France may in general have suffered last year a sales’ decline and export slow-down but “Submarine Jim“‘s characters don’t seem to be bothered as they weather this storm with a smile on their face.
Xilam’s latest production, in which a naive young dolphin (Jim) takes charge of an “inverted” submarine full of fish and sea water, is a road trip/slapstick comedy adventure blending laugh-out-loud children jokes and subtle references aimed and at an older audience.
Created by Frédéric Martin, the acclaimed director of “Oggy Oggy” and a Xilam alum, “Submarine Jim” is produced with Super RTL and France Télévisions and already has licensed multiple territories and broadcasters, including the BBC (U.K. and Ireland), RTS (French-Switzerland), RTBF and VRT (Belgium), NPO (Netherlands), YLE (Finland), NRK (Norway) and Noga (Israel), as well as Warner Bros. Discovery in EMEA, Latin America, Southeast Asia and South Korea.
During the Unifrance Rendez-vous, where Xilam presented the series to international buyers, Variety spoke with the teams behind “Submarine Jim.”
“Sitcoms work particularly well in contained settings, so I started looking for one… and landed on a submarine,” explains Frédéric Martin. “Then came the question: what’s unique about this submarine? Simple: it’s obviously filled with water! One logical question led to another, until we landed on having an aquarium on wheels, where the fish experience Planet Earth as if they were exploring Mars.”
