Sold 7 million copies worldwide, the game “Loups-Garous” is being adapted on Netflix.
A comedy which received the blessing of its creators, concerned with the family dimension of their baby.
Director François Uzan tells TF1info the little secrets of this rereading full of surprises.
Once upon a time there was a genius idea… that no one wanted. In 2001, board game creator Philippe des Pallières and his accomplice Hervé Marty created The Werewolves of Thiercelieu, a French version of the Russian board game Mafiarevisited in the light of tales and legends from our region. The principle: after drawing playing cards blindly, the villagers must unmask and kill all the werewolves… while the werewolves must eliminate all the villagers and not be unmasked
Too many players, too many rules, too much of everything: the era, no one agrees to commercialize it. So much so that the duo decided to create their own company, called Himself. Since then, no less than 7 million copies have been sold around the world in 16 countries. In France alone, more than 250,000 were sold last year. From there to making a film? The idea came during confinement to producer Clément Miserez (Belle and Sébastien New Generation, On the black paths), while a game box was lying on his desk.
It’s not done so much in France whereas in the United States, you take a Lego, a Barbie, you make a film!
Director François Uzan
After convincing Philippe des Pallières and Hervé Marty to transfer the rights to his company Radar Films, he turned to director François Uzan, whose comedy he produced We smile for the photo. And which has just experienced two successes in quick succession with two flagship Netflix series: Lupin with Omar Sy and In place with Jean-Pascal Zadi. “He put the game box on a table and said to me ‘Come on, let’s adapt it,’ the person tells TF1info.It’s not done so much in France whereas in the United States, you take a Lego, a Barbie, you make a film!“.
A film yes, but which one? “I’m not a fan of horror films and I didn’t want something bloody“, admits François Uzan. “And as soon as we started thinking about references, the adventure came“, recalls this fan of popular entertainment. “What I like are the films of Gérard Oury like The Ace of Aces et Madness of grandeur, but also Visitors et Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra. And American films from the 1980s like Indiana Jones, Back to the future et Ghostbusters.“
The creators set only one condition
We would be tempted to add Jumanji since the scenario he concocted features a family, the Vassiers, propelled into the Middle Ages after starting a game of Werewolves. Jérôme, Marie, the children Clara, Louise and Théo and their grandfather, Gilbert, arrive in the village of Thiercelieux, prey to lycanthropes. Between situation comedy, witticisms and special effects, this family comedy has received the blessing of the creators of the game. However, with one condition. “They just gave me a note“, reveals François Uzan. “Could you replace the word ‘kill’ by the word ‘eliminate’ ?”.
The tastiest idea? The integration of variety hits throughout the plot. “Goldman, Berger, Balavoine, Hallyday… It’s the music I listen to and it was a way of putting myself in the film“, says the director. “But I didn’t want to just push a button. I wanted it to be totally integrated into the story. I sometimes had to change the title, either for rights reasons or because it didn’t work as well. I rewrote the scenes according to the pieces, the goal being that the viewer doesn’t see them coming. But when they arrive, they have fun.”
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Spoiler alert: in a key sequence, Franck Dubosc, who plays Jérôme, performs Johnny’s “Light the Fire” under the stunned gaze of the villagers. “He was a little anxious.”reveals François Uzan. “He tried to warm me up by telling me he wasn’t sure it would work.. I told him that I wasn’t sure it would work… but that I was sure we had to shoot it! So he rehearsed a lot, sometimes we heard him scream ‘It will be enough!’ at the other end of the board. Part of my team worked on “Taratata” and we filmed it like a concert. And when Franck showed up in front of 250 people with his lute, he was incredible.”
>> Werewolves by François Uzan. With Franck Dubsoc, Jean Reno, Suzanne Clément. 1h35. On Netflix.
