One of the most popular international comic series Asterix and Obelix, which has been adapted into films and translated into multiple languages, Asterix and Obelix – The Middle Kingdom is set for its theatrical release in India on May 12 in English, Hindi and Tamil.
When the director Guillaume Canet was asked whether the adventures of Asterix and Obelix part of his culture as a child, he replied, “Totally! My father owned almost all the Asterix comic books, and they were definitely his. When he wasn't sharing them with me or my sisters, he'd dip back into them when he was alone, so it's pretty moving now to be able to read his books with my children. That's one of the reasons I got Involved in this project—to make a movie for my children at last. For everybody's children.”
Talking about his recollections of the first four movies in the franchise, Canet said, “I saw Claude Zidi's film in 1999. I liked it a lot but it was Alain Chabat's 2002 movie that was a real eye-opener. That was the movie that really built audience interest in the live-action adventures of Asterix and Obelix. It preserved the DNA of the comics while bringing a special touch or tone to the mix. It came up with something nobody had ever seen in a French movie. I saw the next two movies as well and, even if it's hard to compare, I find the art direction in the 2008 Olympic Games installment is top quality.”
Revealing at what point did The Middle Kingdom project reached to him, Canet asserted, “Alain Attal, my long-time producer, partnered up with Yohan Baiada, who had developed an Asterix and Obelix in China project, and had obtained Hachette's approval for this original story. They asked me if the project interested me on paper and gave me a treatment to read. Initially, it wasn't something I could see myself doing, but as I was reading I glimpsed the possibility of making a great travel and adventure movie. I pictured all the things that cinema could bring to the story, with battles, action scenes and fabulous settings, all on an epic scale rarely seen anymore in France. I knew that Asterix was a franchise that offered the resources to do all that. But once I had indicated my interest in the project, I had to pass the director's test and prove my credentials.”
He further added, “Then, I was given the first draft of the script written by Julien Hervé and Philippe Mechelen. We worked on it together, then I kept going alone because I wanted to make the film more personal by adding touches from my own universe. In total, I think I wrote about a dozen drafts before we started shooting!”
Asterix is one of the rare blockbuster franchises in French cinema with worldwide box-office of nearly $450 million, and nearly forty million admissions at home. When asked was it easy for him to liberate all of that, Guillaume stated, “I always set that aside when I make a film. I have at least one quality, I think, which is recklessness! I mean, it doesn't stop me being realistic and serious but I want to maintain a carefree attitude by telling myself that the reason I'm on this project is that people have faith in me. Then it's up to me to do the best I can with what I know how to do. It's like mountain-climbing barehanded: when you stop to think if you can make it to the top, your grip stiffens up and you fall.”
“On a project like Asterix, once it's launched, there's no going back. It's a monstrous machine involving an army of people, and every question you're asked, as well as every answer you give, has immediate, monumental consequences. The moral of the story is never to second-guess yourself and always act like you have the answer! More seriously, this is my eighth film as a director and my past experiences on set were very useful, because even though I didn't want to preoccupy myself with the scale of the budget, I still made sure I kept within bounds. I also realized that even with such a huge budget, spending issues can arise,” said the director.
Directed by Guillaume Canet, who will also be seen portraying the role of Asterix, written by René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo and Guillaume Canet, the movie features Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Cassel, Jonathan Cohen, Marion Cotillard, Julien Chen and Leanna Chea.
Having previously collaborated for Korean action- thriller The Witch- Part 2, LUV Films and Star Entertainment’s Asterix and Obelix - The Middle Kingdom is scheduled to release in cinemas in India on May 12 in English, Hindi and Tamil.
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