Impressive line-up for Astérix at the Olympic Games
Gérard Depardieu, Alain Delon, Benoît Poelvoorde, José Garcia, Dany Boon and Clovis Cornillac (as Astérix), Spain’s Santiago Segura and Fernando Tejero, Indian star Aishwarya Rai, German top model Gisele Bundchen and her fellow countryman Michael Herbig, Belgian’s Jean-Claude Van Damme, Canada’s Stéphane Rousseau, not to mention international sport stars Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Michael Schumacher (who drives a chariot).
This cast of Astérix at the Olympic Games has reached an international and heterogeneous dimension never before seen in a French production. As a result, the budget is initially estimated at €78m, making it the second most expensive film in the history of French cinema to date, behind Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. Shooting for the feature, directed by Frédéric Forestier and producer Thomas Langmann, will last 20 weeks at the La Ciudad de la Luz Studios in Alicante (news) and will start June 22.
Produced by La Petite Reine, together with Pathé Renn Productions, Canal + and Spain’s TriPictures, Astérix at the Olympic Games will be distributed in France in December 2007 by Pathé, who is also handling international sales.
Astérix and Obélix: Mission Cleopatra, the most recent screen adaptation of the adventures of the famous Gauls from the comic book by Goscinny and Uderzo, drew in 14.5m admissions in France in 2001 and has enjoyed a very successful international career. The challenge is therefore a big one for the young director-producer Langmann (son of Claude Berri), who pointed out the unique quality of facilities at Ciudad de la Luz last January at the French-Spanish meetings held in Paris by Unifrance.
"The only difficulty," he said, "is finding highly qualified technicians in the Alicante region, as they tend to work in Barcelona and Madrid. But it is necessary to praise film investment in the Valencia region, which makes Spain more competitive in terms of shooting, in contrast to Morocco. Moreover, Spanish television channels are especially interested in the film, as a very well-known actor, Santiago Segura (Torrente), features in the line-up. Nevertheless, we need to be careful not to create a kind of europudding."
(Translated from French)
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