Studiocanal has boarded “A Prophet,” a new television adaptation of Jacques Audiard’s acclaimed 2009 film. The eight-episode limited series started filming on July 3, with “Django” director Enrico Maria Artale and a diverse new cast led by Mamadou Sidibé.
The French-language series brings back the award-winning team behind the original film, including creators and writers Abdel Raouf Dafri (“Mesrine,” “Braquo”) and Nicolas Peufaillit (“The Returned”), as well as producer Marco Cherqui (“Savages”), in agreement with “A Prophet” producers Why Not Productions and Page 114.
The show, which is filming in Marseille and Puglia, Italy, is produced by Cherqui and Sebastien Janin, former Apple exec and co-founder of Media Musketeers, and co-produced by UGC, Orange Studio, Entourage Series and Savon Noir, with the participation of OCS. The key crew includes “Gomorra” cinematographer Ferran Paredes Rubio. Veteran Italian producer Fabio Conversi (“Youth”) is exec producing the series.
The original movie won the grand jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, along with nine Cesar Awards, a BAFTA Award and nominations at the Oscars and Golden Globes. It starred Tahar Rahim (“The Mauritanian”) as a 19-year-old French-Algerian who becomes involved with an organized crime ring in Paris after being sentenced to six years in prison.
Set in present-day Marseille, the new series stars Sidibé as Malik El Djebenna, a drug mule who is incarcerated at the infamous Baumettes prison. There he crosses paths with a man from a fairly bourgeois segment of the local French-Arab community, played by Sami Bouajila (“Days of Glory,” “A Son”), who unexpectedly becomes his mentor. Studiocanal has described the “series noir” as a “criminal among criminals” tale, saying it “will weave complex subplots with a surrealistic domino effect of repercussions.”
The cast is completed by Ouassini Embarek (“Athena,” “The Eddy”), Matthieu Lucci (“Oussekine”), Nailia Harzoune (“Placés”), Faued Nabba aka Kofs (“The Stronghold”) and Moussa Maaskri (“Stillwater”).
Cherqui states that Dafri and Peufaillit have modernized the story of “A Prophet” by setting it in contemporary French society while maintaining its DNA.
“We have reimagined Malik as a character of African descent and, as our characters interchange and transform at the same time as society evolves, our themes remain the same,” says Cherqui, pointing out “A Prophet” will tackle the power dynamics and racial tensions within a prison, as did the original film. The series will chart the journey of Malik, an underdog who rises through the ranks by using his intelligence rather than resorting to violence, continued Cherqui. “A Prophet” will explore racial tensions between the Corsicans and the Arabs.
Janin continues, “Working with our partners and the creative powerhouse behind the project, will enable us to bring this powerful story to the widest possible audience.”He adds the show has “all the hallmarks of a huge international hit.”
Cherqui’s credits include Rebecca Zlotowski and Sabri Louatah’s “Savages,” a poignant political saga which broke ground in France with its predominantly French-Arab cast.
Nick Vivarelli contributed to this report.
