Nominated in the 'TV Movies/Mini Series' category at the International Emmy® Awards, Infiniti, directed by Thierry Poiraud, produced by Empreinte Digitale and Federation Studios, and distributed internationally by STUDIOCANAL, has also been nominated for the forthcoming Unifrance TV Export Award. Eric Laroche, producer of the series at Empreinte Digitale, talks to us about the strengths of this cosmic thriller, which has already won over a number of countries around the world.
Unifrance : Can you tell us about the genesis of the project?
Eric Laroche: We already knew Thierry Poiraud. Raphaël Rocher has produced two of his feature films, Don't Grow Up (2015) and Goal of the Dead - Second Half (2013). In 2017, Thierry introduced us two screenwriters whose work literally amazed us: Julien Vanlerenberghe and Stéphane Pannetier. They came with this incredible story, entirely born from their imagination, combining cop drama and hard science-fiction. A cosmic thriller and a scientific western around a fascinating question: how faith and science (desire and reason), seemingly contrary, are in reality two sides of the same coin. Back then, we were looking for genre projects intended for the streamers (they’ve just arrived in France). Sci-fi didn't scare us, our series Missions had been released a few months ago (and did very well worldwide), and we've just partnered with Federation Studios on the launch of a label dedicated to genre series (with which we produced the horror show Marianne for Netflix). So, we’ve decided to develop Infiniti together. One year later, no streamer wanted it but fortunately Canal+, and then STUDIOCANAL, joined us.
Could you sum up the series' pitch, in a few sentences?
After a complex docking manoeuvre at the ISS, ground control has lost contact with the station and the crew is in distress. At the same time, a beheaded and wax covered body is found on a roof in Kazakhstan. Positive identification leaves no room for doubt: the body belongs to Anthony Kurz, an American astronaut currently in the ISS, orbiting 250 miles away in space. Anna Zarathi, a French astronaut, dismissed from the space program, is convinced that Kurz is calling her for help from the ISS. She teams up with Isaak Turgun, a Kazakh cop disowned by his ranking hierarchy, to solve this mysterious paradox: could Kurz be alive in space and dead on Earth?
What makes this series unique? What are its strengths that will appeal to an international audience?
Thierry not only succeeded in creating a high-level artistic direction but also avoiding all the traps that such a story could set: reconstituting the ISS and the memories of the finest hours in the conquest of the space, filming for several months - in the middle of a pandemic - 6000km from France, directing actors and technicians from all over Europe on a "Tower of Babel" set where 4 to 5 languages coexisted permanently, magnifying the immensity of the Kazakh steppes, and taking us into space. In our eyes, he managed to convince the most skeptical viewer and surprise the lover of the genre. Audiences could also embrace a powerful love story and discover a political intrigue that resonates with contemporary events concerning the global space race. For authenticity, the series had to be shot on location, to convey the grandeur of the actual launch sites and the shabby remains of Baikonur’s glorious past. We also shot several weeks in Ukraine, ten months before the Russian invasion, with an amazing crew. All these reasons make Infiniti unique.
How did international sales go? Has being shortlisted for the International Emmy® Awards opened doors for you?
The STUDIOCANAL teams have done a tremendous job. The show has been sold to many territories internationally including Hong Kong, Norway, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, Baltics, Israel and English-speaking Canada. By the way, the series is nominated for the next Unifrance TV Export Award which recognizes the French television programs that have achieved the most sales internationally. We’ll see in the next few months if the International Emmy® Award shortlist has had any effect on the remaining territories or even new windows in countries that have already purchased the miniseries. It’s awesome that one of our productions is traveling all over the world.
