Wallimage-Bruxellimage backs Schoeller, Rambaldi, 3D Asterix

23/02/2011

Wallimage-Bruxellimage’s seventh session once again put the emphasis on co-productions, from the most serious to the most light-hearted.

The fund will back Pierre Schoeller’s L’Exercice du Pouvoir (“The Exercise of Power”), which plunges viewers into the everyday life of a minister (played by Olivier Gourmet) and his inner circle (including Michel Blanc as his principal private secretary). This is the second feature by Schoeller, who was discovered in the Un Certain Regard with Versailles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Geraldine Michelot
interview: Pierre Schoeller
film profile] at Cannes 2008. Produced by Archipel 35 for France, the film is co-produced by the Dardenne brothers’ Les Films du Fleuve.

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There’s quite another atmosphere in the film adaptation of Anna Sam’s blog-turned-bestseller Checkout: A Life on the Tills, first published in 2008. Brought to the big screen by first-time feature director Pierre Rambaldi, the film charts the life of a young checkout girl (Déborah François of The Son [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), and blends sociological study, disenchanted comedy and trade-union issues.

Produced by France’s Big World and Belgium’s Nexus Factory, Checkout also features Jean-Luc Couchard, Marc Lavoine, Elsa Zylberstein and Firmine Richard.

Finally, Wallimage/Bruxellimage adds another French mega-production to its tally, after Nothing to Declare [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and The Burma Conspiracy [+see also:
trailer
film profile], with the fourth Asterix adventures, whose working title is God Save Britannia. As usual, the cast announcement caused quite a stir: big-name actors Catherine Deneuve, Fabrice Lucchini and Valérie Lemercier will star alongside Edouard Baer playing that little Gaul Asterix with his winged helmet. Added Belgian value will come from appearances by Bouli Lanners, François Damiens and Stéphane De Groodt.

The film will be co-produced by Belgium’s Scope Pictures, an offshoot of Scope Invest, which is specialised in raising Tax Shelter funds. Helmed by Laurent Tirard (Little Nicholas [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Asterix 4 looks set to be the first major Francophone live-action 3D feature.