Well-known in the cinema world with Paprika Films (behind successes such as Two of Us [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Filippo Meneghetti
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intervista: Marie Amiguet e Vincent Mu…
scheda film]), Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin is also very active in the realm of series at Ego Productions (Groupe Mediawan) which he directs with Vincent Mouluquet. We met up with the French producer to discuss the series project Antilia (6 x 52'), selected at the Co-Pro Pitching Session of the Series Mania Forum (read the article).

Cineuropa: What is Antilia about?
Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin: The project is carried by the same team as Grace of Heaven, with Maxime Crupaux and Baptiste Fillon writing and Vincent Maël Cardona (revealed at the 2021 Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes with Magnetic Beats [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vincent Maël Cardona
scheda film]) directing. After the docks of Le Havre, we were looking for another arena and we found one that is pretty extraordinary: Saint-Martin, in the Antilles. This island, split between France and the Netherlands is both paradise and hell: on one side, you have beautiful beaches, the Caribbean dream, tourists enjoying their mojitos; and on the other, there’s prostitution, drugs (it’s a meeting point for European and American drug trafficking), casinos and, historically, a lot of money laundering. Antilia will tell the story of a local family, a mother and her three children, working for different international mafias and laundering money through several of their companies, in construction, casinos, etc. The series opens as the family is building a hotel by laundering the money of the Calabrian mafia. But while digging, they discover a mass grave of slaves. Under a lot of pressure and tension, they try to hide it, but it is soon known throughout the island. At the same time, they are under surveillance from the police, who are looking for a way to catch them. This is also a period of cyclones, with the potential arrival of a hurricane as powerful as Irma, which utterly destroyed the island in 2017… 

Why did you want to continue working with the team from Grace of Heaven?
First of all, because we loved working together. Grace of Heaven, which was in competition at Series Mania last year, was a success both artistically and with audiences on Arte, with more than 3.5 million views on the platform Arte.tv in addition to very good viewing numbers on linear broadcasting. Arte therefore decided to trust us again on another project. Here, at Series Mania Forum, we are looking for co-producers, pre-buys, and platforms for international diffusion. 

What would be your ideal schedule?
We are currently working on the narrative arcs, so filming is planned for 2025. By the way, it may not take place entirely at Saint-Martin, some of it may be shot in Guadeloupe or Martinique, whom we are already in talks with. 

What is Ego Productions’ editorial line?
We have produced a great number of series, including 123 episodes of Alice Nevers (a series which may return in the future) but also Black Spot. Our editorial line is defined by high standards, whether we are dealing with productions aimed largely at the national market, or artistic work with a more international ambition — projects like Black Spot and Grace of Heaven that have the potential to circulate more thanks to their high production value and their genre credentials.

What do you think of the  very competitive, booming series market, where investments from platforms are however slowing down?
If we look back at the situation a few years ago, there really has been great growth in terms of the volume of production. It felt like we were getting the best of both worlds: important productions for the terrestrial channels, as well as a significant financial influx from the platforms. It’s true that, since about a year ago, we can feel a streamlining of platforms’ investments, whether at Disney, Netflix, or at Paramount+ which has frozen its investments. That is a result of the international platform market, which became very competitive when they launched, and of a search for an economic balance, which some have found and others have not, hence the current period of rationalisation. And we definitely haven’t seen the end of the concentration phenomena for mid-sized platforms launched by American studios. However, in France, we are lucky to have competent authorities who negotiated the platforms’ obligations to invest in production very well, even if some platforms have not yet signed the agreement. There is this challenge around how France will position itself internationally among the other countries that produce audiovisual programmes, with the ability to export them and to reach viewers worldwide. Behind the United States, which basically doesn’t count, there is South Korea; and in Europe, there is the UK, Spain, France, and Germany. France needs to find its position, and investment obligations allow us to create many series, including some potentially very “successful” series as we can see on Netflix, where French shows are making a splash lately at an international level. All of this is encouraging creativity, with a French series industry going through a period of growth, and that is to be celebrated, even if it creates a bit of saturation regarding screenwriter, actor and crew availability.