Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais are currently back in the cinema with “Les Vedettes”. To find the starting point for this comedy parodying the world of game shows, the Palmashow was inspired by an incredible true story.
The stars: the great return of the Palmashow
One year later mandiblesGrégoire Ludig and David Marsais return to the cinema with The stars. With this feature film, the two actors find their friend Jonathan Barré, director of the Palmashow sketches, and The Crazy Story of Max and Leon. They embody here Daniel Santini and Stéphane Chevalier, two employees of a household appliance store.
The first is a failed singer in search of glory and ready to do anything to repay his debts. He decides to use the second, a naive and pretentious colleague. His goal: to participate in game shows to earn as much money as possible and acquire certain notoriety. If they have nothing in common and they are far from being friends, Daniel and Stéphane will nevertheless show real talent together…
The stars ©Gaumont
With this project, Palmashow continues to explore the concept of bromance while diverting the stereotypes of the television landscape. A parody in which they interpret loser magnificent, born after the discovery of an incredible true story.
A delirious anecdote as a starting point
In the press kit, Jonathan Barré, Grégoire Ludig, and David Marsais discuss the origins of the film. The director explains that the trio of screenwriters took a long time to find the starting point of the script. Until he found the story of a specialist in television games:
For The stars, we had been looking for a subject for our second feature film for four years, we were a bit depressed. So I searched my computer, where I keep scraps of ideas that might come in handy one day or another, and I came across this guy who memorizes the prices of household appliances in the United States. The boys were immediately thrilled! It was a completely absurd idea, belonging to a parallel universe, which excited them.
David Marsais specifies:
Jonathan (…) advised us to start from a simple anecdote. He then told us that he had just heard of a guy, in the United States, who had learned all the prices of household appliances to participate in the Fair Price: we saw the picture of the guy, and everything came in 48 hours!
Terry Kniess: prices a little too fair
The trio behind The stars does not specify the identity of this mysterious candidate but it is most likely Terry Kniess or Ted Slauson. In 2010, the magazine Esquire introduces its readers to the first, a former weather presenter who also worked in casino surveillance. For four months, he and his wife Linda have watched carefully The Price is Right the American version of The right price before participating.
During his appearance on the show in September 2008, Terry makes several exact bets on the prices of the different devices, going as far as winning the biggest prize. After guessing the amount of a barbecue, he finds those of a billiard table, a karaoke machine, and a caravan. Always to the penny. The animator Drew Carey is then convinced to be against a cheater. But no, the presenter would simply have welcomed a huge fan of the program with an incredible memory, according to the latter.
Cheater or Brilliant Lucky?
While filming the show, Terry and Linda Kniess meet Ted Slauson. This great regular The Price is Right who has been studying the game for years has tried his luck more than twenty times but never managed to win the final event: the Showcase Showdown.
Sitting next to Linda Kniess as her husband participates in this famous challenge, Ted would have him blow the exact price of the lot, of 23,743 dollars. Guest in the program Texas Standard in 2018 on the occasion of the release of the documentary Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much dedicated to him, Ted Slauson says:
I said to Linda, ‘This window is $23,743. And I said, ‘Let me add it up just one more time to be sure. So I added the numbers and repeated the sum. I asked him, ‘Is that what I said the first time?’ And Linda said, ‘Yes’. (…) Terry looked at us, and we were waving to him with our fingers so that he could find the 23,743 dollars.
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