Kino Lorber have picked up all rights in North America to Bruno Dumont’s sci-fi farce The Empire after its triumphant debut at the Berlin Film Festival last month, where it won the Silver Bear Jury Prize.
Anamaria Vartolomei, Camille Cottin, Lyna Khoudri, and Fabrice Luchini star in the French-language feature, which re-imagines the world of George Lucas’ Star Wars with its epic sci-fi battle of good vs. evil, relocating the action to a sleepy northern France town and filtering the story through the frankly bonkers mind of the director of Slack Bay, Li’l Quinquin and Coincoin and the Extra-Humans. There are plenty of VFX spaceships and lightsaber battles and only a few gratuitous sex scenes (this is a French film after all).
Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release for L’Empire later this year 2024, followed by a home video, educational, and digital release across all major platforms.
Anamaria Vartolomei, Camille Cottin, Lyna Khoudri, and Fabrice Luchini star in the French-language feature, which re-imagines the world of George Lucas’ Star Wars with its epic sci-fi battle of good vs. evil, relocating the action to a sleepy northern France town and filtering the story through the frankly bonkers mind of the director of Slack Bay, Li’l Quinquin and Coincoin and the Extra-Humans. There are plenty of VFX spaceships and lightsaber battles and only a few gratuitous sex scenes (this is a French film after all).
Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release for L’Empire later this year 2024, followed by a home video, educational, and digital release across all major platforms.
- 3/7/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Bruno Dumont’s “The Empire,” a sci-fi satire starring Anamaria Vartolomei (“Happening”), Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent!”), Lyna Khoudri (“The Three Musketeers”) and Fabrice Luchini.
“The Empire” just world premiered in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Jury Prize. The movie marks Dumont’s follow up to “France,” a dark comedy starring Léa Seydoux which competed at the Cannes Film Festival.
Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release later this year, followed by a home video, educational and digital release on all major platforms. The acquisition of “The Empire” marks the sixth time that Kino Lorber has collaborated with Dumont, with previous releases including “Li’l Quinquin,” “Coincoin and the Extra-Humans,” “Slack Bay,” “Camille Claudel 1915” and, most recently, “France.”
The film is set in a quiet and picturesque fishing village in Northern France, where a special...
“The Empire” just world premiered in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Jury Prize. The movie marks Dumont’s follow up to “France,” a dark comedy starring Léa Seydoux which competed at the Cannes Film Festival.
Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release later this year, followed by a home video, educational and digital release on all major platforms. The acquisition of “The Empire” marks the sixth time that Kino Lorber has collaborated with Dumont, with previous releases including “Li’l Quinquin,” “Coincoin and the Extra-Humans,” “Slack Bay,” “Camille Claudel 1915” and, most recently, “France.”
The film is set in a quiet and picturesque fishing village in Northern France, where a special...
- 3/7/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
by Elisa Giudici
L'empire © Tessalit Productions
If I think about the typical film competing at Berlin, I imagine something quite dramatic, decidedly political, and sometimes rather heavy. This edition of the Berlinale has added the adjective "bizarre" to this profile of mine. Here are four films seen in these hours that deserve this adjective.
L’Empire by Bruno Dumont
Let me preface this one: Dumont and I just don't see eye to eye. He might be the only French director whose work I can't seem to appreciate, despite my overall fondness for French cinema. Given this history and a rather late screening on a very heavy day, the recipe for disaster was served. However, one positive thing about L’Empire I can say: in hindsight, it made me reassess his previous film, France, which I saw at Cannes and detested...
L'empire © Tessalit Productions
If I think about the typical film competing at Berlin, I imagine something quite dramatic, decidedly political, and sometimes rather heavy. This edition of the Berlinale has added the adjective "bizarre" to this profile of mine. Here are four films seen in these hours that deserve this adjective.
L’Empire by Bruno Dumont
Let me preface this one: Dumont and I just don't see eye to eye. He might be the only French director whose work I can't seem to appreciate, despite my overall fondness for French cinema. Given this history and a rather late screening on a very heavy day, the recipe for disaster was served. However, one positive thing about L’Empire I can say: in hindsight, it made me reassess his previous film, France, which I saw at Cannes and detested...
- 2/23/2024
- by Elisa Giudici
- FilmExperience
Playing his signature brand of rural French absurdity in stark counterpoint to the grandiose strains of a space opera, Bruno Dumont returns with The Empire: his Barbarella bourguignon, his dijionnaise Dune. The Empire is the story of two warring factions: one whose mothership resembles the palace of Versailles; the other’s as if someone glued together two Notre Dames, crypt to crypt. It follows their envoys on earth, now in human form and attempting to capture a toddler who they believe to be the Chosen One––whose mere presence makes them bow down like bodies in rigor mortis. There are blasé beheadings with lightsabers, a group of men on Boulonnais horses who call themselves the Knights of Wain, and, for no apparent reason, the commandant (Bernard Pruvost) and lieutenant (Philippe Jore) from P’tit Quinquin.
If that all sounds like a mixed bag it’s probably because The Empire is...
If that all sounds like a mixed bag it’s probably because The Empire is...
- 2/19/2024
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
The Satire Strikes Back: Dumont Claims His Own Multi-Verse
It’s sometimes difficult to predict what mode French auteur Bruno Dumont will be choosing for his latest film project. Initially revered for his rural, austere tendency for Neo-realism, which earned him comparisons to Bresson and Pialat, Dumont has also shown a penchant for outrageous provocations and thorny social satires. His latest, L’empire, was rumored to be a Star Wars parody, but even this kind of statement is rather superficial considering Dumont seems to hold such reference points in cultural contempt. The film quite infamously triggered the self-exile and retirement of Adèle Haenel from the French film industry, which may lead many to expect Dumont would be pushing boundaries with this odd bird premise.…...
It’s sometimes difficult to predict what mode French auteur Bruno Dumont will be choosing for his latest film project. Initially revered for his rural, austere tendency for Neo-realism, which earned him comparisons to Bresson and Pialat, Dumont has also shown a penchant for outrageous provocations and thorny social satires. His latest, L’empire, was rumored to be a Star Wars parody, but even this kind of statement is rather superficial considering Dumont seems to hold such reference points in cultural contempt. The film quite infamously triggered the self-exile and retirement of Adèle Haenel from the French film industry, which may lead many to expect Dumont would be pushing boundaries with this odd bird premise.…...
- 2/19/2024
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Berlinale competition director Bruno Dumont is lining up his next film Red Rocks, a Romeo and Juliet-style love story set one summer on the French Riviera, to shoot later this year, with Luxbox handling sales
The film is being produced by Tessalit Productions with Italy’s Nightswim, Belgium’s Novak Prod and Portugal’s Rosa Filmes.
Red Rocks is about the rivalry between two gangs of kids, a blend of locals and summer visitors, who compete in the perilous game of cliff jumping.
“The setting – the shattered, reddish and picturesque of the rocky coast of the South of France,...
The film is being produced by Tessalit Productions with Italy’s Nightswim, Belgium’s Novak Prod and Portugal’s Rosa Filmes.
Red Rocks is about the rivalry between two gangs of kids, a blend of locals and summer visitors, who compete in the perilous game of cliff jumping.
“The setting – the shattered, reddish and picturesque of the rocky coast of the South of France,...
- 2/12/2024
- ScreenDaily
Berlinale Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian announced his final Competition and Encounters line-ups on Monday ahead of bowing out of the festival alongside Managing Director Mariette Rissenbeek at the end of the upcoming 74th edition in February.
News of Chatrian’s ousting by the German Culture Minister Claudia Roth back in September prompted anger in some quarters of Europe’s indie film biz. The seasoned festival programer made it clear at the time that he wanted to stay on but now appears to have made peace with the decision.
“It’s true that in the beginning I said I was willing to go on with the shared role. But then the people who are responsible for the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone,” he told Monday’s press conference in...
News of Chatrian’s ousting by the German Culture Minister Claudia Roth back in September prompted anger in some quarters of Europe’s indie film biz. The seasoned festival programer made it clear at the time that he wanted to stay on but now appears to have made peace with the decision.
“It’s true that in the beginning I said I was willing to go on with the shared role. But then the people who are responsible for the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone,” he told Monday’s press conference in...
- 1/23/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Writer-director Adam Sherman (This Game’s Called Murder) has set the cast for his newest indie feature, the horror comedy Vampires of the Velvet Lounge. Mena Suvari (American Beauty) and Dichen Lachman (Severance) lead the ensemble, which also includes Stephen Dorff (Blade), Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel), Lochlyn Munro (Peacemaker), India Eisley (I Am the Night), Sarah Dumont (Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse), Mark Boone Jr. (Sons of Anarchy), Tom Berenger (Platoon), Timothy V. Murphy (The Fabulous Four), Sherman Augustus (Strangers Things) and Tyrese Gibson (Fast & Furious franchise).
Drawing inspiration from titles like Shaun of the Dead and From Dusk Till Dawn, the film currently shooting in Georgia watches as a coven of the blood-suckers struggles to come to terms with the modern world and their own mortality as they are locked in a battle with a deadly foe.
In addition to Sherman, producers on the project...
Drawing inspiration from titles like Shaun of the Dead and From Dusk Till Dawn, the film currently shooting in Georgia watches as a coven of the blood-suckers struggles to come to terms with the modern world and their own mortality as they are locked in a battle with a deadly foe.
In addition to Sherman, producers on the project...
- 12/14/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Deadline’s annual Read the Screenplay series spotlighting awards season’s most talked-about scripts kicks off this year with Fair Play, Chloe Domont’s debut feature that Netflix acquired after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
Domont, whose TV directing credits include Billions and Suits, made her feature screenwriting and helming debut with the pic, which was spawned via T-Street and MRC’s Emerging Filmmaker Program and counts Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman among the executive producers.
The script for the relationship thriller follows Emily (Bridgerton‘s Phoebe Dynover) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), who work together at a cutthroat financial firm and are also a couple. When a coveted promotion arises, the pair’s once supportive exchanges begin to sour as power and gender dynamics irrevocably shift, forcing them to face the true price of success and the limits of ambition.
Dumont said the film’s themes resonate in these times.
Domont, whose TV directing credits include Billions and Suits, made her feature screenwriting and helming debut with the pic, which was spawned via T-Street and MRC’s Emerging Filmmaker Program and counts Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman among the executive producers.
The script for the relationship thriller follows Emily (Bridgerton‘s Phoebe Dynover) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), who work together at a cutthroat financial firm and are also a couple. When a coveted promotion arises, the pair’s once supportive exchanges begin to sour as power and gender dynamics irrevocably shift, forcing them to face the true price of success and the limits of ambition.
Dumont said the film’s themes resonate in these times.
- 11/20/2023
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSMe and You and Everyone We Know.The Writers Guild of America reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and have voted to end the strike as of 12:01 a.m. Pt this morning. A summary of the agreement is available here. Before the details were released, the WGA negotiating committee had this to say in a statement: "We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership." The WGA has also encouraged their members to support SAG-AFTRA's ongoing picket line.A new novel from Miranda July is due out in May of next year: All Fours follows an artist in the throes of a midlife crisis and a messy divorce. While driving...
- 9/27/2023
- MUBI
"The Prince of Darkness must be removed from the face of the Earth." Arp Selection in France has revealed the first look official trailer for a sci-fi epic called L'Empire, which translates to The Empire in English. It's the latest film from French filmmaker Bruno Dumont and was originally rumored to premiere in Cannes, though it never showed up. Now set to open in France in March 2024. "Between Ma Loute and The Life of Jesus, between heaven and earth, Bruno Dumont offers us his caustic, cruel and crazy vision of Star Wars." That's their description. A small village of Northern France is the battleground of undercover extraterrestrial knights. Starring a big French cast: Virginie Efira, Lily-Rose Depp, Camille Cottin, Lyna Khoudri, Anamaria Vartolomei, with Fabrice Luchini. This has spaceships galore, ethereal aliens, lightsabers, religious metaphors, French sex jokes, and all kinds of other crazy sci-fi things going on. Whoa! But will it be any good?...
- 9/22/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Early last year we learned Bruno Dumont would next direct the science fiction feature The Empire, then said to mingle “the common life of the inhabitants of a fishing village on the Opal Coast [with] the parallel and epic life of knights of interplanetary empires.” Little else has been known since, other than once-cast Adèle Haenel leaving the project for fear it propagates “dark, sexist and racist” attitudes, mocks victims of injustice, and exhibits general disregard for non-white perspective. Not the press most would seek, but not exactly counteracted by French distributor Arp Sélection describing The Empire as Dumont’s “caustic, cruel and crazy vision of Star Wars” in posting the first (French-only) trailer, released ahead of the film’s likely 2024 debut.
Herein we find a scale well beyond anything Dumont’s yet mounted––so intriguing that one might overlook it’s also set in his Quinquin Cinematic Universe. Whatever trepidation Haenel’s comments can instill,...
Herein we find a scale well beyond anything Dumont’s yet mounted––so intriguing that one might overlook it’s also set in his Quinquin Cinematic Universe. Whatever trepidation Haenel’s comments can instill,...
- 9/21/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Disney+ has teamed up with Chi-Fou-Mi, the Paris-based banner behind “The Stronghold,” to produce its French film original, “Une zone à défendre.”
The environment-themed thriller romance is set to be directed by Romain Cogitore and will launch on the streamer in 2023 in France and around the world.
A pair of rising French actors, François Civil (“The Stronghold”) and Lyna Khoudri (“Papicha”), will co-star in Une zone à défendre as lovers with clashing agendas.
Penned by Cogitore, the movie tells the story of Myriam (Khoudri), a militant fighting against the construction of a roadblock, and Greg (Civil), a police officer who goes undercover to gather intelligence on this movement of protesters which Myriam belongs to. The film has just started shooting and is produced by Hugo Selignac and Bruno Dumont at Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, a Mediawan company whose recent credits includes Cedric Jimenez’s “November” and Quentin Dupieux’s “Smoking Causes Coughing...
The environment-themed thriller romance is set to be directed by Romain Cogitore and will launch on the streamer in 2023 in France and around the world.
A pair of rising French actors, François Civil (“The Stronghold”) and Lyna Khoudri (“Papicha”), will co-star in Une zone à défendre as lovers with clashing agendas.
Penned by Cogitore, the movie tells the story of Myriam (Khoudri), a militant fighting against the construction of a roadblock, and Greg (Civil), a police officer who goes undercover to gather intelligence on this movement of protesters which Myriam belongs to. The film has just started shooting and is produced by Hugo Selignac and Bruno Dumont at Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, a Mediawan company whose recent credits includes Cedric Jimenez’s “November” and Quentin Dupieux’s “Smoking Causes Coughing...
- 7/13/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
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