It’s an event series, and we now know its broadcast date. Next Wednesday, October 30, the first two episodes of “Dans l’ombre” will be broadcast on France 2. The remaining four episodes will then be broadcast at the rate of two per week. Starring Karin Viard, Swann Arlaud and Melvil Poupaud, the series is adapted from an eponymous thriller written by a personality who knows the backstage of French political life: Édouard Philippe.
“Beginning screenwriters who had held the highest positions of state”
In 2012, the former Prime Minister, who was then “only” mayor of Le Havre and UMP deputy, joined forces once again with Gilles Boyer, one of his closest collaborators, to write this political novel, describing the behind the scenes of a fictional presidential campaign taking place in… 2025. Unofficial candidate for the next race for the Élysée in 2027, Édouard Philippe and his advisor Gilles Boyer also participated in the writing of the series, which was selected in competition during the 14th edition of the Séries Mania festival in Lille, last March.
The synopsis? César Casalonga, political advisor and excellent strategist, accompanies Paul Francoeur, who has just won his party’s primaries with a view to being nominated for the presidential campaign. But in the shadows, Caesar must dodge the attacks of other candidates and extinguish the resentments of his own political family. Worse still, a rumor of fraud in the primaries threatens to weaken his boss’s candidacy. Caesar will then have to fight the most difficult fight of his life.
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In addition to the participation of the authors of the book in the screenplay, “In the Shadow” benefits from the experience of Pierre Schoeller, who signed the film “The Exercise of the State”, both showrunner and director of this new fiction. “The production of this series was prototypicale” declared producers Marie Dubas, Marie Masmonteil in a press release from France Télévisions. “And for good reason: we did nothing according to the rules. We entrusted the artistic direction to a film director, Pierre Schoeller, whom we associated with professional screenwriters who had never written for television – Lamara Leprêtre-Habib and Cédric Anger – as well as beginner screenwriters. who had held the highest positions of state – Édouard Philippe and Gilles Boyer” we can read.
“To top it all off, we strongly supported Pierre Schoeller’s desire to choose actors who, for the majority of them, were much better identified with cinema than with television“, they add. “It was necessary to have a degree of madness to account for the way in which the existences of those who have made the choice to sacrifice their lives to politics can be derailed, whether they are candidates for an elective mandate or councilors of the shadows of disciplined women and men, strategists with a deep sense of loyalty, but for whom everything can turn upside down if they are overcome by doubt and paranoia.“, concludes the text.
