The zombies attack, for

fun

, in District Z. -

ALAIN ISSOC / SATISFACTION, THE TELEVISION AGENCY / TF1

  • TF1 is launching

    District Z

    this Friday at 9:05 p.m.

  • Personalities come to play for the benefit of associations in a setting of a “secret defense zone” populated by zombies.

  • “The goal is not to terrorize [the public].

    Zombies have awesome make-up but they're there to put our celebrities under stress.

    In front of the screen, this stress must be transformed into laughter for viewers, ”explains host Denis Brogniart at

    20 Minutes

    .

The zombie invasion began a long time ago in pop culture.

For years, they have been everywhere: in the cinema, in video games, in comics, in series… We did not expect them to come back with their faces from beyond the grave in prime time. on TF1.

This will be the case this Friday night and the next, at 21.05, with

District Z

.

Every week, hordes of living dead will seek noises with personalities - for this first, Mickaël Youn, Vincent Desagnat, Denitsa Ikonomova Arnaud Ducret and Cartman stick to it - come to play for the benefit of associations.

They will be released in a “secret-defense zone” (in reality a huge field next to Parc Astérix) where various trials await them, pushing them to face their phobias.

And to disentangle themselves from the cumbersome zombified hosts since an experiment of the mysterious professor Z went wrong ...

For TF1, this novelty is THE big challenge of the end of the year.

The show takes over from

Koh-Lanta

, whose twenty-first season was a hit, and will try to bring together a family audience. 

District Z

, which hired Xavier Gens, director of the horrific

Frontière (s)

and

La Horde

, as a consultant, draws on genre or action works.

We can take nods to the binoculars of The

Shining

, to the Joker, to Little Red Riding Hood, to

Resident Evil

, but also to

La Casa de Papel

… Still, all this must not distract the youngest from the small screen.

"The objective is not to terrorize the younger generations"

“We don't have any stress over that, we showed extracts to children.

When that stops, they are disappointed, ”assures Arthur, who takes on the producer cap here.

Denis Brogniart, the host, reassures: “The objective is not to terrorize the younger generations.

We don't have

Walking Dead

bloody zombies

.

They have awesome makeup but they are there to put our celebrities in a state of stress.

In front of the screen, this stress must turn into laughter in viewers.

"

It is indeed very amusing to see that the candidates who we imagine the least impressionable end up giving in to the freaks.

If only because they must take care to conserve their “life”, materialized by a sort of badge hanging from their backpack.

If the living dead snatch it from them: they are put out of play.

“When they lose a life, they are devastated,” Arthur notes.

Everything is done to make their experience immersive.

The shooting takes place at night, lasts about ten hours, without a nap break but with the possibility of regaining strength in a HQ where the candidates witness the feats of their comrades by nibbling on cereal bars.

They are guided by an exuberant - and funny - butler, when they are not on their own.

Most of the cameras, located 40 or 50 meters from the scene of the action, are forgotten.

The personalities emerge from there wrung out, on the kneecaps, even with a sprain.

In their large space, everyone hears them screaming and if the audience is likely to scream, it's only laughing.

Television

"Winning" Koh-Lanta "is revenge on mockery", considers Alexandra

Television

"I'm going to train every day to stay three hours on a pole", laughs Loïc from "Koh-Lanta"

A “blockbuster” of TV entertainment

Arthur presented the

District Z

project

 to TF1 two years ago.

“The format is halfway between cinema, gaming and mainstream TV.

The channel gave us the means to achieve our ambitions.

I said that the production value would depend on the budget.

They put the package and me too, ”he says.

The plateau is the equivalent of 14 football fields, more than 49 km of cables were needed and the device includes 50 cameras.

By launching this “blockbuster” of television entertainment, he obviously had in mind to see the concept adapted abroad.

European channels and American networks have expressed their interest.

"There is not a day when you do not receive a phone call", he confided upstream of Mipcom, the big international meeting of the pros of the TV, where

District Z

was particularly talked about by October.

  • Denis brogniart

  • Television

  • TF1

  • Zombie

  • Arthur