An action thriller starring French actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz is being filmed at Swansea Airport this week. Paris Has Fallen is a TV series spin-off of the critically acclaimed Has Fallen film franchise, which included Olympus Has Fallen (2013), London Has Fallen (2016) and Angel Has Fallen (2019).
It's being developed by French film production company StudioCanal, War of the Worlds producer Urban Myth Films and the two companies behind the film franchise, Millennium Media and Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel's entertainment company, G-BASE.
According to entertainment news site Deadline, the Paris Has Fallen series has been written by the creator of BAFTA-winning series Misfits, Howard Overman, and is being directed by No Man's Land's Oded Ruskin. It's understood filming is set to take place in south Wales, London and Paris throughout the next few months, with chiefs set to pitch the series to a range of UK and US channels in the coming weeks. Developers are understood to have already scored deals at television networks in France, Germany and other European countries. You can get the biggest Swansea news stories straight to your inbox with our newsletter.
Read more: The Welsh-filmed dramas and TV series coming in 2023 and beyond
"Paris Is Fallen is set-up at Canal+ in France, ZDF in Germany, Canal+ International in Poland and Africa, and M7 in Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. StudioCanal is preparing to shop the eight-part series to US and UK buyers over the coming months," Deadline reports.
"Kassovitz will star as Vincent, a protection officer to a French Minister, who is the target of a terror group led by villain Jacob. Vincent works with MI6 operative Zara to keep the politician safe, but they eventually unravel a wider plot, suspecting that a security service colleague is feeding information to Jacob, who is always a step ahead in his mission to bring down Paris."
Matthieu Kassovitz, 56, is most-known for playing Nino Quincampoix in Amelie (2001) and for writing and directing La haine (1995), a role for which he won the Best Film and Best Editing categories in the César Awards, the national film awards for France, and received nominations in the Best Director and Best Writing categories. It's understood he will be leading the Paris Has Fallen franchise - though information of other cast members has not yet been shared publicly.
Whilst award-winning actor Gerard Butler, who plays U.S. Secret Service agent Mike Banning in the Has Fallen films, is "not officially attached" to the television series, it's rumoured he will be making a cameo appearance. The films also starred Morgan Freeman and Aaron Eckhart, but it's not known whether either of these two stars will appear in the series either.
The nature of the scenes being filmed at Swansea Airport have not been announced publicly - though airport chiefs have confirmed that French flags are "flying over the airport" as filming takes place over the next four days.
Discussing the airport's future and issues the airport has had with its license - which you can read more about here - director of Swansea Airport Ltd Roy Thomas said he was "totally positive" about the airport moving forward and said he hoped to reopen the airport café in July and that development and expansion work should follow in time.
Currently, the airport is used by private helicopters and small aircraft, including planes used for sky-diving trips. Whilst filming takes place, however, Mr Thomas confirmed the airport would remain closed to all.
An update on the Swansea Airport website says: "PLEASE NOTE - SWANSEA AIRPORT IS CLOSED 05/06-08/06 2023 INCLUSIVE".
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