‘‘Mayhem!’ Director Xavier Gens Launches Banner Good Players With French Producers; Develops Netflix Series ‘Malin Fors’ (EXCLUSIVE)
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Rolling off their partnership on Studiocanal’s “‘Mayhem!” (“Farang”) and Netflix hit movie “Watch Under Paris,” popular genre filmmaker Xavier Gens (“Gangs of London”) is joining forces with Vincent Roget and Eric Lavaine’s banner Sameplayer to launch a new production company.
Named Good Players, the Paris-based company will aim at developing and producing action, thriller, aventure, fantasy and horror movies that have an international appeal. The inaugural slate of projects includes “Les Opposums,” directed by Eva Munoz (“Hannya”); “Drive” by Abel Danan; “C’est pas nous les diables” by Meryl Estragnat (“Promenons-nous”), and “Ferris Wheel” by Julien Hosmalin (“Magic World”). These projects will enter production between this year’s second half and end of 2025.
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Gens, who is based in Paris, is also currently developing with Netflix “Malin Fors,” a gritty series based on Mons Kallentoft’s Scandinavian novels. Gens, who will produce via Good Players and direct, said the idea will be to adapt the Nordic Noir genre to a French setting.
Gens is developing a remake of Serge Leroy’s “La Traque,” penned by Yael Langmann (“Watch Under Paris”) and Fanny Talmone (“Mortel”). Other projects that Gens is on board to direct and produce include “An Unfinished Country” with “‘Mayhem!” star Nassim Lyes attached to star; as well as “Lady Chang,” co-written by and starring Anaïs Parello; and “Vanikoro,” about the doomed exploration of French navigator Count of La Pérouse in the 18th century. “An Unfinished Country” is co-produced by Marvelous and the Ink Connection, and will be distributed by Warner France.
“French genre cinema travels extremely well internationally, as we saw with ‘Mayhem!’ so our ambition is to build on this profile and make strong and ambitious indie films that bring together rising talent and filmmakers who want to modernize genre cinema,” said Gens and Roget while in Cannes.
Gens’s best known credits include movies that struck a chord, such as “The Divide,” “Frontier,” “Hitman” and “Cold Skin,” as well as series like “Gangs of London,” “Lupin” and “Mortel.” Sameplayer, meanwhile, is behind “Un petit truc en plus,” a French box office success directed by Artus, and a flurry of comedies such as “Incognito,” “Retour chez ma mère,” “Barbecue” and “Bienvenue à Bord,” as well as movies by Yvan Attal, Eric Besnard and Philippe Guillard. The company also co-produced Mounia Meddour’s “Papicha” which was produced by Gens.
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