Broad Green Pictures has acquired U.S. distribution rights to “Samba,” Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s follow-up to their 2012 hit “The Intouchables,” the company announced Thursday.
BGP plans to release the film in the second half of 2015 in theaters across the U.S. and build upon the incredible box-office success of its predecessor. “The Intouchables” broke box office records in France and was the top grossing French-language film in the U.S. in the last decade.
The film stars Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Tahar Rahim. Samba Sy) has worked day and night for the last 10 years, trying to support his family back in Senegal while making a life for himself in France. Thrown into detention, he meets a reclusive immigration worker, Alice (Gainsbourg), who’s warned to keep a safe distance from the people she is helping. Desperate for excitement and meaning in her own life, Alice lets her guard down when the charming Samba is ordered to leave France. Fumbling through bottom-rung jobs with his new friend Wilson (Rahim) while trying to stay off the radar, Samba finds himself returning to the awkward solace of Alice.
Nakache and Toledano directed and adapted the film from Delphine Coulin’s book “Samba pour la France.” Gaumont produced “Samba” with Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun and Nicolas Duval-Adassovsky from Quad Productions.
“I am very glad that Broad Green Pictures totally understood the perspective that Eric and Olivier wanted to offer with this enjoyable social romance, and we are very excited to start working all together, I trust their new vision of the market and the great team they’re putting together will bring ‘Samba’ to a great US success,” said Cécile Gaget, head of Gaumont International.
“We couldn’t be more excited to be working with such talented filmmakers whose work we so admire- we’ve been waiting for this opportunity. The remarkable performances in this film bring its themes to life in such a visceral way, and will resonate with such a diverse group of audiences. We believe that this film should reach an even larger audience than their first,” added BGP founders and brothers, CEO Gabriel Hammond and chief creative officer Daniel Hammond.
The deal for “Samba” was negotiated by CAA, Gaumont’s Gaget and Gabriel Hammond for BGP.
