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00:00Hi, I'm Stuart Clarke from Deadline. It's my pleasure to be here today with Noé Debray,
00:07who is the first recipient of our French TV Disruptors Award. So we're here. We're here
00:13in La Havre at the Rendez-vous, which is a big TV event where the best in French TV is
00:19presented. Now, if we cast our mind back, I think you were at the last edition, which
00:24I believe was in Biarritz, with a series called Parlement.
00:28Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, a year ago.
00:30Now, you were there with that series. That's a comedy set in the world of the European
00:35Union, which is a sentence you don't hear every day. You're from Strasbourg, where a
00:41lot of those institutions are based. Can we talk a bit about that show? I mean, how did
00:45that come about? Because it's been a big hit internationally. People love it. But what's
00:49the background?
00:50The thing we think about the European institutions, when we think about them, is that they're
00:53so complex, so complicated. And in fact, complicated stuff is funny, because people
01:00don't understand it. And so you've got characters who are struggling with the complexity of
01:05the institution, and that's an endless source of comedy and fun for us at least.
01:10It's a big building in the shape of a Caprice des Dieux.
01:13Have you seen the ceiling?
01:14Oh yeah, I'm coming. Even the floor.
01:16Your deputy's job is to propose changes to this law.
01:23Hello, Michel Spitler will be taking care of that report. Thank you.
01:27The fourth season is in production, perhaps wrapped up, but that will be the final instalment,
01:33the last chapter, correct?
01:34Yes, yes. We had to close it at some point, because we actually shoot on site. So we went
01:42to the Parliament, we went to the European Commission. Next season, we go to the Council.
01:48So we've done the three main institutions, I mean the three institutions, and we sort
01:53of had our tour, I think.
01:56Okay. So what can we expect then from the final season of that show?
02:00We wanted to do something different. I mean, every season is fairly different from the
02:05former one. We try to do something different every season, and then we sort of get out
02:10of the sort of office comedy that we used to do. And this time, I think it's a tiny
02:15bit more dramatic, with more tension. It's the time of the series, it all goes in a real
02:24time frame with big stakes. So it's sort of, yeah, it's very much a thought as a finale.
02:31Let's just talk about comedy. I mean, you're very versatile. We can see that in the body
02:35of work there is. You make films, you write films, you direct as well. Where does comedy
02:43fit in there? How did you grow up just loving those 30-minute shows? Just tell us.
02:49Yeah, absolutely. So that's the reason. Because I started doing, writing films. I was very
02:57lucky when I was 20, I met Thomas Bidjan, who's like this very renowned screenwriter.
03:03And he owned many of those movies. And something brought me to TV was the 30-minute show, because
03:11I love them. I just love the form. And I watched a ton of them. And so, yeah, that's actually
03:18Parlement. I was like, that was such a dream to have, to make my own political satire sitcom.
03:26That was like, yeah, that was a dream.
03:28And there's something about comedy, isn't there, that irrespective of what the critics
03:34say, whatever people say at a festival, it basically succeeds or doesn't succeed whether
03:42people are laughing?
03:43Yeah, absolutely. That's the very hard truth of comedy. And that's also something I like,
03:48is that you have to deliver. So either people are laughing or they're not. And you know
03:53at once if it's working. And I like that, because it's earned, you know? And sometimes
03:58it's not. And that tension of getting it, and it's so mysterious as well. At every step
04:04like, you know, because you can sort of write something that sounds funny on paper, but
04:08then it's not when the actors are doing it. And then sometimes it didn't really feel funny
04:12on stage, but then when you see it edited, it is. And sometimes the opposite also. And
04:17so it's a very rewarding and cruel exercise that I enjoy a lot.
04:22And so this time at Rendezvous, at the Unifrance Rendezvous, there will be a big focus on Zorro.
04:30You say Zorro, I think, everywhere. Everyone kind of immediately thinks of the Masked Hero.
04:36So you brought the Masked Hero back. So tell us, how does that come about?
04:40Yeah, the story is like one day, Marc Dujardin, who's a producer and the producer of the show,
04:48came to me and asked me if I was interested in developing a Zorro series for Jean Dujardin.
04:55And you know, Jean Dujardin and Zorro seems like an obvious match. But I was a bit like,
05:02so what are we talking about? What should it be? And actually, Marc had thought of something
05:08that I thought was brilliant, really caught me, was the idea that Zorro is actually can
05:13be a very political show, because it's about a guy, Don Diego, who's during the day trying
05:19to be, you know, the sort of good technocrat, like sort of, you know, he's managing the
05:23city the way he can, but he's struggling and stuff. And then when things pile up, it becomes
05:28too complicated. Then Zorro, he turns into Zorro at night and comes out and has like
05:33the easy answer. And, you know, and that's what Zorro very much, you know, means to everyone.
05:39It's like the guy who comes up and with violence, though not, you know, not, not, not, I mean
05:46a violence that's not that violent. Anyway, he comes out and he has like the easy solutions.
05:52And it's, and it struck me as a perfect political metaphor of the time. We all craving for Zorro,
05:57you know, for someone who's going to come and things are very hard. Things are very
06:01complicated. We don't understand them. It feels unsolvable. And then the guy arrives
06:05and he's on his horse and he has all the easy solutions. And the irony of it, which may,
06:10what make it a comment that I think is interesting, and it was already Marc sort of idea was that
06:17the more Zorro intervenes, the more, the harder it gets for Don Diego. So Zorro comes
06:21out at night, but then in the, during the day, the next day, Don Diego sort of has to
06:25deal with the consequences. And so Zorro becomes more and more popular and Don Diego more and
06:30more unpopular. And I thought that was great. And then I went to my friend Benjamin Charbitte
06:36with this idea and we, and we created the show together and Benjamin took over at some
06:42point. I was doing my film and, and, and so he show ran the, the, the series. Yeah,
06:49I'm very proud of the result.
07:12It's a story for our times and yet it's set in 18 something. But what, what, what strikes
07:37me is that's, it's kind of US IP at that moment in time, a lot of the characters perhaps
07:43should have spoken Spanish, which is something in itself, but now you are making it into
07:48a French language comedy with, with action. It's there, there's a lot going on.
07:53I know. Yeah, I know. It's the weirdest thing. I think, you know, it all, it all, it all
07:57stands on the shoulder of Jean Dujardin. The thing is like you, I think no one would have
08:04had the idea of making Zorro today if it wasn't for Jean, because he has like this
08:08sort of, this talent of course, but I, I'm in this very specific rhythm. Also this way
08:13of acting, it all, it all fits, you know, you can see that it's going to be Zorro and
08:17it's going to, it's, it's going to, it's going to work. It's going to make sense, you know?
08:21And in fact, the fact that, you know, it all supposed to happen in a, you know, Spanish
08:26speaking territory, but, but the original one is in English. Anyway, everybody in France
08:33has seen it in French. So, you know, this language thing, it doesn't make any sense
08:37to begin with. So we weren't too, yeah, we just, we just went for it.
08:43That's great. And we'll be able to see that on Paramount Plus streaming in several territories,
08:47France television here in France. And how is it, so you came into the project knowing
08:53you were writing for Jean Dujardin, do you end up kind of writing according to, you know,
08:59perhaps mannerisms or the way he is on screen? Or do you have to let that go to an extent?
09:05Well, it's exactly both things. Like, you know, you, you, you do want to be writing
09:10for him because he's so funny and he's, he's, he's inspiring. Like, you know, you can, you
09:15can, you can listen to him in your head and it's like the situations happen. And so that's,
09:21that's extremely comforting and, and gratifying as a screenwriter. And because there's OSS
09:28117, which is like this massive hits in France and he's, he's, he's brilliant in it. And,
09:35and we were very aware with Benjamin that we didn't want to do OSS 117, was more like
09:40a parody with not doing a parody. And we, we did want to extract the character from
09:46that one because we love it. We know I'm like a huge fan of OSS 117, but it would have felt
09:52unoriginal. And so, and so, yeah, so it's exactly both things like writing for him and
09:58a bit writing against what we expect of him as well.
10:02In terms of what, what's next, you have a series coming for Max. Tell it, tell us about
10:08that.
10:09Yeah. Yeah. So it's a, it's a, it's a dram, comedy drama, 30 minutes about a young woman
10:17who becomes a rabbi. And so it's like everybody, everyday struggles. And it's a bit at the,
10:24at the, trying to make it at the encounter between how do you say, like entreatment and
10:33Kirby enthusiasm, you know, something that's the middle of these. So it's a, it's a very
10:38ambitious show and it's in editing. It's loosely based on the, on the book written
10:45by Delphine Orvilleur, who's a rabbi, French rabbi, who's very, very popular. And her book
10:53have, her books have been huge hits. And so we're not quite adapting the book. We're like,
10:59it's more like we wrote the, we wrote the series while in dialogue with her. So we would
11:05go to her and, and, you know, come up with situations. I also did that one with a Benjamin
11:09Charbite, the same guy I wrote Zorro with. And we went to her and was like, so we have
11:15this idea for a situation. What do you think? Have it ever happened to you? What would you
11:18tell those, these people and stuff? And so she would, you know, we would talk with her
11:22and it was, it was a very nice process. And so it's been shot, it's done. Like the, the
11:27show, the, the, the shoot is over. It was shot in the summer and during summer. And
11:32so now that just at the beginning of post-production, thank, thank you. No, like I say, there are
11:37many things that we didn't get to talk about. It's fantastic to talk about some of your
11:41TV work and, and genuinely we're, we're, we're really happy that you're the first recipient
11:46of the deadline French TV disrupt award. So thank you so much. I'm on it. Thank you.