Former French President François Hollande has joined the voice cast of ‘Silex & the City – The Movie’, a big screen spin-off of the popular Stone Age animated short series.
“Silex & the City is adapted from the comic book series of the same name by French cartoonist Jul, which has sold over a million copies. The animated series has become a hit on the Franco-German channel Arte and is broadcast in prime time.
Written and co-directed by Jul and Jean-Paul Guigue, the film will combine 2D animation with live action sequences. In addition to Hollande, the well-known voice cast includes Bruno Solo, Julie Gayet, Stéphane Bern, Léa Drucker, Frédéric Beigbeder, Guillaume Gallienne, Léa Salamé and Amélie Nothomb. The film is now in production and is expected to be completed by spring 2024.
“Silex & the City – The Movie” follows the adventures of the Dotcom family – consisting of hunting professor Blog, geography teacher Spam and their rebellious children – as they embark on a time-travelling escapade into the future.
“A true leap in the evolutionary chain, the transition of ‘Silex & the City’ from the three-minute format to feature length is a minor revolution,” said Jul in a statement. “The Dotcom family becomes more endearing, the references to genre film classics can resonate more deeply, and the political critique of our mad civilisation really comes to fruition in this long-form narrative.”
The film is produced by Je Suis Bien Content, the award-winning company founded by Franck Ekinci and Marc Jousset, whose credits include Persepolis, April and the Extraordinary World and Mars Express, currently playing in French cinemas.
Co-producers are Arte Cinéma and Leftfield in Belgium, in association with BE-TV in Belgium, SG Images, CNC and Wallimages.
“Silex & the City – The Movie” will be distributed in cinemas by Haut & Court, the banner behind the Cesar-winning thriller “The Night of the 12th”, and represented in international markets by Urban. The animation is being created at the Je Suis Bien Content studio in Paris and at Wahoo! in Liège, while the live-action part will be shot in the Brussels region in mid-December.
