27/06/2005

The world of pop music fans seems to have greatly inspired Fidélité Productions who decided, after the look-alikes of Claude François in Podium (3,5 million admissions) to launch a film centred around Johnny Halliday. Played by the singer himself and Fabrice Luchini, Jean-Philippe, l’idole des jeunes, for which shooting started today for 12 weeks in the Paris region, will tell the story of a fan who wakes up one day in a world where Johnny doesn’t exist. In despair, he investigates and finds Jean-Philippe Smet (Johnny Halliday’s real name), owner of a bowling alley in the French suburbs and tries to convince him to become Johnny. A task that brings together their two children: a girl of 16 going through a gothic phase and a boy in his Rasta period.

Written by Christophe Turpin and the third film to be directed by Laurent Tuel (Un jeu d'enfants), Jean-Philippe, l’idole des jeunes is originally a project from a new company baptised Bankable. With a budget of 12 million euros, the film seduced Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc (regular partners for François Ozon) who decided to bring Fidélité in as co-production at 50 % and to guide the production. Equal co-producer, Studio Canal handles the international sales while Mars Distribution will release the film in France in 2006.

(Translated from French)