Prime Video France is doubling down on scripted, filmed and unscripted domestic originals and pushing forward with new event formats, including premium series such as “Masquerade,” a creator-driven French format based on the streamer’s hit “LOL” series, and “Animal Sauvage,” a six-part adaptation of Joel Dicker’s best-selling novel “Animal Sauvage.”
The latter will begin filming within a few minutes, directed by Vincent Mael Cardona (Magnetic Beats), and starring an all-star cast including Noémie Merlant, Matthias Schoenaerts, Pauline Clément, Pierre-Yves Cardinal and Quim Gutierrez.
Prime Video also announced an exclusive partnership with Dicker to adapt two more global bestsellers from his catalogue, L’Énigme de la Chambre 622 and Le Livre des Baltimore.
The partnership with Dicker, announced Thursday during Prime Video’s “Prime Original Stories” presentation at the Café de l’Homme atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris, reflects Prime Video’s growing demand for locally-based IP that incorporates audience awareness, Thomas Dubois, Prime Video’s head of French originals, told Variety ahead of the presentation.
“France is a region where there is a very strong relationship between audiences and authors, and between viewers and the stories they already know from books, films, comedies, digital culture, etc.,” he said. “The opportunity for us is to take those worlds and build them with the right level of ambition. On a project like Animal Sauvage, we get to work with some of the biggest names in the literary world, a strong director, and a great cast to create something very Prime Video.”
“Masquerade”, on the other hand, is positioned as a new, original, unscripted swing for the French streamer. The show, produced by Mediawan Prod HOT, is hosted by Loris Giuliano, a YouTube creator with 1.9 million subscribers, and was created from an idea by Giuliano and Tom Aguilar. Transformed both physically and vocally by technology, Giuliano invites eight major French stars to his birthday party. Their goal is to avoid the mask being exposed before dawn.
“Loris Giuliano is very funny,” Dubois said. “We hope this is our next ‘LOL’ and that it’s adapted internationally.” He said the show “has a little bit of investigation, it has some laughs, it has elements of games. In the script, we’re pretty much brushing up on the escape room area.”
The streamer is also accelerating its planned ambitions and ramping up investments locally. That moves forward with Paris 18, produced by Iconoclast and directed by Elias Berkedal and Audrey Dewan, director of Venice’s Golden Lion Award-winning The Happening. Dubois described the film as a thriller set in “a Parisian neighborhood at the intersection of fate, culture, and imagination.”
Another scripted project, “Les Justiciers,” is based on an original idea and plot by Philippe Lachaud (“LOL”), Julien Arti, Pierre Dudan and Pierre Lachaud, and tells the story of people who are unlikely to become the heroes that no one needed but everyone was waiting for.
“At Prime Video, we like to build long-term relationships with the talent we work with, especially the one we’ve built over the last few years with Philippe Lachaud,” said Dubois, an actor, producer and “LOL” host who also produced a film for Prime Video in France a few years ago. “We wanted to find a new playground together,” Dubois added, noting that the “LOL” series spans six seasons and two spinoffs.
Dubois said the new announcement builds on a strategy Prime Video launched last September, when it focused on new romance, new faces and emerging talent with titles such as “Campus Drivers,” “Toi et Moi,” the Paul Mirabell comedy “Paul,” and the fashion world series “Glam Squad” from Rebecca Zlotowski and Agathe Riedinger.
“When we spoke in September, we laid out a very clear strategic angle around new romance, emerging talent, and supporting emerging talent,” Dubois said. “What we wanted to show now is that our strategy is expanding. We still support younger audiences and new talent, but we’re also moving into formats that allow us to create more premium series, more ambitious adaptations and local, authentic events.”
On the film side, Prime Video announced BADGE, a buddy cop-style comedy starring Marina Foyth and Alison Wheeler and directed by Simon Astier, produced by Media One-owned Les Films entre 2&4 (co-headed by Jonathan Cohen) and Making Prod.
The streamer released Stunt, an action comedy written and directed by Franck Gaztambide, who stars opposite Jean-Pascal Zadi, Sofian Zermani, Valeria Galvis and Jose Garcia. The film is produced by Autodidakte and Kowloon Film, also part of Media One.
Prime Video is expanding its unscripted content beyond “Masquerade.” Produced by ITV Studios France and narrated by Ragnar Le Breton, Les Fumiers – Bienvenue à la ferme follows eight content creators as they leave behind their city life and social media routines to work on four very different farms in France.
Dubois said the new breadth of content reflects the way Prime Video is trying to define itself in France, where the service is focusing on movies, comedy features, unscripted events and scripted content for young people, rather than just chasing volume.
“Our (service’s) strength is that we can be a destination for formats, movies, comedies, romances, premium dramas, literary adaptations, and new voices. The important thing is that each project has a reason for being on Prime Video, that it speaks to our audience and creates a conversation.”
The upcoming film slate also includes Prime Video’s first French-Italian original film, the heist comedy Master Plan starring Stanley Tucci.
During the Paris showcase, Prime Video also released the first images and teaser for ‘Glam Squad’, revealing that Catherine Deneuve and popular singer Theodora are appearing in the series along with Arkady Radev, Antonia Bresci, Lucie Goudeau and Natasha Krief. The six-part series follows young talents as they break into the world of fashion and beauty, from Fashion Week to the Cannes Film Festival.
Mr. Dubois also emphasized the parity and diversity of talent behind the camera within its slate. “By 2026, almost one in every two series or films will be produced by a woman, and 50% of screenwriters will be women. It was important to mark that framework,” she said, citing previous collaborations with female directors such as Maimouna Doucouré and Mélanie Laurent.
