LINE-UP 2009

CHIC FILMS
53, rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine - 75011 Paris France
Tel: +33 (0) 1 75 00 12 40 - Fax: +33 (0)1 53 17 05 84
contacts@chic-films.com


Lauranne Bourrachot : lauranne@chic-films.com
Erika Denis : erika@chic-films.com

CHIC FILMS

Created in 2002 by Marco Cherqui, Chic Films is committed to developing and producing original feature films and TV programs that are engaging on both aesthetic and commercial levels. Marco Cherqui is a prolific music video and documentary producer who brought to music video confirmed directors such as Jacques Audiard, Laeticia Masson, Xavier Duringer, Claire Denis and Arnaud Desplechin and produced several documentaries related to music and cinema. Producer Lauranne Bourrachot joined Marco and the company at an early stage, followed by Erika Denis, in charge of international development. With Chic Films, they have built a talented roster of scriptwriters, directors and actors with whom he and his team are working on innovative cinema and TV projects.

Marco Cherqui notably produced La Bostella for StudioCanal, starring actor and comedian Edouard Baer in his debut feature.

Chic Films was launched with StudioCanal as a minority shareholder. It is now a fully independent company.

Chic Films co-produced with ADR Productions Marion Vernoux’s

A Boire

, starring Emmanuelle Beart, Edouard Baer and Atmen Kelif, released Christmas 2004.
Chic Films is also producing , in association with Canal + a prestigious coming-of-age comedy series titled “Our beloved children”, starring Romane Bohringer and Mathieu Demy.
Chic Films co-produced with Why Not Productions and Page 114

A Prophet

, directed by Jacques Audiard from an original screenplay by Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit commissioned and developed by Chic Films.
Official Competition/Cannes 2009, Grand Prix.

Chic films also produced

Black

directed by Pierre Laffargue, starring hip-hop singer MC Jean Gab’1. An action comedy located in Paris and Dakar. The film will be released in July in France.

Black


Directed by Pierre Laffargue, starring hip-hop singer MC Jean Gab’1. An action comedy located in Paris and Dakar.
Film completed – French theatrical release July 2009.
As a funky urban action comedy shot in 35mm cinemascope, on the verge of fantasy, located between Paris and modern Dakar, starring black actors, Black is certainly not just another French action movie.

Black is a Senegalese bank-robber born and raised in France who’s getting over a disastrous heist in which he lost nearly all of his men. He’s seriously thinking of going straight when his cousin Lamine calls him from Dakar. An easy coup awaits them, a briefcase has just been deposited in the bank where he works, a briefcase full of diamonds.

Black assembles a new gang and boards a flight to Africa, where things are never as simple as they seem, and where he’s never set foot. Everybody wants to get their hands on the diamonds: the corrupt bank manager, an arms dealer suffering from suppurating psoriasis and a gang of mercenaries led by Viktor Ouliakov, on holiday from Chechen.

Arrested, quite literally, in his tracks by Pamela Jones, a disturbingly beautiful Interpol agent, Black will progressively team up with her. Together they go through a magical initiation ritual in the heart of the jungle and Black returns transformed…
www.blacklefilm.com

Ze Malandro


In development.
English speaking.
A road movie through Brazil directed by Mika Kaurismäki and written by Simon Brook, a discovery journey into the world of Capoeira. In the spirit of Some like it Hot and Midnight Run, Ze Malandro is a classic ”buddy” road movie, an action comedy which follows the absurd adventures of the hapless Malandro and his unlikely accomplice Sven, a straights-laced Swedish policeman…

Boxing


Boxing tells the story of a wannabe boxing champ.
Written and to be directed by Frank Nicotra, a former European champ who was at the top of the worldwide charts and became No1 in 92.
Financing stage – French speaking.
Cast : Patrick Bruel, Olivier Marchal, Charles Berling, Hafsia Herzi, Rachid Djaidani.

Far away from the “rise and fall” and “challenger” archetype of previous boxing films, Boxing is looking at the backstage of the boxing ring : business deal, lawyers, the impact of the media on the sport. It is more the “making of” a champion who appears to be an average match but being handsome and manageable enough to serve the ambitions of local politics, new pay-tv channels and blood-thirsty bookmakers.

Wayfaring strangers


Written and to be directed by Stephen Bradley. A French/Irish coproduction.
Financing stage – English speaking.

Occupied France in 1942. A unit of British paratroopers are held by their German captors in a remote farmhouse. The farmer’s family are sheltering a young Jewish couple in the attic and their fate seems dangerously inevitable. But heroism is never so predictable…


TELEVISION SERIES

Our Dear Children
Comedy series 12x26’ Starring Romaine Bohringer, Mathieu Demy, Laurence Cole and Mathias Mlekuz Produced by Chic Films for Canal Plus in association with Shadow Films, Season 1 of Our Dear Children was broadcast on Canal Plus primetime in 2007 and Season 2 began airing in September 2008. A third season is in development with Canal Plus for broadcast in Fall 2009.

Gonzague & Raymond
Comedy drama 8x52
’ Written by Philippe de Chauveron (Les parasites and L’amour aux trousses) and Guy Laurent (La Beuze)
A light-hearted series about two very different police officers obliged to work as a team. One is a Parisian snob, the other a country cousin with a chip on his shoulder. Their strained relations provide the comedy, but they have to get serious and get along if they want to solve any crimes. In co-development with TF1
Ring
Drama series 8x52
Written by Frank Nicotra
Before becoming a screenwriter and director (L’engrenage), Frank Nicotra was a prizefighter who fought 33 fights with just one defeat on points. He was European champion in 1992 and ranked number one worldwide in the super middleweight category. Ring is the first TV drama set in the world of professional boxing.

La Piège
Drama series 8x52
’ Written by Thomas Bidegain (Un prophète) and Mathias Gavarry
It was looking like an easy day for Driss. He was going to do what he does best: enter a bank, empty the safe and leave without anyone getting hurt. But things aren’t as simple as he expected, and if he’s going to save his skin, and the hostages he ends up taking, he has to discover the real reason his hold-up went so spectacularly wrong. In co-development with Canal Plus

The Parisians
Documentary 10x26’
Written by Sophie Pincemaille and Olivier Charasson
Paris is the most beautiful city in the world – or it would be if it weren’t for the Parisians. Even the rest of France sees them as pretentious, aloof and disdainful. An off-beat documentary series, this entomological study of a unique urban species dares to treat the Parisians with the arrogance and condescension they so richly deserve.

L’armée des sans grades
Drama 2x90’
Written by Didier Vinson
Set against the backdrop of the Paris Commune in 1871, this two part film follows the destinies of a brave woman and two men fighting for her love amidst the violent clashes between the revolutionary Communards and the army, a situation made even more desperate by the privations and disease faced by the people of Paris during the siege.
A co-production with Mercredi Films.

Rage Records
Drama series 8x52’
Written by Sabine Amara
Rage Records is the name of a record label formed by a group of rappers who must overcome their differences and their rivalries, not to mention their problems with each other’s girlfriends, if they are going to work to together to have the hit they desperately need to survive.
A co-production with Mercredi Films, Rage Records has obtained funding for script development from the CNC.

Les Funambules
Documentary series Xx52’
Written by Pierre Linhart and Baya Kasmi
A wide-ranging exploration of the world of today’s teenagers.
Co-produced by Scarlett Productions.

Vous Plaisantez Monsieur Tanner
TV film
Written by Gabor Rassov (Janis and John, Black). Adapted from the bestseller by Jean-Paul Dubois.
Before he inherited the old family chateau, Paul Tanner led a quiet life. His mistake was to decide for sentimental reasons to restore it to its former splendor. Insane stonemasons, delinquent roofers and illuminated electricians all seem to conspire to make his new life hell.

Kabul Kitchen
Comedy drama 8x52’
Written by Marc Victor, Allan Mauduit and Jean-Patrick Benes (Vilaine)
In a country on the brink of chaos (Afghanistan), the local expats – a motley crew of businessmen and NGOs – meet regularly in the only Western restaurant in town, the Kabul Kitchen. As the bombs explode outside, they try to get by, save lives and maybe even make a buck.
A co-production with Scarlett Productions.

Detox
Comedy 12x26
’ Written by Karim Ada and Vincent Juillet
Made famous by the gutter press, Detox is the codename for the supposedly discreet and of course luxurious celebrity detoxification clinics. The series follows the triumphs and scandals the guests of La Villa, the most select, the most expensive, and the most “successful” of such “private establishments of rest”.