With over 1.7 million albums sold « Les Légendaires » is one of the best selling comic-strips for youth in France today.

In 2011, the series “Les Légendaires” was ranked second among the best-selling comic books sold in France, a close second to «Les Aventures de Tintin» (source GFK).

Book 14 hit the Number 1 spot in sales, all books combined, when it came out in October 2011.

The series, which is packed with allusions to manga comic trips, video games and the world of literature, is targeted at the 6 to 12 year olds and builds on the original comic strip, subtly blending adventure, values and humour.

We follow our five heroes nicknamed «Les Légendaires» in their quest. They incarnate heroic values, long-forgotten, like nobleness, pluck and brains. They’re strong! They’re magnificent! Or at least they used to be…

They have lost their battle against evil and all the adults have become children again.

Now, «Les Légendaires » must repair their blunder! Not an easy thing when you are only 10 years old!

Guy Delcourt  : « Les Légendaires is a dream come true for every publisher. Self-taught author Patrick Sobral draws on his childhood favourites – and his craze for the animated Japanese series of the 80s – to create a series of his own, sparkling with imagination, wit, energy and contagious joy. With each album, young fans are becoming more numerous; over a million now, turning Légendaires into THE comic strip of our time. Due to the way this idea came about and due to its success, Patrick Sobral’s work was destined to become an animated series: This is not a rehash of the same story line; but a new milestone in the triumphant march of Légendaires. The new generation of readers and viewers is going to thank its lucky stars for a long time to come! »

Sandrine Nguyen and Boris Hertzog : « We literally fell in love with this witty and action-packed comic book which is read avidly by all children. Our intent was to acquire the audiovisual adaptation rights as part of a policy that combines licensing and original properties. The first developments in collaboration with our teams and those of Delcourt Publishing are exciting. We are looking forward to producing a terrific series that will be as successful as the comic book ».

Its directors Sandrine Nguyen and Boris Hertzog have decided in agreement with Takis Candilis and Christophe Thoral (respectively CEO and COO of Lagardère Entertainment) to capitalize on the current momentum in the field of animation and to expand their activities to include all genres dedicated to young people: animation, fiction and unscripted programmes.

To reflect the new facets of its multifarious business activities, Timoon Animation has decided to re-brand itself as Genao Productions.

Christophe Thoral: « Lagardère Entertainment more than ever believes in the development of themes dedicated to young people ».

Sandrine Nguyen et Boris Hertzog : «Broadening the scope of activities of Genao Productions is a great challenge; We want to quickly be able to co-produce scripted and non-scripted programming targeted at international audiences in order to turn Genao into a driving force in the production of programmes dedicated to young people ».

The pitch is as short as the length of its episodes (1’45’’):

You’re born, and then you die. In between, life happens. So…just the story of a guy to whom life is happening.

The hero of the series, played by Kyan Khojandi, is just your average 30-year-old unemployed bachelor living the ordinary daily grind.

This fast-paced series is produced by My Box Productions (Harry Tordjman) for Canal +. Writer/directors Kyan Khojandi and Bruno Muschio were inspired most by movies such as Snatch, Fight Club and The Rules of Attraction.

Unanimously praised by both critics and audiences, the series gave Canal + some of its biggest audiences, with over 2.5 million television viewers. On the web it’s a hit, with 1 million views a day. And soon it will have 2 million fans on Facebook. So…go on, ‘like’ it!

www.facebook.com/Bref

About Europe Images International
Europe Images International – a Lagardère Entertainment distribution company (Lagardère is the number 1 producer of fiction in France) – managed by Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet, is one of Europe’s largest distributors of television programs. EII’s catalogue of 7,000 hours of television spans every genre: fiction (‘Julie Lescaut’, ‘Josephine Guardian Angel, ‘Justice Street, ‘Un Gars, une Fille’); documentary (‘Life Before Life, ‘The Destiny of Rome’, ‘the Cousteau catalogue’); animation (‘My Giant Friend, ‘Mini-Wolf’, ‘Scary Larry’); and feature films (‘Cyrano de Bergerac’, ‘The Horseman on the Roof, ‘Evening Dress’).

Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet, who joined EII in September 2011 as Managing Director has reorganized Lagardère Entertainment’s distribution under the aegis of Christophe Thoral, EII Chairman and C.O.O of Lagardère Entertainment.

Introducing the new sales team:

Eléonore de Prunelé: VP Sales (French-speaking countries — including French-speaking Africa —, and North America). Eléonore joins EII following 4 and a half years at EuropaCorp as Director of Content Purchasing and Director of Venture Europa Glenat, a joint-venture. Previously, Eléonore held posts at Universal UK and at UTA in Los Angeles.

Fionnuala Jamison: International Sales Manager (Spain/Portugal, Latin America, and English-speaking countries outside of the US & Canada). Before joining EII, Fionnula managed international film sales at Coproduction Office/Katapult Film Sales France since 2007. Prior to that, Fionnuala was Programming Assistant for the Festival Director and later Documentary Coordinator at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Léa Laubacher: International Sales Manager (Sales in Asia, Scandinavia, (Flemish) Benelux, German-speaking Europe, and Documentary multi-territory networks (including National Geographic)). For the last 5 years, Léa has worked as International Sales Manager at EII. Before that, she was at TF1 International.

Tatjana Pavlovic: International Sales Manager (Eastern Europe, Italy/Italian Switzerland the Middle East, Israel, Greece, and Turkey). Tatjana managed sales in Eastern Europe, Spain, and Latin America for TF1 International. Prior to that, she was Director of Sales and Marketing at Discop Markets.
About Europe Images International:
Europe Images International – a Lagardère Entertainment distribution company (Lagardère is the number 1 producer of fiction in France) – managed by Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet, is one of Europe’s largest distributors of television programs. EII’s catalogue of 7,000 hours of television spans every genre: fiction (‘Julie Lescaut’, ‘Josephine Guardian Angel’, ‘Justice Street’, ‘Un Gars, une Fille’); documentary (‘Life Before Life’, ‘The Destiny of Rome’, ‘The Cousteau catalogue’); animation (‘My Giant Friend’, ‘Mini-Wolf’, ‘Scary Larry’); and feature films (‘Cyrano de Bergerac’, ‘The Horseman on the Roof’, ‘Evening Dress’).
About Lagardère Entertainment:
Founded in 2008, Lagardère Entertainment is a Lagardère Active company, and manages all of Group Lagardère’s film and television production.
Lagardère Entertainment is France’s leading film and television producer (fiction, entertainment programming, animation) and works with GMT, DEMD, Image & Compagnie, Merlin, Aubes, and Ango for productions in French; Atlantique and Timoon Animation for international productions; Maximal, Carson, Angel, 909 Productions, Electron Libre, Telmondis Productions, Léo Vision, and Add-On Factory for entertainment programming; and Europe Images International, Telmondis Distribution, and les Editions Musicales François 1er for rights and distribution. Lagardère Entertainment is now a major player in the production and management of artistic content.

Its leading programmes are Julie Lescaut, Josephine Guardian Angel, C dans l’air, Mafiosa, Borgia, Clem, Stars du Rire, the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, le Concert pour la Tolérance, C politique, Flics, Foster Family, Fish’n Chips  and the series The Transporter.

The first season directed by Nicolas CUCHE was broadcast in October 2008 on TF1.

Producers: Jean-Pierre GUERIN and Véronique MARCHAT
Script writers: series created by Olivier MARCHAL, written by Simon JABLONKA based on characters by Olivier MARCHAL, Simon MICHAEL and Philippe ISARD.
Director: Thierry PETIT

Cast:
Frédéric DIEFENTHAL
Yann SUNDBERG
Catherine MARCHAL
Gwendoline HAMON
Olivier MARCHAL

About GMT :
Created in 1987, GMT Productions today has produced over 400 TV and cinema programs in all genres and has been for several years the top-ranking producer of drama in terms of hours. GMT Productions, which is run by Jean-Pierre Guérin et Véronique Marchat keeps attracting loyal followers for its flagship series such as Julie Lescaut, Boulevard du Palais and Famille d’Accueil, but has also produced a slew of feature films such as Mammuth, Le Grand Soir, Les Adieux à la Reine, criminal series such as Les Virtuoses or Flics, a no-hold-barred thriller created by Olivier Marchal and starring Frédéric Diefenthal, Yann Sundberg and Catherine Marchal, or international drama such as the  Odysseus series for ARTE ( co-produced with Making Prod), an epic set in olden times featuring a European cast or the mini-series Merlin created for TF1 and starring Gérard Jugnot.

About Lagardère Entertainment :
Founded in 2008, Lagardère Entertainment is a Lagardère Active company, and manages all of Group Lagardère’s film and television production.
Lagardère Entertainment is France’s leading film and television producer (fiction, entertainment programming, animation) and works with GMT, DEMD, Image & Compagnie, Merlin, Aubes, and Ango for productions in French; Atlantique and Timoon Animation for international productions; Maximal, Carson, Angel, 909 Productions, Electron Libre, Telmondis Productions, Léo Vision, and Add-On Factory for entertainment programming; and Europe Images International, Telmondis Distribution, and les Editions Musicales François 1er for rights and distribution. Lagardère Entertainment is now a major player in the production and management of artistic content.
Its leading programmes are Julie Lescaut, Josephine Guardian Angel, C dans l’air, Mafiosa, Borgia, Clem, Stars du Rire, the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, le Concert pour la Tolérance, C politique, Flics, Foster Family, Fish’n Chips  and the series The Transporter.

Over 8 million TV viewers across Europe watched the first two episodes in the series.An historic premiere in France

After having last week premiered to record audiences for a French or foreign drama series on channel CANAL+ by attracting 1.634 million subscribers and gaining an audience share of 26.7 %, the series, created by Tom Fontana, on Monday evening drew an average of 1.5 million viewers – that is, a 24.3 % audience share among subscribers during the airing of episodes 3 and 4.

Strong debut in Germany

What’s more, BORGIA was widely acclaimed by German audiences when it aired Monday evening on German channel ZDF, attracting 6.2 million viewers, representing an 18 % market share.

Record audiences in Italy

BORGIA enjoyed great success in Italy when the series aired for the first time on 2 September 2011 on channels Sky Cinema 1 and Sky Cinema + 1. After having the best debut for a series on Sky, Borgia smashed on Friday, 7 October 2011 audience records at the airing of the 12^th and last episode, grabbing 420,586 viewers (as against 331,445 viewers for the 11^th episode).

Sold to date to more than 40 countries, BORGIA is slated to air soon in Spain, the U.S. (via netfix), Israel, Latin America, Japan and Russia.

Watch new episodes of BORGIA every Monday evening at 8:45 PM. On Canal +

He is rejoining Klaus Zimmermann, currently producer and General Manager of Atlantique Productions , who joined the Lagardère Entertainment Group two years ago to develop international drama production. This Lagardère Entertainment subsidiary produced « Borgia », « Transporter, the series » « Death in Paradise ».

Philippe Perthuis will take over from Olivier Bibas as General Secretary of Lagardère Entertainment. He joined the Lagardère Group 15 years ago, and after spending part of his career as CFO for the TV channels and Magazines in New York, he now joins the executive board chaired by Takis Candilis and will be reporting to Christophe Thoral, Managing Director of Lagardère Entertainment.

Also, the profound changes in the exploitation of rights led Lagardère Entertainment to overhaul its distribution activities.

Takis Candilis has appointed Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet to the position of General Manager in charge of sales and marketing in its historic distribution subsidiary, Europe Images International.

Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet has for 13 years held positions of responsibility in the distribution arm of the Marathon International Group. She recently was head of the Paris Bureau of Marathon International – Zodiak Rights. Emmanuelle Bouilhaguet will be in charge of managing the teams of Europe Images International and will be reporting to Christophe Thoral, named Chairman of Europe Images International after Frank Soloveicik stepped down.

At the same time, the distribution of audiovisual cultural programmes such as music, opera, and ballet, theatre and circus performances will be centralised within Telmondis Distribution, a newly-created entity. On this occasion, a partnership agreement was signed with Bel Air Média, which recently entrusted distribution of its programmes to Telmondis Distribution. Antoine Perset will be in charge of this new unit in addition to being chairman of Telmondis Productions

This screening was preceded by a workshop gathering twenty experts from the Commission and representatives of Member States. The aim of the workshop was to share the experience and challenges of producing a high quality European production such as Borgia, which involves key partners including Canal+ and ZDF.

Borgia benefitted from EUR 500 000 in funding from the Commission’s MEDIA audiovisual programme in 2010 and will be broadcast in several EU Member States as of this autumn.
The workshop was also an important opportunity for Lagardère Entertainment’s subsidiary “Atlantique Productions” to exchange views with senior representatives of the Europea Commission and Member States about the future of the MEDIA programme.

Lagardère Entertainment’s CEO, Takis Candilis, stated: “This has been a unique opportunity for us to discuss the prospects and challenges of the production of innovative European drama series”.Klaus Zimmermann, Head of Atlantique Productions and producer of BORGIA, expressed his views on the importance of quality scenario writing and the making of programmes intended to address not only a European but a global audience.

Commissioner Vassiliou confirmed the importance of developing European productions with a clear transnational circulation potential, declaring that: “Audience building, in a broader sense, means providing high quality and innovative content, differentiating your product from everything else that is currently available. I can see that this is exactly what you are already doing with Borgia (…) I hope it will be a huge success in Europe and beyond and that it may encourage more European TV productions and more European storytelling in the future.”

Borgia is the drama series about the rise to power of the legendary Catalan Rodrigo Borgia family who dominated the Vatican during the Renaissance. The programme has already been sold to broadcasters covering more than 50 territories.
Lagardère Entertainment a Lagardère Active subsidiary gathers Lagardère group’s TV production and distribution activities. Lagardère Entertainment is France # 1 TV production power house.

In addition, “The Kennedys” has been nominated at the Monte Carlo Television Festival in the “best mini-series” category and the “best mini-series outstanding actor” category for Tom Wilkinson (who plays the part of patriarch John Kennedy).

The 8×52’ series was directed by Jon Cassar, and spans the clan’s history from JFK’s election in 1960 to Bobby Kennedy’s assassination in 1968.

“The Kennedys” was created by none other than Joel Surnow and Stephen Kronish, creators of “24”.

Katie Holmes (‘Dawson’s Creek’) makes a triumphant return to television in the role of Jackie Kennedy, Greg Kinnear (‘Little Miss Sunshine’) plays JFK and Barry Pepper (‘True Grit’) plays Bobby.

The Kennedys is a production of Muse Entertainment in association with Asylum Entertainment.

www.europeimages.com
www.lagardere-entertainment.com

Christophe Thoral will double as CEO of Timoon, a subsidiary dedicated to the production of animated television series.

“After being 10 years with the Group, Christophe Thoral is thoroughly conversant with audiovisual media, and more broadly media“ said Takis Candilis, CEO of Lagardère Entertainment. “His expertise will be a strong plus for developing new business ventures at Lagardère Entertainment”.

A graduate of ESCP and holder of an MBA from Wharton (USA), Christophe Thoral, 43 years old, began his career in the Bolloré Group in 1991, then in 1996 was project manager at McKinsey before joining the Lagardère Group in 2000 as deputy managing director in charge of strategy and development. As of 2008, he held the position of Head of Development at Lagardère Entertainment and head of animation activities.