While TF1 was broadcasting “Asterix and Obelix against César” this evening, focus on the next episode signed by Guillaume Canet. What we know about the new film whose shooting ended in early August.
Tf1 rebroadcast this evening Asterix and Obelix against Caesar. Released in 1999, Claude Zidi’s film, starring Christian Clavier and Gérard Depardieu, is the first in a series of live-action adaptations.
As a reminder, the comedy was followed, in 2002, by Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, by Alain Chabat, by Asterix at the Olympic Games by Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann in 2008, and Asterix and Obelix: In the service of His Majesty of Laurent Tirard in 2012.
9 years after this last opus, a new Asterix has just been produced by Guillaume Canet, under the title Asterix & Obélix: L’Empire du milieu. Filming has just ended after 17 weeks of work. The opportunity to take stock of what we know about the film to date.
What will the plot be?
A cart disembarks in the Gallic village with the Chinese princess Fu Yi who came to ask for help after the coup d’etat of a certain Deng Tsin Qin, who overthrew the empress. The reputation of the irreducible Gauls is known as far as Shanghai.
Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Empire will be an original screenplay, and not adapted from one or more previously published comics. This is the first time, excluding animation, that an Asterix film is based on a completely new story, imagined by Philippe Mechelen and Julien Hervé. The initial idea was launched by the producer Yohan Baiada, which interested the Editions Albert René (owners of the work of Uderzo and Goscinny).
Guillaume Canet indicated that “Asterix, already a little vegan, [fera] remonstrances to Obelix on his consumption of wild boars. Both will also discover the feeling of love. The place of women is also more important, you will see …“
What will be the artistic and humorous ambitions?
For this very big budget film, Guillaume Canet gave some clues about his visual ambitions: “I know that we can do something crazy and that we see little in France: a real great adventure film, epic, with sumptuous sets and costumes.. “
I am a big fan of Chinese cinema and its crazy fights
And to add: “The idea is to make children and parents laugh by returning to a quirky humor on Shabat while having a very strong visual ambition, magical, Braveheart type that meets Tiger and Dragon! I am a big fan of Chinese cinema and its crazy fights, with the characters that fly. We will confront the kung fu and the brute force of our Gallic heroes. “
The cast will bring together several families of humor, including a number of actors who will make their first foray into the saga, from Pierre Richard to Franck Gastambide. “I have the capacity to do [de la comédie] and I like to change the register, he specifies. I wanted to finally make a film that my two children can see … Asterix, it’s my relationship to my father. “
We also know a little more about what presided over Canet’s choice to ultimately play Asterix, which was not the filmmaker’s first idea. It was the producers who saw it this way, in particular Alain Attal who has been following Guillaume Canet since his very beginnings. “They said to me: The energetic nervous little one, it’s you”, reports Guillaume Canet, who originally thought of playing Caesar.
A parade of stars and guests!
Around the new tandem Guillaume Canet in Astérix and Gilles Lellouche in Obélix, we will find among others Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard, Angèle, Pierre Richard or Zlatan!
Discover the full cast of Asterix and Obelix: the Middle Kingdom
Florent Manaudou will also be in the cast (in the role of a coach), and that the son of Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard, Marcel, 10, could make an appearance. Zlatan will play the character of Antivirus, “Caesar’s favorite centurion. Initially, it was called Bus Shelter, but we renamed it Antivirus because it is expected and slow to arrive, like the vaccine! It is Yohan’s idea Baiada, the co-producer. We were looking for someone with presence and arrogance. I managed to contact him, it made him laugh. And besides, he did taekwondo!“
Finally, it should be noted that Guillaume Canet shot another film before Asterix, Him, which will be released on October 27. The pitch: A composer in need of inspiration, who has just left wife and children, thinks of finding refuge in an old house on the side of a cliff, on a deserted Breton island. In this strange and isolated place, he will only find an out of tune piano and determined visitors …
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