(Paris) get rid of the myth of the character that is embodied many times on the screen by adapting it to the 21e Century, is the challenge faced by French actor Omar Si on the series’ poster Lupine in Arsene’s shadow, Which launched on Netflix Friday, looking to great success Made in France.
Get out of top hat and mono, the favorite of the French not to play the hero invented by Maurice LeBlanc in 1905, but Assane Diop, a fan of Arsène Le Pen, who is firmly entrenched in Paris today.
Fake identities (maintenance agent, bicycle delivery man, computer scientist …), sleight of hand, stealing jewelry … this father is inspired by a robber man to deceive the rich and powerful, and avenge his deceased father 25 years earlier after he was accused of a crime he did not commit.
Something Omar Si rejoices about, as he explained on Monday on the set of the TV show Quotidien: “Lupine, everyone, nobody, he’s elegant, elegant, smart, with a touch of” progressive, seductive, elegant, energetic “… you can play any Something, there is drama, it is HazarAnd […] There is work, “everything the actor dreams of.
‘Family entertainment’
“The wonderful thing about Omar when he plays Asani is that with his charisma and smile, we want to see him succeed even if he is to commit crimes,” notes the screenwriter to France Press. British George Kay (criminalAnd Eve was killed), In the controls Lupine In cooperation with the French Francois Ozan (A family business).
In fact, the sympathy inspired by the actor and his talent makes it possible to forgive some big strings, which are also matched by a chosen cast (Ludivine Sagnier, Hervé Pierre – from Comédie française -, Nicole Garcia, Clotilde Hesme, Antoine Gouy Sherine Boutella, Sofiane Krapp) and refined realization .
Produced by Gaumont, the series consists of ten episodes, the first five of which, which last about forty minutes, will be available on Friday. Three made by the Frenchman Louis Leitrier (Elusive(And two Chilean Marcella Saeed)Mariana).
The series is designed as “family entertainment” and “united”, at a time when “everyone tends to isolate themselves in their room with their headphones to watch their own series,” according to George Kay.
Lupine
More familiar with Sherlock Holmes than the French thieves before Netflix called them, the British creator simply didn’t want to move Arsène Lupine to 21e Century as the BBC did with the famous detective on Sherlock.
“I wanted to show France through the eyes of a character of a different ethnicity […]Who, without being Robin Hood, can blow the bubble of the French establishment, ”explains George Kay, who invokes in the scenario of social inequality or“ Françafrique ”.
For his part, Maurice LeBlanc’s work has become a “character in itself” in the series, interspersed with the winks of lupine lovers: a policeman who admires a noble thief or a fan’s pilgrimage to Etretat, a scene of the most famous novel, The hollow needle.
Incarné aussi bien au cinéma (dernièrement par Romain Duris en 2004 sous la direction de Jean-Paul Salomé) qu’à la télé (par Georges Descrières et Jean-Claude Brialy dans les années 1970 et 1980), Arsène Lupine aussi inspiré un manga Very popular.
Another series to update the Robbery Man was slated to be in the light of day in 2020, led by director Jalil Lisbert and screenwriter Abdul Raouf Dafri. But the project, which was announced in 2017, a year before Netflix, had to be “reconsidered” in the face of competition from the platform, CinéFrance told AFP.
In recent years, Netflix has ramped up production of original French content (Heart planAnd A family business Or recently revolution), Was not always well received by critics, who presented his first French series, Marseille, In 2016.
It remains to be seen whether Lupine He will find his fans, in France and abroad, ahead of a possible second season, the date of which has yet to be announced.