French President Emmanuel Macron Vows to Bring ‘Emily in Paris’ Production Back to France: ‘We Will Fight Hard’
French President Emmanuel Macron isn’t ready to bid au revoir to “Emily in Paris.”
While Emily (Lily Collins) has relocated to Rome in the Season 4 finale of the hit Netflix series, Macron is vowing to bring the production back to France.
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“We will fight hard. And we will ask them to remain in Paris!” Macron told Variety. “‘Emily in Paris’ in Rome doesn‘t make sense.”
“Emily in Paris” is confirmed to be moving to Italy for its fifth season as Emily will lead the marketing campaign for new client-slash-suitor Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini). And while it’s still unclear where the series could go next both narratively and in terms of jet-setting, it seems that Macron may have an advantage to bringing Emily once more to Paris: Macron’s wife Brigitte Macron guest-starred on the show.
“I was super proud, and she was very happy to do it,” Macron said of the cameo. “It’s just a few minutes, but I think it was a very good moment for her. I think it’s good for the image of France.”
Macron continued, “‘Emily in Paris; is super positive in terms of attractiveness for the country. For my own business, it’s a very good initiative.”
And while the country of France infamously was skeptical about the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix, especially when it came to the Cannes film festival and awards campaigns and eligibility with theatrical releases, Macron explained why streamers are now inspirational “gateways” for international audiences.
“Netflix and Disney are all Anglo-Saxon platforms. They have power because they aggregate content, so they become gateways,” Macron said. “What we’re in the process of doing, on a much different scale but on a Franco-German, European level, with [public broadcaster] Arte is very important. We’ve put a lot of resources into it.”
Macron continued, “On the other hand, our industry in France has held up very well since the launch of these platforms, and we’re very good at producing content. That’s our strength. We’ve got great actors, we’ve got great writers, we’ve got great directors. We’ve got independent producers, and we’ve also got production groups that produce a lot of documentaries, shorts, feature films and series. So we produce the content. I’m very attached to that. That’s also why we developed these training programs just after COVID. We just want our imagination to be able to express and export itself. But it’s true that we’re still missing very big producers, broadcasters and a Netflix-type platform. Nothing is hopeless. We have major players who are French: Vivendi, Canal+, Banijay, Mediawan. And then we have these vital distribution networks: MK2, Pathé, Gaumont, which are also very strong French entrepreneurial adventures that have both produced content and mastered their distribution.”
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