Guillaume Canet, Gilles Lellouche, Marion Cotillard, Jonathan Cohen ... We know more about the cast of "Asterix and Obelix: Middle Empire" that Canet is about to make. GQ magazine has just revealed that around Canet (who will lend his features to Asterix) and Lellouche (Obélix), Marion Cotillard would embody Queen Cleopatra, which Monica Bellucci played in the feature film by Alain Chabat in 2002. He does not specify, however, what role Jonathan Cohen, the hero of "Serge the mytho" or "Family Business" will inherit.
Other stars should join the film since in the American weekly Variety, producer Alain Attal talks about "a prestigious distribution, with a few cameos (Editor's note: brief appearances) ". Attal, who has already produced "Le Grand Bain", "les Petits Mouchoirs" or "le Chant du loup", also specifies that the feature film will have many special effects: "It is a film of costumes taking place two thousand years ago. So we are going to build a village, film epic battles, which will require many extras, ”he says in Variety.
An original story signed by the "Tuche" writers
This fifth “Asterix” in real shots will have a pharaonic budget of 65 million euros. This is slightly more than the cost of “Asterix and Obelix: In the Service of His Majesty” by Laurent Tirad in 2012 (61 million euros), but less than that of “Asterix and Obelix at the Olympic Games” of Thomas Langmann and Frédéric Forestier in 2008 (78 million euros).
Entitled "The Middle Empire", this section, which will start shooting in spring or this summer in China, will not be adapted from a comic strip by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, but will offer an original story. This will be signed by Philippe Mechelen and Julien Hervé, the writers of the "Tuche". "The Middle Empire" will stage the only daughter of the Chinese Emperor Han Xuandi who, after escaping from a malicious prince, will seek help from the famous Gauls ...
It was Guillaume Canet himself who announced his next feature film as a director. At the end of October, the 46-year-old actor and filmmaker had published a photo of him and Gilles Lellouche on his Instagram account disguised as Asterix and Obelix. Canet is having an exceptional year: while "We will finish together", its sequel to "Small handkerchiefs", attracted 2.8 million spectators, it was on the bill for two of the successes of the fall: "the Belle Epoque "And especially" In the name of the earth ".