By The French shark movie “Under Paris” premiered on Netflix the other week to fairly good critical reviews and not-so-great audience reviews.
Bérénice Bejo and Nassim Lyes lead the $16-21 million budgeted movie follows a mix of water police, shark experts and environmental activists pursuing a giant shark.
Said shark has adapted to fresh water and will potentially be set to chow down on triathlon athletes who are doing the swim leg of the event in the river.
Some enjoyed it for its trashy sensibility, others took issue with its not-so-bright characters and not-so-subtle environmental messaging. Many seem impressed by its rather wild ending which closes out the film in a fascinating place.
Whatever the case, it was a major viewership success, with the title scoring the best launch for a non-English-language film on Netflix to date – raking in 41 million views in its first five days on the service.
Xavier Gens (“Lupin,” “Hitman”) helms the film which was initially turned down by French studios and financiers before Netflix came on board, Gans telling Variety that:
“Folks assumed that shark movies could only be made by Americans or Koreans… Netflix took a risk on the film and gave us a budget which we couldn’t have gotten elsewhere.”
SPOILER AHEAD
Asked if a sequel is in the pipeline?, he says:
“Right now, as of today, we’re not on it but there’s a chance that we’ll be discussing it soon. If there is a sequel, it will take place in a Paris that is entirely submerged under water.”
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The film’s success comes as France is undergoing some of its wildest political turmoil in many years, and the film itself has been the target of a lawsuit claiming parasitism.
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