Excluded – Pierre Niney in The Count of Monte Cristo: “It was obvious”

“It was obvious,” tell us Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, who are adapting a new work by Alexandre Dumas after The Three Musketeers.

At the end of the 1970s, Denys de la Patellière had adapted the count of Monte Cristo in series, successfully. Now he’s his son Alexander who sticks to it for the cinema. Accompanied by its complexity First name and Three Musketeers d’Artagnan And Milady, Matthew Delaportethey recently finished filming of this adventure film worn by Pierre Niney, for Pathé. They provide the first information on this ambitious project in the new issue of Firstwith their interpreter of Edmond Dantès on the cover.

“the count of Monte Cristoit really is our bedside novel, more than the Musketeers”, explains Delaporte in the preamble, before detailing why they bet on the flagship actor ofYves Saint Laurent and of Black Box for this project. “Dantès is like Cyrano, he said. It seemed impossible to us to embark on the adventure without having the agreement of the person who was going to embody it.” His co-author adds: “We needed someone capable of being credible at 20 as well as at 40. Someone who is a dark, melancholy and vengeful figure at the same time. Pierre was obvious. (…) It’s the first time we’ve written with an actor in mind.”

Summary of Premiere n°547 with Pierre Niney as Count of Monte Cristo, Emma Stone, the 2023 results, the films of 2024…

Throughout the interview, the duo also teases Pierre Niney’s playing partners: “Dumas’ characters are fantastic, it’s an asset for bringing in great actors: Anaïs Demoustier, Laurent Lafitte, Anamaria Vartolomei, Patrick Mille, Bastien Bouillon, Vassili Schneider… People from very different worlds as in the story that we tell”thus gives us Alexandre.

Without forgetting the ambition of such an adventure film, a story of revenge and love including many action scenes. “We wanted to reconnect with a certain form of visual flamboyance. That of Technicolor from the 60s and 70s, he specifies. That’s why we shot in the summer, in Cinemascope with Panavision lenses from the 70s.”

Matthew confirms: “We immediately told our director of photography, Nicolas Bolduc, that we were moreCheetah that Batman ! (Laughs.)'” “On the set, we talked a lot about De Palma, adds De la Patellière. We wanted to go all out, like him, to take on a story constructed like an opera. This is also why we chose to make one film and not two: we have to experience these twenty years of history in one go.”

the count of Monte Cristo is due to be released in cinemas on December 11, 2024. The full interview with its creators can therefore be found in First n°547, alongside others “previews” as Dune 2, Emmanuelle, Mad Max: Furiosa…

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