30/01/2008

Despite the fact that Obelix was excluded from the title, Asterix at the Olympic Games [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is a film of duos.

There are two directors (Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann, the latter also a producer on the project), two stars (the usual Gerard Depardieu as the extra large Obelix and a surprising Alain Delon as Julius Caesar) and two Italian supporting actors (comic couple Luca Bizzarri and Paolo Kessisoglu) for the third live action adventure of the characters created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo.

Shot in Spain’s Alicante studios, the film’s €78m budget is the highest ever for a French production. The challenge, says Langmann (who with his company La petite Reine was the driving force behind the project, supported as always by Pathé and other, even international, partners) is to “compete with American cinema, without betraying our own identity”. In Italy, the film will be released February 8 by Warner Bros. on 400 screens.

“The character resembles me more and more”, says Depardieu about the corpulent Obelix, “in his humanity as well. He is a superhero without a mission. He doesn’t want to save his country, just make people happy, feed his dog and enjoy culinary pleasures. Just like me”.

Asterix, who in the first two films was portrayed by Christian Clavier, is now played by Clovis Cornillac. Yet the most anticipated new entry is Delon. “We needed a man of his charisma. In France, when people make fun of him they say he speaks about himself in third person,” say the filmmakers.

In the film, his emperor, a slave to his vanity, spends much of his time in front of the mirror. He begins with a long monologue, a collage of titles of his most celebrated films. But the film trivia extends to Depardieu as well. As in Cyrano de Bergerac, he feeds a young man in love and out of ideas the infamous line “a kiss is a pink apostrophe between the words je t’aime”.

Absent from screens for a number of years, Delon, say the directors, “made the crew stand at attention, with his authoritativeness of a legend. Gerard, on the other hand, is always ready to joke around, to make everyone feel at ease”. This is backed up by Bizzarri and Kessisoglu, who only saw the star of The Leopard from afar: “We’re not even sure it was [Delon],” they joke.

The two Italian actors, who in the film play two corrupt Olympic judges, were chosen after Langmann saw them on television, hosting the popular show Le iene. “We fell in love with their sense of humour,” he says.

Given the Olympic theme, many sports champions were involved in the operation: Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher is behind the reins of a chariot (red, of course), football star Zinedine Zidane discovers what can be done with the first football in history and basketball player Tony Parker invents the game of hoops.

(Translated from Italian)