One year to offer fifteen minutes of film on the occasion of “May The 4th Be With You” day. This is what French director Julien Chheng and his studio team have brilliantly achieved. Hiding place with The Spy Dancer for season 2 of Star Wars: Visions. This anthology, available this Thursday on Disney +, brings together animated short films inspired by the saga and from nine different countries. “We were under enormous pressure, confides Julien Chheng to 20 minutes, a bit like taking part in the Eurosivion competition. »
The co-director ofErnest and Celestine: The Journey to Charabie is not yet his first attempt outside our borders: the studio and he participated in the series Love, Death and Robots And Primal. It was after discovering this Emmy Award-winning work that Lucasfilm called on Julien and La Cachette to tell the story of a dancer with a poisonous charm and a loaded past.
A dream come true
” Star Wars, it’s a childhood dream for many of us, explains Julien Chheng. We mixed lightsaber fights with typically French aspects like a spy at the Mata Hari and a family story as fans of the saga appreciate them. Lambert Wilson and Camille Cottin, French actors known across the Atlantic, lend their voices to two of the heroes.
“Once the script was approved, we were given total freedom for all stages, remembers Julien Chheng. It was a great experience, especially when we were able to go to the Skywalker Ranch for post-production and collaborate with technicians who have worked with great American filmmakers like Spielberg and Lucas. »
The “French Touch” at its best
The “French Touch” as the Anglo-Saxons call it, this “je-ne-sais-quoi” which makes the charm of our animators is very present in the dynamic graphics of the film. The apparent simplicity of the line reinforces the power of an action bathed in performance where the accent “home from home” has been deliberately underlined. ” The Spy Dancer constitutes a new step to move towards new, more personal projects both in series and in films”, specifies Julien Chheng. Mu Yia feature film he is currently developing, features an adventurer who is reminiscent of the heroine of The Spy Dancer. La Cachette has not finished updating the immense talent of Julien Chheng.