TF1 to unveil new Michel Leclerc picture at Paris Rendez-vous

TF1 International will kick off sales on Michel Leclerc’s latest picture Pirate TV (Telegaucho) at Unifrance’s Rendez-vous with French cinema in Paris, beginning Wednesday.  

“It follows a young man who comes to Paris in the 1990s with the dream of becoming a director and ends up working for an anarchist, leftist, pirate TV station. It’s semi-autobiographical,” says TF1 sales head Nicolas Eschbach.

“Michel’s last film achieved some 800,000 entries and also did well internationally,” he adds, referring to romantic comedy The Names of Love (Le nom des gens) which premiered in Critics’ Week 2010 and was picked up by a slew of distributors including Music Box Films for the US.

Felix Moati stars alongside Sara Forestier, who won the 2011 César for best female actress for her performance in The Names of Love, Eric Elmosnino, Emanuelle Béart and Maïwenn. The film, in post-production, is scheduled for an autumn release in France.

TF1 will also unveil Léa Fazer’s Little Cookie, a heart-warming drama starring Alice Taglioni as a Paris-based air stewardess whose life changes forever when her Chinese cleaning lady vanishes leaving her young son Cookie behind.

Produced by Pauline Duhault of Elia Films, the picture is a remake of the 2007 Israeli film Noodle. The production, shot in Paris and Beijing, is due for delivery at the end of 2012.

One of TF1’s key operations at the Paris Rendez-vous will be a big screen projection of four-and-a-half minutes of Claude Miller’s adaptation of François Mauriac’s 1920s classic Thérèse Desqueyroux [pictured], starring Audrey Tautou as the complex, titular female protagonist.

Produced by Yves Marmion, under the UGC YM banner, the sumptuous period piece will be released by UGC Distribution in November 2012.

The film has already racked up a slew of sales, including to Icon (Australia), DFW (Belgium), Bir Films (Turkey), Imovision (Brazil) and Odeon (Greece).

TF1 will also world premiere Big is Beautiful. A tale of female friendship “in the vein of Bridesmaids and Sex in the City with a few extra pounds”, starring Victoria Abril, Lola Dewaere and Catherine Hosmalin as three women who meet at an Alpine health spa.

Other premieres include comedy The Belgian Job about three Belgians who end-up staging an Ocean’s 11-style robbery in a top Paris hotel after a prank to pass themselves off as Belgium’s crown prince and his entourage gets out of hand.

TF1 will also world premiere Eric Guirado’s psychological thriller Greed, his first feature since his critically acclaimed The Grocer’s Son. The picture, inspired by the real-life murder of a property developer and his family in the French Alps, stars Jérémie Renier and Julie Depardieu as a couple consumed with envy.