It is the most ambitious documentary produced on Johnny Hallyday, a little over three years after his disappearance.
And it is Eric Hannezo and his company Black Dynamite, to whom we already owe portraits of Nicolas Anelka, Karim Benzema, Teddy Riner, Tony Parker and more recently Gims, who produce it.
According to our information, associated with the powerful group Mediawan, they are preparing a series of five episodes for Netflix which will be called "Johnny by Johnny" and should be released at the end of the year.
The production is shared by Frédéric Bénudis and Charlotte Altschul.
Contacted, Eric Hannezo confirmed our information and said he was “extremely proud to be able to tell the story of an unclassifiable French icon thanks to unpublished archive images.
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This documentary series planned in five parts of 40 minutes will retrace the life of Johnny through images provided by the INA (the National Audiovisual Institute), Universal, which was the record company of Johnny Hallyday from 1961 to 2005 , and Michel Jankielewicz, who filmed it and managed its image from 1995 to 2013, as well as intimate testimonials.
Line Renaud, Pierre Billon ... Several relatives have already testified
It is Johnny himself who will tell his story on the model of “Listen to me Marlon”, a fascinating and touching documentary on Marlon Brando released in 2015. With the obvious objective of making our national monument better known abroad.
“At Netflix, we are very happy to be able to share this documentary series with our 204 million members around the world,” comments Dolorès Emile, responsible for documentary series within the French branch of the platform.
The interview sessions have started.
Several relatives of Johnny, such as Line Renaud, who was his godmother, Philippe Labro, who was his intimate and wrote for him, and Pierre Billon, composer and biker who was one of his most faithful friends, have already testified.
Their voices will illustrate the archives but they themselves will not appear in the image.
According to our information, Laeticia Hallyday, David Hallyday, Laura Smet, Sylvie Vartan and Eddy Mitchell have also been asked for this series, but they will not participate.