Les premiers, les derniers, introduced by Versus Production, is the fourth feature film by Bouli Lanners. After successes with Ultranova, Eldorado en Les Géants, Bouli returns in front and behind the camera, as he will also play one of the major roles next to his mate Albert Dupontel. They play bounty hunters in a pre-apocalyptic western. Their goal is to find a stolen iPhone and return it to its owner.
All his favourite themes return: Les premiers, les derniers is about family ties, wandering, about differences. He does this within a strong narrative framework, in very particular settings with an impressive cast.
In addition to the aforementioned duo, Versus enlisted Sandrine Bonnaire, Serge Riaboukine, David Murgia, Aurora Broutin and Alex Descas. Each of these excellent actors will have a fleshed out role to take care of. The soundtrack will be composed by Detroit, a project of Pascal Humbert and Bertrand Cantat. Filming will take place in autumn, in the south of Belgium and the region of Chartres. The answer print should be ready just in time for … the 2015 Cannes Festival!
The second majority Belgian project, Dernier Jeu, tells the story of the life of Meftun Taylan, a retired Turkish secret agent who feels guilty about his past and thinks up a plan to appease his conscience. In order to achieve his goals, he hires a badly traumatized assassin.
This atypical pitch is the work of three young Flemings of Turkish origin: Sinan Tabanli, Ilhan Akgull and Muhammet Kurt. They convinced Ali Sürmeli, a star in Turkey, to play a big role. Then the small budget film piqued the interest of Tarantula, who accepted to give it a professional structure. Without taking away the essence of this thriller, a first for a production company rather specialised in sometimes comprehensive author films, Tarantula gave them the possibility to benefit from the work of seasoned technicians and a real postproduction, in Wallonia. This side-project could definitely hold some nice surprises!
The other projects are minority coproductions.
Sketté however does have a Belgian director, Olivier van Hoofstadt, spiritual father of Dikkenek who impressed the French a few years later with Go Fast (over 700,000 viewers). Produced by Umedia (France and Belgium), this exuberant, off-the-wall comedy is in line with Olivier’s cult films. Borderline characters will try to get out of inextricable situations they are sinking deeper into.
Once more, the cast fits the project particularly well with a big Belgian contribution: Jérémie Renier, Natacha Régnier and Joffrey Verbruggen in bigger roles, Jean-Luc Couchard, Pauline Étienne and Mourade Zeguendi have shorter appearances. On the French side, quality is also abundant: Karim Leklou (the bad big brother in Les Géants), Philippe Duquesne, Florence Foresti, François Berléand, Paul Bartel, Corinne Masiero,…
The shoot will be held in Blankenberge and in Wallonia starting this autumn.
AfterMöbius and Supercondriaque, production company Artemis now returns with a third French potential blockbuster. Produced by Pathé, Les Nouvelles Aventures d’Aladin give Key Adams the opportunity to explore an oriental frenzy. He will play a small thief, makeshift Santa Claus and story teller. To distract a group of kids in the mall (and to amuse the viewers), he starts making up new fairy tales about Aladin, which are of course completely crazy. The hero of 1001 nights will be played by France’s most hyped comedian of the moment, assisted by a marvelous cast: William Lebghil, Éric Judor, Jean-Paul Rouve, Michel Blanc, Audrey Lamy … The long shoot, demanding 53 days, will take place in Belgium but mostly in Morocco, for the decors are much more fitting of course. The post-production, scheduled for 2015, will essentially be done in Wallonia, special effects included. The release is tentatively set for early 2016.
Finally, last but not least, Entre Chien et Loup presents a vast international co-production about the last years in the life of Oscar Wilde. The project was started by a German producer, fan of the English author, who hired an English specialist (disciple) on the subject: Ruppert Everett. The actor wrote the screenplay for the film he will direct in Belgium, Germany and Italy. He convinced a number of prestigious colleagues to take part: Colin Firth, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson and Hugh Dancy. The filmmaker’s ambition is to set his partition in credible décors which never seem thinned out. This will demand some meticulous work. The Happy Prince (a typically English ironic title) should have a large international career: of course in Great Britain, but also all over Europe, in the United States and Asia.
