Transforming one of the most famous French board games in the world, The Werewolves of Thiercelieuxin jumanji French-style, it is the bet of the family comedy werewolvesavailable from this Wednesday, October 23 on Netflix.
This film by François Uzan (Lupine, Family business, instead) tells how a family arrives in the medieval town of Thiercelieux after discovering a mysterious card game. To return to his time, he must win the game and face dangerous werewolves.
While the father (Franck Dubosc) saves his family by posing as a troubadour, he takes advantage of this terrible experience to strengthen ties with his Alzheimer’s-stricken father (Jean Reno), his wife whom he can no longer seduce (Suzanne). Clément) and his two children who find it old-fashioned.
Mysteries
Having sold more than 7 million copies worldwide since its creation twenty years ago, The Werewolves of Thiercelieux is experiencing a resurgence in popularity. “It has been some time since Asmodee, the parent company of werewolvestries to create audiovisual projects around the game,” explains François Uzan to BFMTV.
“There were books, comics and they wanted to make a TV game and a movie… Bad luck, it came out at the same time.”
But unlike the Canal+ program, with Fary and Panayotis Pascot, whose ambition is to transmit on screen the emotion of games between friends, Netflix highlights the metamorphoses and the atmosphere of mystery typical of Thiercelieux Werewolves. And this with many special effects.
“The idea of jumanji French, it was my producer, Clément Miserez, who suggested it to me,” explains François Uzan. “I wrote the film I wanted to see and then it became a reality. I had the two creators of the game read it. It was important to have his approval. “They simply asked me to replace the word ‘kill’ with ‘eliminate.'”
dubosc singer
But the film, shot at the impressive Barrandov Studios in Prague, where the medieval city of Thiercelieux was recreated, goes beyond its status as a simple adaptation of the board game. To go unnoticed, Franck Dubosc’s character poses as a troubadour and performs several hits from French song.
In a key scene, the actor offers a stunning medieval version oflight the fire. “It was a challenge,” recalls Franck Dubosc. “Normally I don’t have the booklet. But I admit that I had it a few days before filming. It wasn’t very easy, especially because we wanted it to be in first grade.”
“If Franck had made an effort to sing, we had to do it seriously,” agrees François Uzan. “We recorded it like it was a real concert. We did a studio recording with Franck. We brought in a backup singer for Johnny. We had to believe it completely. If we went to second grade, we were dead.”
“Since it’s Netflix, we asked ourselves if we should do songs in English, by Elvis or the Bee Gees. But no. It’s a French game, they are French actors: they had to be songs in French,” insists François Uzan. The scene, which has the potential to go viral, could inspire players to replicate it in games.
Emotion
Another element of the film that allows it to avoid being a simple derivative product: Franck Dubosc plays a romantic hero willing to do anything to win back his wife. A role very far from the “naive simpletons” that made him famous, and he is happy: “We follow a very beautiful family story. That is what makes him laugh and exciting.”
“I wanted a family, three generations that would argue with each other and meet in the game,” explains François Uzan. The grandfather who suffers from Alzheimer’s recovers his memory during the match in Thiercelieux. A detail of the setting that adds a strong dramatic stake to the comedy: returning to one’s time means losing it once again.
“The nice thing is that we know that his goal is to return, but when he returns he will recover his disadvantage. These scenes work very well (with the audience)”, emphasizes Franck Dubosc. “Everyone who has lost someone wants to be with that person one last time.”
A dilemma that convinced him to immerse himself in this universe even though now he wants to do less comedy. “There had to be a real emotional problem. I didn’t have to just clown. I don’t want to clown anymore. But I want to still be funny,” he explains.
If it is successful, a sequel is possible, concludes François Uzan: “When a game is great, we always want to make another one.”
Source: BFM TV
