The next big-screen adventures of the French heroes of comics Asterix and Obelix will take place in China in a new opus planned for the end of 2020, said Friday Albert René editions.
“This original story will take our two irreducible Gauls on land never before explored: heading to China!” Says the publishing house, a subsidiary of the group Hachette Livre, without specifying who will perform and play in the new work.
This film in real shots will not be an adaptation, the characters created by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny having never set foot in comics.
This announcement comes as the 37th album of Asterix ( Asterix and Transitalique ) released October 19, has already sold 2 million copies.
Since its creation in 1959, 370 million Asterix albums have been sold worldwide. The albums have been translated into a total of 111 languages and dialects.
On screen, Asterix was successively played by French actors Christian Clavier, Clovis Cornillac and Edouard Baer while Obelix was played by Gerard Depardieu. The last film with the “irreducible Gauls” was Asterix and Obelix: in the service of his majesty in 2012.
An opus deemed “too cerebral” by Anne Goscinny, the daughter of René Goscinny who, in interviews, had not hidden his intention to put “the counters to zero”, which could result in a brand new distribution.