News

In a significant declaration of large intentions and strategy at Studiocanal, owned by Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group, Françoise Guyonnet has been appointed Studiocanal CEO Copyrights Group and EVP Kids’ Brands as the European production-distribution giant looks to drive powerfully into children’s IP.

Studiocanal described the appointment in a written statement on Thursday as “a confident move for the studio which wishes to accelerate growth in children’s IP.” Copyrights Group is an international intellectual property management agency, it added.

The new high-ranking role for Guyonnet at Studiocanal has been announced just two days after it unveiled plans at Brand Licensing Europe (Ble) to produce with Superprod Group and Mercis a CGI series of world famous character “Miffy,” created in 1955 by Dutch author-illustrator Dick Bruna. Guyonnet said the move underlined “our ambition in the quality franchise space.”

Significantly, Guyonnet has served as Studiocanal director of TV series from 2017. Her...

Convinced she has only one more day to live, Françoise and her friend run away from their convent boarding school and hitch a lift to a party in a vast chateau in the middle of the woods. Here, amid decadence and occultist dalliances, she encounters various lost souls, including a sullen party guest who claims to be a vampire, as she struggles with fiery, prophetic visions and a sense that time is running out.

Set in 1967, La Morsure is a melancholy and mesmerising period piece, with notes of Rollin, Breillat, Argento and Hadzihalilovic. There are also echoes of Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, as Françoise (Léonie Dahan-Lamort) finds herself among a throng of revellers, none of whom appear to share her feelings of impending doom. Writer-director Romain de Saint-Blanquat sets the story in an in-between space, reflecting the threshold Françoise stands upon, but despite her intentions, seems.

"Remember you are dust, and will return to dust." Films Boutique has revealed a trailer for a Giallo thriller from France titled Bitten, originally called La Morsure in French. Yet another dark, grainy, gothic vampire thriller? This is premiering at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland underway now, just in time for its world premiere. A Catholic schoolgirl is convinced tonight is her last night on Earth and decides to attend a costume party with her best friend. Set in 1967 during Mardi Gras. Françoise is a 17-year-old boarder who sneaks out with her friend Delphine to attend a party and live the night as if it was her last... The director explains that he references are "films like Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson), Carrie (Brian De Palma), or Phenomena (Dario Argento) for their striking and intense visions of adolescence, distorted by a prism of fantasy. With this film...