” I am delighted ! At the other end of the line, Stéphane Hénon does not hide his enthusiasm. Even if he is far from Marseille, on vacation in Lisbon, the actor made famous by his role as Commissioner Jean-Paul Boher in More beautiful life also got wind of the news blowing on the Place du Mistral. Auditioned this Wednesday by Arcom on his project to take over M6, Xavier Niel announced that in the event of success, the billionaire aimed to put the famous soap opera back on the air on his brand new channel. The boss of Free said he was in advanced negotiations with the producer of the series, Newen (TF1 group), in this perspective.
“The NJJ 5523 project consists of putting new episodes back into production and relying on the production of new episodes and relying on the 4,500 episodes in stock, via video on demand or catch-up television”, specifies near 20 minutes the communication of the Iliad group, parent company of Free.
“I can do ‘More beautiful life’ twenty more years”
“I am very happy that a gentleman like Xavier Niel is interested in More beautiful life, says Stéphane Hénon. He has the financial strength to restart the series. It puts balm in the heart. I think that all the comrades would be happy to find themselves in this great adventure. Me, in any case, I leave with great pleasure! I can do More beautiful life for another twenty years. I was very well served by the authors and it will be difficult for me to find such a role. »
“If it can give some people a job, next to the house, close to their families, so much the better! », launches Didier Melaye, former technician of More beautiful life. “The resumption of filming of new episodes is very good news if it is actually produced in Marseille, which I have no doubt, abounds Laurent Lhardit, deputy mayor of Marseille in charge of the economy. This injects employment into the local ecosystem. On a macroeconomic scale, the end of the series has not weakened the sector which is sufficiently solid and dense, but it is still good news! »
The fear of the publicity stunt
As a reminder, when the series ends, More beautiful life weighed heavily in the local sector, with 580 days of filming per year, or about a third of filming over the year, and 600 intermittent workers employed each year. “What we want is for the people who were on the floor to no longer be on the floor,” says actress Florence Demay, who is carrying out a cooperative project with other former team members. around the series. So, when we see that, we are super positive and boosted, because it gets people talking about the series again! Within the collective, we are back to block! »
Former team members More beautiful life indeed believe hard as iron in the potential of the soap opera once watched every evening by 2.5 million viewers. “People remain very attached to the series, observes Stéphane Hénon. Even in Lisbon, people keep telling me about it! “It’s normal that Xavier Niel is interested in the series, says Florence Demay. She gathered so many people! It is also a way to buy a popular side. You also have to see it as a publicity stunt…”
other candidates
The wind of hopes is in fact likely to be swept away by the shadow of doubts for the somewhat burned out entertainers. “All this remains very abstract, underlines Didier Melaye. Last year, we had so many cold showers that I prefer to adopt the position of skepticism. We are too afraid of being disappointed. »
“We have not been in contact with Xavier Niel, so we do not have a lot of information, abounds Florence Demay. So we continue the project! Xavier Niel is indeed not the only candidate to take over channel 6 of TNT. The verdict on the allocation of this channel is expected in April at the latest.