Currently broadcast on TF1, the series “Mercato” is produced by Route Productions, the company already behind the successful fiction “HPI”, with Audrey Fleurot, who will be back on the front page on May 16. A company to which we also owe “Ooussekine” for Disney+ or “Flashback”, another series soon to be broadcast on TF1. Pierre Laugier, one of the two associated producers of Itinéraire Productions, answered questions from puremedias.com. He, of course, returned to the phenomenal success of “HPI”, but also to the creation of “Mercato”, an action and comedy detective series, with Arnaud Ducret.
Comments collected by Laura Bruneau
puremedias.com: How did you experience the phenomenal success of “HPI” at Route Productions?
Pierre Laugier: It was an immense joy that we shared with the creators of the series, the directors, the casting. It’s a pretty unreal moment that we experienced in 2021 when the first episodes were broadcast. We wondered if there wasn’t an error. It was a fairly unprecedented situation since we were coming out of the pandemic, there was still a curfew. We were all a little groggy about what had just happened, we were in great need of freshness, of something new, and “HPI” came along at that moment. There was the success of the first season, a success which was renewed afterwards. It has become almost a social phenomenon. It is to experience these moments that we do this job.
Has this changed anything for your production company?
Yes. People have already identified us. They could put an activity on names and faces, see what we wanted to do. The year following the first season of “HPI”, we released the series “Ooussekine” for Disney+, this was the emergence of our first projects. Our company has existed since 2017, it took a little time to launch the activity. It was good to be able to present “HPI”, which is a huge public and critical success, but also a series like “Ooussekine”, to show the market, the public what we wanted to do. “HPI” changed a lot of things for us, but I believe it changed a lot of things for the producers, the series creators, it helped create momentum on the original creation. “HPI” is a series sold all over the world, which is currently being remade in the United States, which gives confidence in French creation.
From now on, with the “HPI” card, are you received like kings at TF1 when you have something to offer?
[Rires] No, like partners with whom we have been working for almost 10 years. Anthony [Lancret] and I have always wanted to work with TF1. Before creating Itinerary, we made a series with TF1, “La Mante”, when we were at Septembre Productions, then broadcast on Netflix. It was one of the first French series on Netflix, but it was initially a TF1 creation. This collaboration has existed for a very long time. Anne Viau, at the time, had followed “La Mante” as program advisor, then Marie Guillaumond, director of fiction. It was then Anne Viau who ordered “HPI” then “Mercato” from us. I like to remind you that behind these successes, there are producers, talents, but also a broadcaster, TF1, and people in the direction of fiction who support us. We like working together and we like to feel supported in good times and bad.
: “With ‘Mercato’ we wanted to create a series in the wake of ‘HPI’ without applying the same formula”){kind=link}