A great name for a great series.
This Monday, February 6, the American pay channel Showtime announced that it had ordered an entire season of “The Department”.
This future fiction is the American remake of the "Legends office", one of the best French series in history.
And it is none other than the brilliant George Clooney who will be behind the camera.
Ultra-popular with the general public since the “Emergencies” series, the actor, now 61, has also proven himself as a filmmaker (“Good Night and Good Luck”, “Monuments Men”…) For “The Department”, he will therefore be a director as well as a producer.
Following in the footsteps of “Homeland”
Called "The Bureau" abroad, Éric Rochant's French series, which fascinated fans from 2015 to 2020 over five seasons and 50 episodes, followed the adventures of French secret agents from the DGSE.
Especially those who carried out long-term missions, infiltrated abroad under false identities.
Among them, the main hero was played by Mathieu Kassovitz, whose character's code name was Malotru.
Already cited by the "New York Times" in 2019 as the third best series of the decade, "The Office of Legends" therefore still arouses interest across the Atlantic.
For Chris McCarthy, president of Showtime, “
The Department
will follow in the footsteps of
Homeland
, one of our channel's greatest hits”.
The French producers of the original, The Originals Production and Federation Studios, will also be there for the American version.
In France, the Canal + group, of which "Le Bureau des Légendes" is an original creation, has a long-standing contract with Showtime, which allows it to broadcast its series in the first window ("Homeland", "Dexter", "Your Honor”, “Yellowjackets”…).
This new collaboration is therefore quite natural.
Nothing is known about the casting yet, but filming should start later this year.