Prime Video France is doubling down on homegrown originals across scripted, film and unscripted — and is pushing further into new event formats with “Mascarade,” a creator-led French format that builds on the streamer’s hit “LOL” franchise, as well as premium series such as “Animal Sauvage,” a six-part adaptation of Joël Dicker’s bestselling novel “Animal Sauvage.”
The later starts shooting in a few says and is directed by Vincent Maël Cardona (“Magnetic Beats”) with a prestige cast led by Noémie Merlant, Matthias Schoenaerts, Pauline Clément, Pierre-Yves Cardinal and Quim Gutiérrez.
Prime Video also announced an exclusive partnership with Dicker to adapt two more international bestsellers from his catalogue, including “L’Énigme de la Chambre 622” and “Le Livre des Baltimore.”
Unveiled Thursday during Prime Video’s “Prime Original Stories” presentation at Café de l’Homme over the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Dicker partnership reflects Prime Video’s growing appetite for locally rooted IP with built-in audience awareness, Thomas Dubois, head of French Originals at Prime Video, told Variety ahead of the presentation.
“France is a territory where there is a very strong relationship between audiences and authors, between viewers and the stories they already know from books, cinema, comedy or digital culture,” he said. “The opportunity for us is to take those worlds and build them with the right level of ambition. A project like ‘Animal Sauvage’ lets us work with a major literary voice, a strong director and an exceptional cast, while still making something that feels very Prime Video.”
