Exclusive: Chrysalis Director Julien Leclercq Talks About His Next Film!

For his next film, Chrysalis director Julien Leclercq will tackle the real terrorist story of Air France Flight 8969 (Wiki). This promises to be an even harder hitting film than Chrysalis, which is really saying something given its many bone crunching and thrilling sequences. I know me and Todd around these parts are huge fans of Mr. Leclercq and you can bet in the coming days ahead we will be all over covering this film for you. I had the chance of catching up with him at 2008 AFI Dallas the day after I had the privilege of introducing the film and doing a Q&A afterwards.

Now here is Julien Leclercq himself to tell the Twitch readership about his next film! And note when I asked him if Alain Figlarz would be a part of it, he said, "Yes, absolutely! He will be stunt coordinator for the choreography of the fights and as an actor because it’s a SWAT Team!" Mr. Figlarz for those not familiar worked on the action in Brotherhood of the Wolf and lately has grown quite the cult action status having established the action/fighting style that was used in the first Bourne movie and has now been copied around quite a bit. Alain Figlarz and Julien Leclercq's collaboration on Chrysalis seemed to be a perfect harmony of cinematic vision, blending in as one voice. That they are buckling up now to make an even more intense ride... I can only say this film can't get here soon enough!

Julien Leclercq: My next film will be shooting at the end of this year in October, November and December. It’s about a famous terrorist attack and will be told from the point of view of the GIGN (Wiki), which is like a French SWAT Team.

In France we don’t have the mentality to make a film like Batman or Superman. We won’t make a French actor like Vincent Cassel or any famous French actor be in a superhero role with a superhero costume on the tower in Paris. It’s a joke for us and we don’t make that. We really don’t have comic books in Europe or Paris.

For me I want to make a war film with a heroic point of view. I think the guys of GIGN, a French SWAT Team, would be a real hero for the French audiences. It’s cool, famous and it’s an amazing story about 200 Argentinean with 4 terrorists in their flight on the airport of Marseille, which is on the French Riviera. Two days of real terrorist attacks!

We have about 25 action scenes at the end of the movie. It’s going to be very technical and tactical. I think it’s going to be fresh for the French audiences. It’s a French movie because it will be like Chrysalis.

More from Julien Leclercq after the link bump.

In France they talk about me like I’m a French American director because I see a lot of American movies. I don’t know a lot about America, but I do have a lot of DVD’s in my house of primarily just American movies. I don’t have a lot of French films. It’s my culture although I wasn’t born there.

All the French journalists talk about me because when you see the cinema of my friend Xavier Gens (Interview) or I think mine that feature action scenes, good lighting and sets, that are just like American cinema or even an International touch. In France it’s difficult to think about that since we don’t have the production value to better tell our point of view. I think there is a new generation of French director like Xavier and the directors Inside (Interview). There is a new generation now and I think it’s good to work in America and keep your European point of view like Paul Greengrass. When you see the biggest patriotic films it seems to always be directed by an European director like Roland Emmerich, who did Patriot, Godzilla or Independence Day. It’s amazing – it’s a German boy! Then you have - Wolfgang Petersen who did Poseidon and Troy. These are both European people. I think it’s important to build a bridge between European and American people to make movies together. As well as for people like me and you that are passionate about cinema to meet, whether it’s at festivals like AFI Dallas, Toronto International Film Festival or maybe in Austin next September (laughs) this also allows us when we return home to open our minds to different things. So when we are then working on our next movie, our mind is now more open.

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SMALL SPOILER FOR CHRYSALIS BELOW
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My second film is different just like my first film because I traveled a lot with my first and I met different people and audiences and experienced different audience reactions. It’s very interesting for me as a director to see that and not just with the French audiences. Then take a movie like Indiana Jones and whether it’s the Sitges Film Festival or the Toronto International Film Festival, the audience reaction can be the same because cinema is an international language. It’s cool if you make a scary movie, as the audiences will go, “AHHHHHH!” You can see that in Chrysalis in the first scene with the car accident. When it screens the entire audience moves and goes, “AHHHHH!” I just experienced that here with a Dallas audience with a voice next to me in the theater going, “Fucking fuck fucking fuck!” (Laughs) It was cool and it’s working, it’s working!

A full interview I did with director Julien Leclercq on Chrysalis will appear on Twitch soon.