23/06/2003

Un long dimanche de fiançailles, the new film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is to be made with American money but produced in France. According to cinema weekly, Le Film Français, Warner Bros will cover most of the Euros45m budget in return for worldwide distribution rights. The film will be made by a new French company called 2003 Production and is scheduled to go into production early in August.

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The film will reunite the winning team, lead by actress Audrey Tautou, that Jeunet assembled for the film that made him into an international "name", Amelie [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and the French-language Un long dimanche de fiançailles will be made over 21 weeks in various locations throughout the territory. Duboi is handling digital post-production.

2003 Production was set up especially to guarantee that Jeunet’s new film becomes a hit by Francic Boespflug, the managing director of Warner Bros France. The new production slate merged Tapioca (Jeunet’s production slate), TF1 Production and Warner. From a legal point of view, the make-up of the new company means that its productions will be eligible for Gallic financial support and this was not well received by other Gallic industry operators who feel that Warner is exploiting incentives aimed at the French film production sector. That said, the profits generated by the box office performance of Jeunet’s film will be used for future 2003 Production titles.
Un long dimanche de fiançailles is scheduled for its domestic release in 2004, followed by a US in December.

(Translated from French)