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Writer-director Claude Berri’s 1983 crime drama Tchao Pantin, also known as So Long, Stooge, is set in a world between dusk and dawn. It begins, as the cliché goes, on a dark and stormy night, with a young Arab man, Bensoussan (Richard Anconina), arriving at a gas station looking for a spark plug for his dead moped. Graveyard-shift worker Lambert (Coluche) says that he doesn’t have one, and after Benoussan politely leaves, that would seem to be the end of their association. But circumstance keeps bringing Bensoussan and Lambert together, not least because they’re nocturnal creatures who approach things with a gentle, detached irony.

Lambert may be a creature of the night, but he looks like he never adjusted to his own schedule; the bags under his eye are nearly as blue as his garage uniform, and his slicked hair and pencil mustache look more like oil stains than natural fibers.

Thierry Ardisson, a famous French TV journalist, host and producer known for roasting some of the biggest stars and political figures in modern history, has teamed up with Mediawan’s 3eme Oeil Productions to resuscitate late icons in “L’hotel du Temps.”

Pioneering the use of an artificial intelligence-generated tool called FaceRetriever, “L’Hotel du Temps” has allowed Ardisson to fulfil his wildest dream: Travel back in time and bring back legendary figures, including Princess Diana, French actor Jean Gabin, comedian Coluche, singer Dalida and former French president Francois Mitterand.

He interviews them in his favorite Parisian palace, the Hotel Meurice. Represented by Mediawan Rights, “L’Hotel du Temps” has been commissioned by French public broadcaster France Televisions’ France 3 channel for primetime.

Ardisson has tapped an extended team of researchers to explore all interviews and statements that each person ever gave and look at other material in order to craft the segments.

Millimages, one of France’s leading production/distribution banner dedicated to animated content, is set to produce “Les aventures of Nasredine,” a short-format series based on Nasreddin, a iconic character of Muslim satiric literature.

Commissioned by the Lagardere-owned French channel Gulli, “Les aventures de Nasredine” will be directed by Régis Saillard and will comprise 104 one-minute episodes, inspired by nearly two dozens of books.

Nasreddin is a mythical figure of oriental culture who travels across the planet and through all ages sitting on a donkey. He uses comedy and burlesque to denounce stupidity, prejudice, vanity, cowardice, conformism and greed.

“With this series, we anchor the channel a little more in the Eastern part of the world through this local hero from oral culture. We hope to offer our young viewers and their families the tales and spiritual stories of this mythical figure as of September 2019,” said Caroline Cochaux, managing director...