Paris (AFP)

François Cluzet will play Carlos Ghosn in "The Fugitive", a new mini-series about the heyday and downfall of the former CEO of Renault-Nissan, French production company Federation Entertainment reported on Tuesday, six months after the announcement of a comparable project by a Franco-Saudi tandem.

A "thriller" about the "crazy, thrilling, in a hurry" life of the fallen auto tycoon, installed in Lebanon since his incredible escape from Japan in December 2019, this miniseries of six episodes of 52 minutes is "freely adapted from the book by Régis Arnaud and Yann Rousseau, + Le Fugitif +, published by Stock in 2020 ", states a press release.

Created by the writer and screenwriter Stéphane Osmont, author of the novel "Le Capital" (adapted for the cinema by Costa-Gavras) and co-writer of the series "La vie devant elles", it is directed by Frédéric Jardin ("Engrenages" , "Braquo").

"Confirmed in the title role", François Cluzet ("Intouchables") "will lend his features to the most fascinating fugitive in recent history with all the subtlety necessary to embody this paradoxical and complex man," argues Federation Entertainment.

"We are far from the simple biopic" or "the subjective story to rehabilitate or even undermine" Carlos Ghosn, assures the director Frédéric Jardin, quoted in the press release, promising "a real political and financial suspense".

Incarcerated and then released on bail, the former Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian businessman fled Japan in December 2019, probably hidden in a box of audio equipment, thus escaping a trial for financial embezzlement before the Japanese justice.

He claims to be the victim of a conspiracy, as he repeated in a book published last month, "Together, always", written in four hands with his wife Carole.

This affair has already inspired another mini-series and a documentary both including the couple's "exclusive contributions", announced in October by French production houses Alef One, co-founded by host Arthur and producer Nora Melhli, and Saudi woman MBC.

Their fiction, of six one-hour episodes, is based on a scenario piloted by Mark Goffmann ("The West Wing", "Sleepy Hollow" ...).

The Franco-Swedish director Charlotte Brändström ("The Outsider", "Conspiracy of Silence", "Away") is in charge.

In addition to the files concerning him in Japan, Carlos Ghosn, who is the subject of a request for arrest by Interpol and a ban on leaving the territory by the Lebanese justice, is targeted by several cases in France, notably concerning on suspicion of misuse of corporate assets.

© 2021 AFP