The star finds Louis Leterrier, the director of “Lupin”, for an action comedy between “Lethal Weapon” and “The Crimson Rivers”, whose pitch echoes political news should be talked about.
Fresh off the success of Lupine, Omar Sy continues his love affair with Netflix. The star, at the center of the most watched French series in the world, will be showing this Friday, May 6 in the platform’s new action comedy, far from the ring road. Directed by Louis Leterrier, soon at the helm of Fast X, far from the ring road is a sequel of the other side of the ring-roadwhich attracted more than 2.2 million spectators in 2012.
the other side of the ring-road told of the improbable alliance between two police officers with very different characters, François Monge (Laurent Lafitte) and Ousmane Diakité (Omar Sy). Years after working together, the unlikely duo reunites in far from the ring road to investigate a particularly sordid murder that occurred in a small town in the Alps, and which will allow them to thwart an attack plan fomented by a far-right group.
“He wanted a lot of action”
“I had the idea four and a half years ago,” the film’s screenwriter Stéphane Kazandjian told BFMTV. “I wanted a real cinema villain, who tells something about society – something the first film lacked. I was inspired by the series Sons of Anarchy and very fascist Russian bikers who are very close to Putin, The Wolves of the Night.”
Initially, it was Franck Gastambide who was to direct the film. “He wanted a lot of action, with a side The Crimson Riversto make a film a little harsher”, reveals Stéphane Kazandjian. “But after the success of Valid, he withdrew from the project. And we walked away from the side Crimson rivers.” Omar Sy then proposed the project to Louis Leterrier, with whom he had just shot the series Lupine.
The director was immediately very surprised by this very political scenario: “These far-right groups that had become terrorists were not a reality at the time. I thought we were overreacting. Then over time preparation, we were overtaken by the news. This politically grotesque nightmare was becoming a reality. We knew that the film would be seen internationally. We wanted to create something that could cross borders. And this is a situation that the found in the United States, in England…”
A real alchemy on the screen
The duo formed by Laurent Lafitte and Omar Sy has changed dynamics compared to the first film. This time, it is the character of Omar Sy who has the upper hand over that of Laurent Lafitte. “It’s a sequel, which is also a new start,” says Stéphane Kazandjian. “It allows you to change the balance of power.”
An excellent idea, as Lafitte excels in the role of the frustrated man and Sy in that of the smart guy. “They have two types of comedy”, abounds Louis Leterrier. “Omar, it’s a nice and good-natured comedy. Laurent, it’s a little more gritty.” far from the ring road is also Omar Sy’s first film since the planetary hit of Lupine. On screen, the actor has now entered another dimension:
“Omar imbues the roles and the films with his personality, his political positions. Something really happens when he arrives on the screen”, remarked Louis Leterrier. “There’s a radiance that emanates from him that permeates everyone on set. It’s very strong.”
Laurent Lafitte does not allow himself, despite everything, to be entirely devoured by his co-star. The two actors have real chemistry. “I used their friendship so that there were surprises, little humorous traps in the scenes to see how they were doing”, specifies Louis Leterrier. A gag where Laurent Lafitte manipulates the sex of a man cut in half with a coffee stirrer has thus made it possible to obtain a very amusing grimace from Omar Sy.
The gag, very explicit, was almost not shot. “We talked about it for months,” says Louis Leterrier. “We almost didn’t. We were afraid of going too far. But since it made us laugh, we decided to go anyway.” Netflix didn’t censor them, but denied them a gag involving spitting.
It must be said that Louis Leterrier is a master in schoolboy comedy. He was in good school by directing in 2016 Grimsby: Agent Too Special by Sacha Baron Cohen. “I learned a lot with him. Comedy shouldn’t hurt people, but you have to try to push the slider to make people laugh in a different way.”
“Cartoon Violence”
far from the ring road offers trash and gore humor, in line with Tex Avery’s cartoons. “It’s cartoonish violence. It’s exaggerated. When there’s a shot, we follow the bullet, it becomes ridiculous, I show off in directing to underline the absurd side, to make a kind of ‘Matrix Alpin ‘!”, laughs Louis Leterrier, who also sees Far from the Periph a mix between bad boys, Freinds and Hot Fuzz.
“Louis was able to maintain the right balance between comedy and action. The action scenes are really engaging without that preventing us from doing really absurd comedy scenes”, greets Stéphane Kazandjian.
Far from the Periph should be a huge hit on Netflix. Louis Leterrier regrets the communion offered by the cinema and advises those who wish to discover the film to get together to have a better time: “It’s a film to share together. It’s interesting to see it with several to laugh, to be shocked, to hide your eyes, etc.”
Busy for the next few months with the tenth installment of Fast and Furious, Louis Leterrier hopes to be able to find Omar Sy on another project. And why not a sequel to Far from the Periph: “If this film does well, we’ll see. My dream is to work with Omar all my life.”
Source- https://www.bfmtv.com/people/cinema/apres-lupin-omar-sy-de-retour-sur-netflix-avec-loin-du-periph-une-comedie-d-action-trash-et-gore_AN-202205050092.html