Don’t expect Warner Bros. Discovery’s French original programming team to follow Netflix and Amazon Prime Video’s trail and chase teen audiences.
Vera Peltekian, VP and head of streaming original production for the banner, says the standalone service’s bow in France “is on the roadmap” with a raft of “bold and director-driven Max originals targeting adult audiences in line with what the HBO brand is known for.”
Peltekian, who previously worked 15 years atCanal + and played a major role in the pay TV group’s critically acclaimed series such as “The Returned,” “Spiral” and “Savages,” revealed that Warner Bros. Discovery’s first French original will be “The Mythomaniac of the Bataclan,” a four-part series inspired by the true story of a woman who conned her way into a victims’association and quickly became one of its pillars.
Now shooting on location in Paris, “The Mythomaniac of the Bataclan” is headlined by Laure Calamy, the versatile Cesar-winning actor of “My Donkey, My Lover & I,” hit series “Call My Agent” and more recently Sebastien Marner’s Venice-premiering “The Origin of Evil.”
The series begins on the night of the terror attack at the Bataclan concert hall on Nov. 13, 2015. Christelle, like the rest of the country, is in a state of shock. The morning after, she quickly connects with a group of victims and when the idea of creatingasupport group for survivorsis floated, Christelle is instrumental in bringing it to life. However, it becomes clear that her connection with the tragedy is not as it seems, threatening to unravel a deeper web of lies.
Just Philippot, the up-and-coming director of “The Swarm” and “Acid,” is directing the psychological thriller, based on a script by Fanny Burdino, Jean-Baptiste Delafon, Samuel Doux and Alexandre Kauffmann. Burdino and Doux previously worked with Calamy on “The Origin of Evil.” The story is loosely based on Kauffman’s non-fiction book “La Mythomane du Bataclan.” It’s being produced by StudioFact Stories with June Films.
“Bringing the young, talented director Just Philippot and the brilliant, popular actress Laure Calamy together in a disturbing and dizzying thriller is a great example what we want to embody in our French productions,” says Peltekian, adding that Philippot has been able to deliver genre films with a strong social dimension before. “That’s what we were drawn to his vision with ‘The Mythomaniac of the Bataclan’ because he’s talking about societal issues through a completely crazy story,” she says.
Peltekian says the series, like the other originals in development, will launch on Warner Bros. Discovery’s standalone service rather than on Amazon Prime Video. The company’s programming is currently being distributed in France on Prime Video through its Warner Pass offer but Warner Bros. Discovery’s president of EMEA Priya Dogra said“France is a key territory for us in EMEA.” She says the banner is “looking forward to launching our streaming service there in due time.”
Peltekian says her ambition is “to create quality content that is at the same time universal, singular and long-lasting” in France. She cited Spain as another strategic market where the service is investing in local content.
France is considered a key European market for several reasons, says Peltekian, citing the “presence of established services of subscribers which underscores that there an appetite for drama and for talent.” She also points to the “natural connections between talent working in both film and in TV.” Peltekian is well positioned to tap into this trend, having participated in its birth at Canal + where she worked on director-driven shows like “Savages,” directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, or “The Returned,” created by Fabrice Gobert.
Over at Warner Bros Discovery, Peltekian says she’s mainly looking for recurring series that are grounded in today’s world and look at society in a different way. She cited “The White Lotus” as an example of a signature HBO show that is complex and weaves many contemporary themes.
“We want to make quality scripted content for adult audiences and by that I don’t just mean people above 50,” she says. “France has a lot of streaming services but we have a major coup to make because this adult audience has been neglected.”
Peltekian’s team, which now comprises Clementine Bobin for scripted and Elodie Font for documentaries, is developing a raft of series with the idea of “having a steady output every month,” at term. She also said the banner will comply with the French decree, meaning that it will invest 20% of its local revenues on French content and co-production, as well as will invest in third-party content. It won’t be required to fulfil these requirement during its first year, however, because it won’t have reached the required critical size. WBD, meanwhile, will unveil details of its U.S. launch on April 12.
