Disney+ Announces New French Originals Including First Local Feature ‘Une Zone À Défendre’
Disney+ has announced a new round of French-language original productions including its first feature, the romantic thriller Une Zone À Défendre, and the second season of hit comedy show Weekend Family.
Set against the backdrop of the world of eco-protestors, Une Zone À Défendre is Romain Cogitore’s third feature after WWII drama 15 Lads and romance Territory Of Love.
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Lyna Khoudri co-stars as a woman campaigning to stop the construction of a dam in a conservation area, opposite François Civil as an undercover police officer who infiltrates her group of eco-activists
“I want to explore environmental and political issues within the framework of a love story to tell a moment in our contemporary history,” Cogitore explained in a Disney+ release.
Disney+ has teamed with Nicolas Dumont and Hugo Soulignac at Chi-Fou Mi Productions. Credits of their Paris-based company’s credits include submarine thriller The Wolf’s Call and Marseille-set corrupt police drama The Stronghold, which was an international streaming hit for Netflix last year.
French-Algerian actress Khoudri made waves internationally in Cannes 2019 Un Certain Regard breakout Papicha and also featured in the ensemble cast of Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch. Civil is soon to be seen in the role of D’Artagnan in Pathé’s upcoming big-budget The Three Musketeers reboot.
Pauline Dauvin, VP, Programming, Production and Acquisition at The Walt Disney Company France, said the feature marked an important step for the company’s activities in France.
“It’s a new adventure that begins for us today, a major project with a prestigious cast and a very pleasant collaboration with the whole team,” she said
“This story, which deals with a romance against the background of a protest movement, perfectly complements the previous original local productions successfully launched this year on Disney+ and strengthens our position as a privileged partner of French production.”
The platform also announced it is getting behind the second season of Weekend Family, which launched on the platform last February as its first original series. The blended-family comedy-drama stars Eric Judor as a man juggling his exes, daughters and a new partner.
“We’re delighted to renew the series for another season and to catch up with Eric Judor, Daphne Côté-Hallé, and the whole cast from Season 1,” said Dauvin.
The eight-part season will be directed by Julien Guetta and Hafid F. Benamar and is produced by the Paris-based production house Elephant. The new season will premiere in 2023, exclusively on Disney+.
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