Canet & Brühl for Carion

by Fabien Lemercier

25/11/2003 - Joyeux Noël, the new film by Christian Carion, has a distinctly European flavour to it, from the subject to the casting and the co-production. It will be staring two of the leading lights from French and German cinema: Guillaume Canet (Anything You Say, Love Me If You Dare [trailer]) and Daniel Brühl (Good bye Lenin! [trailer]) alongside Danny Boon, André Dussolier, Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist [trailer]), Benno Furmann and Diane Kruger (Michel Vaillant) and the Scottish actor, Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot).

Once again the director has an all star cast, after he made his debut in feature filmmaking in grand style with One Swallow Brought Spring, which registered an audience of almost 2.4 million in France and which was distributed in more than 30 countries. This time Christian Carion has opted for the historical genre: Joyeux Noël! will show the lives of 4 characters during the night of Christmas in 1914. The four are a Scottish shepherd, French lieutenant, a tenor and a Danish soprano. They are destined to spend a night making friends, right in the middle of the war.
The film is produced for the French company Nord-Ouest Production by Christophe Rossignon, and it will have a budget of €15 million. Patrick Quinet, from the Belgium company Artémis Productions, will be providing co-production support. Shooting should be starting in the second half of 2004, and the film is expected to be released contemporaneously in cinemas in France, Germany, Britain and Belgium, in 2005.

(Translated from French)