12/03/2012 - The 1960s television series is to be adapted to the silver screen by the director of Loup and The Last Trapper

"It happens up there, in the Alps, were the snow is immaculate, chamois run after marmots, and the peeks kiss the the clouds. It’s the meeting between a lonely child and a wild dog, the adventure of an unwavering friendship.” A television hit in 1965, the adaptation of Cécile Aubry’s novel Belle et Sébastien will soon be back, this time on the silver screen, in a film by Nicolas Vanier (pictured - 1,15 million admissions in France in 2009 with< Loup [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and 2 million spectators in 2004 for The Last Trapper).

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The story will be set in an Alpine village, calm until the arrival of the Germans in the middle of the Second World War. There, Sebastian, a resourceful and endearing young boy, will meet and tame Belle, a wild dog. But the film will also be the odyssey of the little boy in search of his mother, an old man in search of his past, a French resistant in search for love, a young lady in search of adventure, and a German lieutenant in search of forgiveness.

Produced by Gaumont (who will distrubute the film in France and be in charge of international sales) and Radar Films, Belle et Sébastien will be filmed in the Alps, on the Vanoise side of the Maurienne valley, over 14 weeks during three seasons, notably from June to August, and from December 2012 to January 2013. The film’s release is planned for the end of 2013.

(Translated from French)