Sony Pictures Classics To Distribute Sylvain Chomet’s ‘The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol’ In The U.S. And Other Key Territories

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired rights in several major territories to Sylvain Chomet’s upcoming English-language feature The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol.

Here are the details:

• The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol is the latest film from four-time Academy Award nominee and BAFTA-winning filmmaker Sylvain Chomet, whose films include The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist, (both distributed by Sony) and the short film The Old Lady and the Pigeons.
• The film is set in 1955 and turns on Marcel Pagnol, one of France’s most prolific and revered writers of the 20th century. Pagnol’s books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 50 languages. He was also an accomplished playwright and screenwriter.
• When the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine commissions a weekly column about the acclaimed playwright and filmmaker’s childhood, he sees an opportunity to go back to his artistic roots, writing. Realizing his memory is failing him and deeply affected by the disappointing results of his last two plays, Pagnol starts doubting his ability to pursue his work. That is until Little Marcel – the young boy he used to be – appears to him as if by magic. Together, they’ll explore Pagnol’s incredible life and bring back to life his most cherished encounters and memories.
• The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol is produced by Aton Soumache at On Classics with Ashargin Poiré and Valérie Puech for What the Prod, Lilian Eche’s Bidibul Productions, and Adrian Politowski’s Align, in collaboration with Nicolas Pagnol who represents the Pagnol Estate.
• Sony has picked up all rights in North America, Latin America, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Israel, India, and Italy, and aboard airlines and ships worldwide. The film, currently in production, is scheduled for completion in 2024.
• Soumache, president and founder of ON Classics said in a release: “It truly is an honor to launch this great international movie with Sony Pictures Classics, who recognized the universality of this extraordinary fresco and all the international potential it represents by retracing the solar and intense life of Marcel Pagnol, and through him, the timeless history of cinema. The movie marks the return of Sylvain Chomet to animation, whose work is recognized all over the world for being both singular and universal at the same time.”
• “ The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol is a film about the extraordinary history of cinema and the beginning of talking movies,” added Chomet. “Pagnol is the link between film, literature, and theater. I am proud to be able to tell this extraordinary adventure, of which we are all heirs, and which Sony Pictures Classics as my partner will travel all over the world.”