Launched in 2023 as part of the France 2030 plan, the operation “La grande fabrique de l’image” is taking shape in the Paris region. Objective: to double the surface area of national film sets… to attract foreigners.
Maisoncelles-en-Brie, its grocery store, its 12th century churche century. A small town lost between Meaux and Coulommiers, in Seine-et-Marne, whose tranquility seemed undisturbed by anything. A year ago, however, things started to move around the airfield, a few kilometers to the south by the departmental road, on the site of the former NATO air base. In a few months, locals saw a city rise from the ground. A maze of streets, Haussmann-style buildings, shops of all kinds, a metro station… A masterful work entrusted to production designer Johann George, who notably worked on the filming of Pupil or She loves him, by Jeanne Herry. It feels like Montmartre. Or Ménilmontant. Welcome to Backlot 77, the largest outdoor movie set in France, which is set to be inaugurated on September 15, just an hour’s drive from Paris.
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The idea of creating a French Hollywood had been germinating in Thierry de Segonzac’s head for a good ten years. Founder of TSF, the national leader in equipment rental for filming, the sixty-year-old is a cinema personality. “If I had known it was impossible, I wouldn’t have done it,” jokes the businessman. This Hollywood-sur-Marne is one of the key pieces deployed by France to attract national and foreign productions to the Paris region and compete with other European filming locations.
Thierry de Segonzac, founder of TSF. “If I had known it was impossible, I wouldn’t have done it.” Credit: Martin Barzilaï for Challenges
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- challenges.fr
