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Laurent Tirard, the French screenwriter and director whose best-known works included adaptations of René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé’s Little Nicholas and Nicolas on Holiday, has died after a long illness. He was 57.

Tirard was a well-liked figure in the French film industry who made 15 features over the course of two decades.

They also included Molière (2007), starring Romain Duris as the historic playwright; Astérix & Obélix: God Save Britannia (2012) with Catherine Deneuve, Fabrice Luchini and Guillaume Gallienne; romantic comedy Up For Love with Jean Dujardin and Virginie Efira, and costume drama Return Of A Hero (2018), also starring Oscar-winner Dujardin.

He also directed early episodes of hit show Call My Agent!.

Tirard’s films rarely debuted at film festivals but regularly achieved healthy box office results at home and sold well internationally too.

“He had a talent for capturing and retelling human stories with a lot of humor and sensibility,” PR agency...

Following “Marie’s Story” and “Take a Chance on Me,” French director Jean-Pierre Améris is reteaming with Paris-based Indie Sales on his next movie, “It Takes Two to Tango,” a romantic comedy starring Valérie Lemercier.

Currently filming in Geneva and France, the film also stars Gérard Darmon (“King”) and Patrick Timsit (“Brother and Sister”). The plot revolves around Antoine Toussaint (Darmon), a famous and disillusioned 70-year-old crooner who meets Victoire (Lemercier), a good-natured fan with a few loose wires, while on a train to Geneva where he plans to end his life. This unlikely encounter thwarts all Antoine’s plans, for better or worse.

“It Takes Two to Tango” is produced by Denis Carot and Sophie Revil at France’s Escazal Films and will be released in France by Arp in April 2025.

“We are excited to re-team with Jean-Pierre Améris and bring his universe and heart-warming characters to audiences around the world,...

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s strand in which, each fortnight, we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.

This week we head to the Venice Film Festival to check out French director Xavier Giannoli’s international crime thriller Of Money and Blood, which world premiered in its official selection on August 31 to a buzzy reception.

Name: Of Money and Blood

Country: France

Network: Canal+

Distributor: Studiocanal

Where can I watch: Canal+ in France from October

For fans of: Michael Mann’s The Insider, Martin Scorsese’s Wall Street, Oliver Stone’s JFK, Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic

French writer-director Xavier...

French cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé, best known for the ‘Le Petit Nicolas’ (‘Little Nicholas’) children’s books, has died at the age of 89.

The mischievous schoolboy who is constantly getting into scrapes in and out of school but somehow always comes out on top was inspired by Sempé’s own childhood memories.

Sempé’s collaborations on the series with late Asterix co-creator René Goscinny sold millions of copies worldwide and have been adapted to the big screen on numerous occasions, especially in France.

The latest production inspired by the works, Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre’s Little Nicholas – Happy as Can Be won the top prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June.

Sempé’s wife Martine Gossieaux Sempé told French news agency Agence France Press that her husband died on August 11.

Born in 1932 in the town of Pessac just outside of Bordeaux, Sempé left formal education at the...

Warner Bros France are due to release the film in France and Benelux on October 6, 2021.

Charades has acquired world sales rights to Julien Rappeneau’s Little Nicholas’ Treasure, adapted from the classic 1960s ‘Le Petit Nicolas’ children’s books of French writer Rene Goscinny and illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempe.

The Paris-based sales company will introduce the film to buyers during the upcoming Unifrance Rendez-vous with French cinema, which unfolds online this year from January 13 to 15.

It marks a third feature for Rappeneau after Of Love And Lies and Rosalie Blum. He directed and co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with Mathias Gavarry.

This...

Benjamin Lavernhe and Sara Giraudeau play lead roles in this work produced by Les Films sur Mesure and sold by Charades, whose cast also includes Kyan Khojandi, Julia Piaton and François Morel. Laurent Tirard’s 8th feature film, Le Discours, has just wrapped its six-week film shoot in Paris. It’s a new comedy by a filmmaker who has often struck an impressive balance between artistic quality and respectable box-office results, as demonstrated by The Story of My Life, Molière (1.2 million viewers in France in 2007 and four nominations at the 2008 César Awards), Little Nicholas (5.5 million admissions in France in 2009), Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia (3.8 million viewers in 2012), Nicholas on Holiday (2.4 million admissions in 2014), Up For Love and Return of the Hero (816,000...

Asterix films are traditionally big winners at the French box office, although the most recent ones have been live-action and seen some decrease in traction. The latest, Asterix: The Mansions Of The Gods, is a 3D animated adaptation of the comic books created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. Snd released the picture on November 26 on 696 screens with first-week grosses today coming in at a huge 6.2M euros ($7.64M) from nearly 780K admissions. The opening bests previous local performances of such animated hits as Frozen, Tangled, Monsters, Inc, and Cars. It was No. 1 at the weekend, topping the second frame of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and the fourth session for Interstellar. The first week puts it just behind Guardians Of The Galaxy and above Captain America: The Winter Soldier on the 2014 chart and makes it the 3rd biggest opening for a French animated film ever. The last Asterix movie,...