In the spotlight
Shine Fiction CEO Dominique Farrugia discusses his latest project – French thriller Rien ne t’efface (Nothing Erases You) – the abundance of book-to-screen adaptations and why he’s stepping back behind the camera for crime comedy Enquête en Family (Family Detective).
Though French production company Shine Fiction is now in the midst of a period of development, it comes after a furiously active 18 months in which it filmed three new dramas.
Carême, which charts the rise of the first celebrity chef in Napoleon-era France, debuted on Apple TV+ at the end of April, while thriller Rien ne t’efface (Nothing Can Erase You) and crime comedy Enquête en Family (The Family Detective) are both due to air imminently on broadcaster TF1.
“It’s why I like my job – development, writing, from buying a book to having a bible to selling it,” Shine CEO Dominique Farrugia tells DQ. “Then we develop it with the streamers or with channels like France Télévision, TF1 and M6.
“I did a show [previously] with M6, I have a project in development with France Télévisions, so I’m working with everyone. I’m happy not making the same thing. I love stories. I’ve been in this business for a long time because I love to tell stories and try to make the best of what I have.”
Farrugia joined Banijay France, part of global production giant Banijay, at the end of 2020, taking over its EndemolShine Fiction label – which was rebranded as Shine Fiction the following year. Since then, it has produced dramas including thriller Broceliande for TF1.
One of his first moves in the job was to acquire the rights to Michel Bussi’s novel Rien ne t’efface, which was first published in 2021. Set against the haunting backdrop of Auvergne in central France, the story follows Maddi, a mother grappling with the loss of her son, Esteban, in a tragic accident a decade earlier. When she encounters Tom, a boy who not only bears an uncanny resemblance to Esteban but also has visions and memories of him, their meeting leads to a series of events that intertwine their fates with a mysterious string of murders – but who is Tom and what is his connection to Esteban?
Written by Anne Rambach, Marine Rambach, Patrick Renault and Bussi, the six-part series is directed by Jerome Cornuau. Filming took place on location in Auvergne, near Clermont-Ferrand, with a cast that includes Gwendoline Hamon, Benjamin Baroche, Fauve Hautot and Bruno Debrandt. Banijay Rights is distributing.
“We wanted to do something catchy, and I think it’s really catchy,” Farrugia says of the series. “In production, it was fantastic to get this energy from all the cast and the director. The weather was a nightmare where we shot. You go from hot in the morning to freezing in the late afternoon. We had to work with all those elements, and it was really great to work with people who never stopped trying to make the best of what they had. It was a really nice adventure.”
Unable to return to their homes after filming every evening, the cast and crew formed a small community during production last spring. “It was a way of living in France like we lived a long time ago,” the exec continues. “It’s not like, ‘OK, I’m shooting in Paris, going back to my family at night and then back on the set.’ It was miraculous to see all those nice people working together and making the best of what they wanted to say. It was a fantastic journey.”
Bussi joined that journey in the writers room, primarily sitting in on early discussions about how his novel might be adapted for the small screen. He then stepped back once he had given the production his blessing, but was across all the scripts as they were written.
“It’s based on the book but we had to make it more credible, because it’s not the same when you’re reading and when you’re watching,” Farrugia says. “He wanted to be [there] in the first days of writing when we were writing the bible, to look after his baby. Then because it was a nice baby, he said, ‘OK, you can make whatever you want.’ We worked with him hand in hand. He read all the scripts and I sent him all the episodes before we went to mix them. But he was OK with everything. It was really nice to work with him.”
As with any book-to-screen adaptation, some creative licence has been taken, with the inclusion of some flashbacks and “new turning points.” “But everything is in the book,” says Farrugia, who notes that the competing demands for audience attention mean series have to push further to keep people watching.
“Everybody is watching series now on phones, on television or in the kitchen, so you have to have a cliffhanger and then another cliffhanger,” he says. “People have to enjoy what they see and be captivated by the script, and especially by the series. It’s the book, but it’s also something else.”
Farrugia himself prefers to read things he knows he won’t want to adapt, “because it’s frustrating to read something you cannot have” if the rights have already been snapped up. But with Rien ne t’efface, he made an immediate play for the book, with his attempts preceding his move to Shine Fiction. Then after he joined the company, he was able to secure the rights.
Carême, the story of Antonin Carême (played by Benjamin Voisin), was also based on a book – Ian Kelly’s Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef.
“Working hand-in-hand with [book] writers is the best way to make good series,” Farrugia says. “That’s my point of view. Look at all the series you have today – so many books are developed into series.”
As a producer, “you are trained to get IP. And with a writer like [Bussi], he sells 700,000 copies of his book. He’s a big name, so you’re pretty sure you have something in your hand you can make. Even in the movie business, it’s the same. I’m pretty sure for broadcasters, they like IP, and a fantastic book is good IP. If it sells more than 400,000 copies, it’s a huge hit, and you can make it a real hit on TV as well. That’s a good way to do it.”
Farrugia might be best known as a producer, but he has numerous credits as a writer and director too. He also became an actor “by accident,” after writing on sketch show Objectif: Nul resulted in a job hosting a parody news show called Le JTN.
Having directed numerous films between the 1990s and 2010s, he is also stepping back behind the camera for Enquête en Famille, a six-part comedy centring on Claire and Philippe Rochette (played by Clémentine Célarié and Bernard Le Coq), a modest couple from Brittany who are fervent fans of crime and detective novels. Their obsession leads them to orchestrate the transfer of their daughter Charline (Naïma Rodric), a police captain, from Paris to Rennes. Although Charline is more than capable of solving her own cases, her parents believe otherwise and decide to join her investigations, turning it into a family affair.
With Jeanne Le Guillou and Bruno Dega handling writing duties, Farrugia helms the first two episodes, while Sophie Boudre also directs. Banijay Rights is handling international distribution.
Farrugia was drawn to the chance to direct the project by the fact it’s a comedy and because he was fond of its tone. “I’m really proud of it. I think it’s really funny, there’s lots of fantasy in it. It’s great fun,” he says. “I wanted to do the first two episodes to create something that would be the pattern of what we want to do for the six episodes – and the second season, if there is one,” he says. “It was fantastic to work with those actors, they’re great. But directing and producing at the same time is not good for your health because you finish on set at 6pm, you go back to your hotel room at 6.30pm and then you start your new day as a producer from 7pm until midnight.”
Used to assembling budgets from numerous sources from his previous experience producing movies, he jokes that finding money “is OK with me.” Indeed, rather than any financial headaches, the biggest challenge of leading Shine Fiction is identifying new broadcasters to work with, he adds.
“I try to work with everybody,” he says. “When I produced movies, it was very hard to find money, and series are the same. The first series I produced here was [thriller] L’homme de nos vies, and it’s selling abroad, so I’m very happy with this – and there is a remake in the air. I’m really happy another producer is going to make the series in their own language.”
Now he’s just waiting to see the audience response to Rien ne t’efface. “This will be on TF1 by the beginning of September, and I’m crossing fingers for that. We’ll see what happens. But times are changing and people are not in front of the TV every night. You’ve got to see if its working at 21.00 on TV and on TF1+. It’s a new way to appeal to people.”
Like Rien ne t’efface? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
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tagged in: Apple TV+, Carême, Dominique Farrugia, Enquête en Famille, Family Detective, Nothing Erases You, Rien ne t’efface, Shine Fiction, TF1