“Stalk,” Simon Bouisson’s timely French show tackling cyber spying and bullying, has lured a flurry of top TV channels across the world.
Produced by Priscilla Bertin and Judith Nora at Silex Films, the half-hour psychological thriller series was a big hit on France Televisions’s platform Slash and later aired on the broadcaster’s linear channel France 2 in the slot following “Call My Agent!” South Korea’s Navel picked up season one. Recently, the second season premiered. It won best half-hour series at La Rochelle TV Festival and best music (for Paul Sabin).
FranceTV Distribution, FranceTV’s commercial arm, sold the first two seasons of the broadcaster’s second season to HB0 Latin America, GSN Russia, and Shahid in Middle East. WDR and Sony in Germany, Rai Play and Ici tou.tv Canada have all picked up the second series.
Bouisson, who was previously the director of critically acclaimed web series “Wei or Die,”Jean-Charles Paugam was a co-creator of the series along with Victor Rodenbach. “Stalk”The second season follows Lux, an 18-year old geek who gets hazed in his first days at an elite engineering school. He sets out to revenge those who made fun by cyber-stalking and hacking into their computers. The second season unfolds during Lux’s third year in the engineering school, when he has to face a mysterious stalker known as the “White Duke”He seems to harbor a grudge against him.
“The series has struck a chord because it addresses some hot topics such as cyber spying and stalking using social media and our personal devices, as well as new tools like Deep Fake,”Bertin added that “Stalk”Also, highlights “the mechanism of harassment where a victim can become a perpetrator and reversely.”
Producer said “Stalk”The series is a departure from the traditional French series. It has a college campus that could come from anywhere, and characters that are universally recognizable.
Julia Schulte, head of France TV Distribution, said the series’s “look and feel”This has contributed to its widespread appeal.
“We’ve done more and bigger deals on ‘Stalk’ than on series that have high profile stars and larger budgets,”Schulte agreed. Schulte said that TV stations are positioning the show for a broad audience, not just teens and young adults. “Adults are increasingly concerned about these issues, either because they are parents or because they’ve been hearing about these themes,”She added.
“Stalk” boasts a strong cast of emerging talent, including Théo Fernandez, Aloïse Sauvage, Carmen Kassovitz, Pablo Cobo, Yasin Houicha, Rio Vega, Manon Valentin, Zoé Heran, Vanessa Guide and Riadh Belaïche, among others. Some well-known actors also star, notably Clément Sibony, Nicolas Cazalé and Arthur Benzaquen.
“One of the things we love doing with series is discovering young new talent and we’ve developed a great pool with ‘Stalk’ — many actors have seen their careers take off since season one,”Bertin.
Silex’s previous credits include “Connasse,”Camille Cottin was the star of the series in its short format. “Call My Agent!”And “Stillwater,”Her breakthrough role in 2012 was hers
The company’s current slate includes “Rose,” Aurélie Saada’s film with Françoise Fabian, Aure Atika and Grégory Montel whose French release is set for Dec.8. Kinology sold the movie and Cohen Media Group acquired it for North American distribution.