10/09/2007

An old hand at comedies and box-office hits, Francis Veber is returning to his roots for his 12th feature, L'Emmerdeur, which will begin shooting in March of next year.

Initially entitled Le contrat, the film, a 1969 stage play and a piece written by Veber, was made into a feature in 1973, directed by Edouard Molinaro and starring Lino Ventura and Jacques Brel. It became a stage play once again in 2005 with Richard Berry and Patrick Timsit heading the bill and direction by Veber. Now L'Emmerdeur is making its way back to the big screen, this time under the direction of its creator, who has chosen to work with the same two actors.

The film recounts the mishaps of Ralf Milan (Berry), a serial killer on a mission. On the lookout for a man to kill from his hotel bedroom, he is forced to save the life of François Pignon (Timsit), a heartbroken business rep staying in the room next door, who wants to commit suicide. The encounter turns out to be an enormous grain of sand in the routine of the professional killer because Pignon largely deserves the title of world champion of the Emmerdeurs.

Veber, who began directing in 1976 with The Toy, later went on to make the trilogy The Goat, ComDads and Les fugitifs; The Dinner Game (9 million admissions in France in 1998); The Closet (8 million filmgoers in 2001); Shut Up! (3.1m admissions in 2003); and The Valet [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (3.08m in 2006).

L'Emmerdeur is being produced by Patrice Ledoux (former producer at Gaumont, who previously worked with Veber on The Closet, as well as on six features by Luc Besson, from The Big Blue to Joan of Arc), for Pulsar Productions.

The new outfit has a busy slate of films lined up, among which Eric Besnard’s Cash [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Jean Dujardin, Jean Reno, Valeria Golino and Alice Taglioni in post-production (see article) and Ma fille a 14 ans by directing duo Thomas Sorriaux and François Desagnat, starring Daniel Auteuil and currently in production (see news).

(Translated from French)