Variety: Warner Bros. Discovery’s Streamer Max Unveils French Scripted Slate, Including Crime Thriller Series ‘Malditos’

Story from Variety:

Ahead of its launch in France, Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service Max unveiled at Series Mania Festival its pipeline of ambitious local scripted projects, “Malditos” (working title), the adaptation of “Living with our deads,” the memoir of Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, and “Malditos,” created by Jean Charles Hue (“Eat Your Bones”) and Olivier Prieur (“The Accident”), is an action-packed crime thriller revolving around the leader of a Gypsy community and her two sons who struggle to save their clan threatened with eviction by rising waters in Southern France.

The series is produced by Eve Muller and Noor Sadar at Mediawan-owned White Lion Films, was penned by Hue, Prieur and Maya Haffar (“En thérapie”). Hue is directing the first five episode and Cécilia Verheyden (“Undercover”) is directing the remaining two.

Max has also boarded the series adaptation of the book “Living with our deads” (“Vivre avec nos morts”), which is based Horvilleur’s bestselling autobiographical book and tells the story of one of France’s rare female rabbis. Weaving drama and comedy, the series is produced by Fédération Studios, and is being penned by Noé Debré and Benjamin Charbit.

The presentation at Series Mania was hosted by Clément Schwebig, president of Warner Bros Discovery in Western Europe and Africa, Vera Peltekian, VP of original production for Max France, and Clémentine Bobin, director of scripted original production for the streamer.

"Thanks to our unique storytelling expertise, Warner Bros. Discovery will offer a diversified range of content on Max targeting all audiences,” said Schwebig. “Our ambition with our French original productions is to root Max firmly in the French market to an audience that is demanding when it comes to series. Our goal in terms of original productions is ambitious, and we will be covering scripted, documentaries and unscripted.”

Peltekian, a former executive at Canal+ Group, said the streamer’s goal was to produce high-quality originals that are “universal, unique and timeless.”

Max will also be launching this year “Black Lies,” a psychological thriller adapted from the novel “La Mythomane du Bataclan,” starring Laure Calamy (“Call My Agent!”). Directed by Just Philippot, the up-and-coming director of “The Swarm” and “Acid,” the show tells the true story of a woman who conned her way into a victims’ association and quickly became one of its pillars. Calamy stars in the series opposite Arieh Worthalter (“Le procès Goldman”), Annabelle Lengronne (“Un Petit Frère”), Alexis Manenti (“Les Misérables”), Ava Baya et Anne Benoît (“All Your Faces”).

JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming at Warner Bros. Discovery, is also on the ground at Series Mania and will share details on the international roll out of Max during a keynote on Thursday.