bas) follows a duo of unlikely cousins forced to team up for a culinary tour of France in a race to save a job, return an expat to his home and reconnect with their long-lost roots.
Rising French actors Ahmed Sylla (The Climb) and Hakim Jemili (Open Season) star. Ludovic Bernard directed popular comedy 10 Days Without Mum and its sequel How To Survive Without Mum with Franck Dubosc and Aure Atika, music drama In Your Hands with Kristin Scott Thomas and Lambert Wilson and episodes of Lupin.
Here & There is produced by TF1 Studio alongside Paris-based Prélude and is currently in post-production. Studiocanal and TF1 Studio will release in France, also in April 2024.
Stephane Ben Lahcene’s Karaoke (Karaoké) stars Michèle Laroque and Claudia Tagbo as a karaoke-obsessed cleaning lady and a disgraced opera star who must overcome their clashing personalities and class divide to form an unexpected singing duo that could solve all their problems. Now in post-production, Karaoke is produced by Les Films du 24, known for French blockbuster franchise Serial (Bad)Weddings and its sequels.The film is set for a March 2024 release via UGC Distribution.
Alice Damiani, SVP of international film sales at Newen Connect, called the films “feel-good comedies that provide cinemagoers with some much-needed escapism”. She added: “All three titles offer something different and yet familiar with a selection of the most recognisable names and faces in French comedy and bring together the talents of new and established writers, directors and producers who bring a fresh perspective to the genre.”
Rounding out Newen Connect’s comedy-powered slate is new footage of Hanna Ladoul and Marco La Via’s buzzy English-language comedy drama Funny Birds starring Catherine Deneuve, Andrea Riseborough and Morgan Saylor in a story about three generations of women and one last chance for reconciliation. Martin Scorsese is on board as executive producer for the film produced by Julien Madon, Aimée Buidine, Melita Toscan du Plantier and Raphael Gindre.
Newen Connect will also be at AFM with French wildlife director Guillaume Maidatchevsky’s arctic fox adventure story Kina & Yuk. The film is produced by Valdès which previously worked with the director for his reindeer odyssey story Ailo’s Journey. It will be released in France in December of this year via TF1 Studio and UGC.
The film tells the story of two arctic foxes, separated by the melting polar ice, who must overcome a number of dangers in the hope of being reunited and raise a family together.
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