Paris-based film and television studio SND, part of French media group M6, has picked up world sales on the high-end period drama “Alice: Pioneer of Cinema,” in which Oscar-nominee Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”) stars as Alice Guy, the very first female fiction filmmaker. The six-parter, ordered by HBO Max and France Télévisions, is due to world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival‘s Primetime section on Sept. 14, ahead of its airing in December.
France’s Wild Bunch and Ligne de Front are producing along with Belgium’s Panache Productions, La Compagnie Cinématographique and Canada’s Sphere Media. The big-scale series, created by Tim Loane (“Versailles,” “Das Boot”) and Claire Lemaréchal (“The Bureau”) from a script by André Gulluni (“Rematch”), will also play on the leading Spanish pay TV/SVOD service Movistar Plus+, HBO Max in Belgium and the streamer Crave in Canada.
‘Alice: Pioneer of Cinema’
Helmed by Virginie Verrier and Guillaume Lonergan, “Alice: Pioneer of Cinema” tells the true story of Alice Guy, who turned from secretary for Gaumont to the first female fiction filmmaker and movie mogul in the late 19th to early 20th century.
After rising through the ranks at French banner Gaumont, she moves to the U.S., where she builds the first film studio owned by a woman. Despite her extraordinary achievements, she ends up losing it all, and her name fades into oblivion.
