Guillaume Canet addresses nervousness ahead of ‘Asterix & Obelix’ big release in France: ‘If a movie like this doesn’t work, there are no financiers who put money into movies’

French actor and director Guillaume Canet has revealed he is feeling the pressure ahead of the release of his ambitious $70m production next week Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom.

Canet directs the film and stars as the gallant Gallic Asterix in an all-star cast that also includes Gilles Lellouche as Obelix, Vincent Cassel as Julius Caesar, Marion Cotillard as Cleopatra, and Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimović as Caesar’s bodyguard Antivirus.

The production is Canet’s eighth film after the 2006 breakthrough Don’t tell anyoneHits of 2010 Little white liesBrooklyn set, English debut blood ties and the smaller, more personal Pandemic film Lazy.

Alain Attal, a long-time associate of Trésor Films, produces with Pathé and Yohan Baiada on Les Enfants Terribles.

Pathe begins Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom on 1,200 screens on February 1. Local media consider the release to be the biggest movie event of early 2023.

Canet said he’s nervous as the release date approaches, and rightly so: a lot depends on performance.

“We are chasing a pandemic. Cinema is getting better, but it’s still quite fragile,” he said in an interview with French radio station France Inter. “The film industry is waiting for the film. Everyone is very nice to me, there is no competition, but everyone knows that if this film doesn’t work, there won’t be many films like this in France.”

“We need people to come back and rediscover the joy of sharing a film in a cinema with their families. With the rise of platforms, it has to work for all other films to work and get funding. If such a film does not run, there are no financiers who put money into films. There is a lot of pressure.”

The release is also a major operation for Pathé.

It will be a test case for his strategy of investing in bigger local tentpole films for theatrical distribution, along with Martin Bourboulon’s big dares. The Three Musketeers – D’Artagnan and The Three Musketeers—My Ladywhich will be released on April 5 and December 23 respectively.

These releases follow a difficult time for French theater at the domestic box office as it recovers from the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

With cinema admissions in France still around 27% lower in 2022 than before the pandemic, no French production made the top ten in the past year.

This was the first time this had happened since 1989, with at least one or two commercial titles such as Series of (bad) weddings, camelot and Bac North has made it to the top of the charts in recent years alongside American studio titles.

Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom was first announced internationally in 2020. Inspired by the work of Asterix and Obelix creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, it is based on an original screenplay by Philippe Mechelen and Julien Hervé, with Canet in charge of dialogue with the writers.

The feature film takes place in the year 50 BC. and follows Asterix and Obelix as they come to the aid of a Chinese princess in an adventure that also pits them against ancient enemy Julius Caesar.

Initial plans to shoot on location in China fell through due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with filming taking place mainly in France and briefly in Morocco.

Canet and his producers hope to continue the success of previous Asterix & Obelix films.

Claude Zidi’s classic 1999 Asterix and Obelix face off against Caesar, starring Christian Clavier and Gérard Depardieu, drew nine million viewers domestically and a further 16 million internationally; by Alain Chabat Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra14.4 million tickets sold domestically and another 10 million outside France during Asterix at the Olympics was less successful in 2008, but still generated 6.8 million visitors.

The Asterix and Obelix comics remain embedded in French culture, but is the latest live-action film inspired by the iconic franchise Asterix & Obelix: God Saves Britannia failed to capture the public’s imagination in 2012, drawing 3.8 million viewers on a $60 million budget.

Canet told France Inter that he didn’t think too deeply when he started to get the project off the ground.

“I tend to upload things and then think about them. If I have one quality, it’s not thinking too much. I don’t think too much when I do something, I don’t ask too many questions,” he said.

“Now the film is finished, a month ago after four years of work. It dawns on me that I’ve made the film and it’s close to release, it’s been extended and I’m starting to get nervous.”