The film is indeed the single most ambitious project in its genre we have ever been asked to co-finance, at least in terms of Walloon involvement. Astérix et le domaine des Dieux, filmed in 3D (see picture), will for the most part be made in Belgium: in Ghent (Grid) but mostly in Wallonia.
Dreamwall will be responsible for the animation and modelisation, while Nozon will take care of the rendering, lighting and compositing.
In total, this means close to 400 work days for two teams working on a film with the potential to rival analogical American films.
Based on the 17th album from the comic book series Astérix, written by René Goscinny (scenario) and Albert Uderzo (drawing), the film will tell the story of how Julius Caesar decided to surround the Gallic village by building a residential domain around it, destined to Roman owners and called “Domain of the Gods”. The construction aims to civilize the invincibles and weaken them by taking away their primary resource, the forest, in order to finally take down the last bastion standing up to him and teasing him.
The screenplay, very faithful to the comic, was written by Alexandre Astier and Jean-Remi François and will be filmed by Louis Clichy. No statements have been released concerning the voice cast, however it is said that Roger Carel (85 years old) will once more join the studios to play the little blond warrior.
This film marks the 8th animated adaptation of an Asterix comic, after Asterix le Gaulois (1967 – 2 415 230 viewers in France, Les douze travaux d’Asterix (1976 – 2 206 163), Asterix et la surprise de César (1985 – 1 704 226), Asterix chez les Bretons (1986 – 1.724.770), Asterix et le coup du Menhir (1989-1 442 311) , Asterix et les indiens (1995 – 1 059 709) and Astérix et les vikings (2006 – 1 374 027).
