Lille (AFP)
A biography of star couturier Karl Lagerfeld and a return to a flagship case of police violence of the 1980s, the death of student Malik Oussekine: Disney +, the American group's streaming platform, will broadcast two series devoted to these two themes.
Conceived in six 50-minute episodes, the series "Kaiser Karl" will be shot in France and produced by Gaumont ("Lupine"), said on Tuesday Jan Koeppen, president of the EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) region of the Walt Disney group. Company during the "Lille dialogues", a day of meetings between international audiovisual professionals of the Séries Mania festival.
This very first series devoted to Karl Lagerfeld, sometimes nicknamed the Kaiser (the emperor), will be adapted from the biography "Kaiser Karl" written by journalist Raphaëlle Bacqué and published in June 2019, a few months after the death of the emblematic couturier of the Chanel house.
The great reporter of the daily Le Monde "is co-author of the series with Isaure Pisani-Ferry (" Vampires ") and Jennifer Have (" Unfaithful "," The red bracelets "). The cast and artistic team will be announced in the next few months ", adds Disney + in a press release.
During his lifetime, Karl Lagerfeld had refused any biography and tried, in vain, to prevent the publication of the book "Beautiful people" in which the journalist Alicia Drake had retraced his long rivalry with Yves Saint-Laurent.
The German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld in November 2018 in Paris ALAIN JOCARD AFP / Archives
The series - available on Star, a Disney + brand which includes content intended for adults - will begin in 1972 when the designer has done everything possible "to succeed Coco Chanel" and "to become the most recognized French designer. at a time when Yves Saint Laurent is still the undisputed figure "of fashion.
"The rivalry between Lagerfeld and Pierre Bergé (then partner of Yves Saint Laurent, editor's note) as well as Lagerfeld's love story with Jacques de Bascher will also be at the heart of the series", specifies Disney.
The American company has also announced the casting of the four-part miniseries "Oussekine" on Malik Oussekine, who died in 1986 during the repression of a demonstration by the police, and the fight of his family for justice.
A plaque in memory of the Franco-Algerian student Malik Oussekine in December 2006 in Paris JACQUES DEMARTHON AFP / Archives
Sayyid El Alami will perform Malik Oussekine, Hiam Abbass ("Succession"), his mother;
Kad Merad will be the lawyer of the Maître Georges Kiejman family, Olivier Gourmet will play Robert Pandraud, the Minister for Security at the time and Laurent Stocker of the Comédie-Française, the lawyer team member of Maitre Kiejman.
Are notably announced in the distribution Thierry Godard (Engrenages "), Gilles Cohen (" The office of legends ") and Mathieu Demy.
© 2021 AFP