N.B : I just realized the word "revenant" exists in English, too, hence my use of it here, as opposed to The Living Dead (seemed like an honest adaptation) here and here as well — in the first thread about the show I didn't even bother trying to entice people's appetite with an English title, but I had done a catchy collage to introduce the post, so...
Two weeks ago, Canal+ released a full dossier about their original or imported scripted series. It's not including the shows airing on subsidiary channels of the C+ group — such as Raising Hope (season 2 ended 10 days ago) or Revenge (which premiered 16 days ago), and it doesn't seem to include the last season of Spooks and Damages and the penultimate season of 30 Rock and The Office either, but it's a sure thing those 4 series will air this season.
Anyway, the picture illustrating the article describing Les revenants is right below :
The series' (unofficial) première date is Monday, November 26. The DVD release date is December 19 according to amazon (no Blu-ray set has been announced so far :().
The first episode was screened at the Festival de la fiction TV in La Rochelle, and the first reactions are really good. It was puzzling - in a good way, intriguing and impressive. Episode 1.01 is well constructed and introduces many of the main characters while also launching intriguing storylines. Right from the beginning, carried by the score composed by Mogwai, the series sets a mesmerizing climate of strangeness, combined with a highly polished aesthetic, notably a very graphic and subtle way to play with the shadows and the light. The visual identity and coherence are very strong.
The opening scene takes place in a bus full of teenagers. That bus gets in an accident, all the kids are killed. But soon after, a teenage girl, Camille gets up and starts walking in the night. That girl is played by one of the stars of the series, Yara Pilartz (17 girls), and apparently she is very convincing.
Sources : Télérama (for their preview of episode 1), and Canal+ for the full dossier — by the way, here are the complete two pages from which the picture above is taken.
Do I fully understand that most people (minus Darque and a couple of others) couldn't care less about Canal+'s original scripted series ? Yes, but here's why I keep reporting things about them :
- Whenever I open a thread, it's about stuff that I like (and when it's not too much of a spoiler), and I do like their series.
- Borgia and XIII are shot in English, so I guess even subtitle haters here can enjoy having news about these two series.
- Engrenages, Braquo, Maison Close, Pigalle la nuit and Hard have all crossed over : minus Pigalle, they've all aired on British channels (BBC Four, FX UK, SkyArts) among other countries (Italy, etc) ; and minus Hard, there are US remakes in development for all of them.
So that's why I think this post is not completely irrelevant. When a channel in your country will air Les revenants in 2013 or 2014 (or, in the case of the US, when a channel will remake it :D), you will be able to say "I'm so cool, I knew about that show before everyone else". You won't say that (you'd sound like a douche), but you'd right to think so.
Why do I think it will cross over like the other Canal+ original series previously mentioned ? Well, because right now, there are international sales going on at the MIPCOM - it's in France as a matter of fact - and there seem to be some interest and a few pre-sales for Les revenants :). Same for Arte's promising original series Ainsi soient-ils (So be they), rebaptised The Church Men for the international market (here's a one-sheet poster illustrating that). The 8-episode first season premieres on Arte on October 11 and it's already been renewed for season 2.
Btw, did you know that the pilot for FX's The Americans will air there (for international buyers only) on October 8 ? Ditto for David Fincher's House of Cards (Netflix - projection on Oct 7 with Kevin Spacey) and Eli Roth's Hemlock Grove (Netflix). Bryan Fuller's Hannibal (NBC) and Michael Hirst's Vikings (History), among others, will also be presented in some way.
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