Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: the first live adaptation of the comic strip “Asterix”.
After two projects of live adaptations of the comic strip “Asterix” which never came to fruition (the first envisaged by Claude Lelouch, the second by Louis de Funès who dreamed of playing the title role), a third materializes in 1999 thanks to Thomas Langmann.
With the agreement of the beneficiaries of the original work, the latter has been working on the production of Asterix and Obelix against Caesar for seven years already. He collaborated with his father, Claude Berri, who chose to entrust the staging to Claude Zidi, director of many popular comic films such as L’Aile ou la Cuisse and Banzaï.
With a substantial budget of around 42 million euros – making it the most expensive French film ever made at the time – it marked the first adventures in live action of the irreducible Gauls, Asterix and Obelix. , rescuing Panoramix, taken hostage by the Romans to besiege their village.
A classic scenario of course, but which benefits from successful special effects and leading actors, starting with the iconic duo formed by Christian Clavier and Gérard Depardieu, who will find themselves in the same roles in 2002, for Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra. Alongside them, we also note the presence of Michel Galabru, Roberto Benigni, Daniel Prévost, Pierre Palmade, Laetitia Casta and Jean-Pierre Castaldi.
On its theatrical release, this honest family entertainment, punctuated by a soundtrack by Jean-Jacques Goldman (which is rare enough to be underlined!), rose to the top of the French box office for the year 1999, ahead of Tarzan and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, bringing together nearly 9 million viewers.
Asterix and Obelix against Caesar by Claude Zidi with Christian Clavier, Gérard Depardieu, Roberto Benigni…
Tonight on TF1 at 9:10 p.m.
