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Crossing borders under difficult circumstances has always been part of the deal for spies. But getting your cast and crew to do the same, during times of Covid, also became part of the suspense in completing the first two episodes of the Amazon Prime show “Totems,” which premiered at Canneseries TV festival this week.

Featuring an international cast, including Niels Schneider, Vera Kolesnikova, José Garcia, Lambert Wilson and Ana Girardot, the spy drama was mainly shot in Prague. The city provides a convincing substitute for East Berlin, where some of the story takes place at an action-packed scientific conference.

The story follows French scientist Francis Mareuil (Schneider) whose angular features play beautifully between the shadows, as he starts operating as a spy, just like his estranged nurse wife in Paris (Girardot).

While working for the French Secret Service and the CIA, Mareuil meets a Russian pianist (Kolesnikova), who has been...

Amazon Prime Video France today published details of its upcoming slate of productions, including four new originals:

Greek Salad is a contemporary sequel to the movie trilogy L’Auberge Espagnole (Pot Luck), 20 years after the originals. It follows the lives of Tom and Mia (the children of Xavier and Wendy from L’Auberge Espagnole) as they embark on a new adventure in Athens. The eight episode series is created by Cédric Klapisch, with Lola Doillon and Antoine Garceau (Call my Agent). The show will be co-produced by Bruno Levy for Ce Qui Me Meut and will launch exclusively on Prime Video in 2022.

Flashback is the second Amazon original movie produced in France. This one is a time travel comedy starring comedian Caroline Vigneaux, with Sophia Aram, Suzanne Clément, Lison Daniel, Gad Elmaleh, Lannick Gautry, Emy Ltr, Florent Peyre and Sylvie Testud. It is produced by Alain Goldman for Legende Films and...

New slate includes projects spearheaded by filmmaker Cédric Klapisch and Ballsy Girl actress Melha Bedia.

Amazon Prime Video has unveiled a slate of French original productions, including Cédric Klapisch’s drama series Greek Salad, a spin-off of his 2002 hit feature Pot Luck (L’Auberge Espagnole), about a group of students from across Europe living in a flat in Barcelona together.

The new series follows the lives of the children of two of the original characters as they embark on a new adventure in Athens.

Kaplisch has created the eight-episode drama with Lola Doillon and Antoine Garceau, who both took credits (like...

New slate includes projects spearhead by filmmaker Cédric Klapisch and Ballsy Girl actress Melha Bedia.

Amazon Prime Video has unveiled a new slate of French original productions, including Cédric Klapisch’s drama Greek Salad, a spin-off of his 2002 hit feature Pot Luck (L’Auberge Espagnole), about a group of students from across Europe living in a flat in Barcelona together.

The new series follows the lives of the children of two of the original characters as they embark on a new adventure in Athens.

Kaplisch has created the eight-episode drama with Lola Doillon and Antoine Garceau, who both took credits (like...

France is getting its own “Love Island” after Amazon ordered a local version of ITV’s sun-and-fun reality hit. The streamer has also ordered another unscripted French show, adventure format “The Missing One,” and two drama series, Cold War-set “Operation Totems” and “Voltaire, Mixte,” which is set in a French high school in the 1960s.

Amazon unveiled its new quartet of French originals at an event in Paris on Thursday.

ITV Studios-distributed “Love Island” has been a breakout hit in the U.K. and remake rights have subsequently sold into the U.S. and other international markets. The other new French reality show, “The Missing One,” will see four teams, led by as-yet-unnamed French celebrities, race across Australia to find a missing team member. Paris-based WeMake is producing the show that it co-created with Borderline Media.

“Narcos” producer Gaumont is making “Operations Totems.” It is set in 1964 during the...

Amazon has unveiled a new slate of French originals including a local version of hit British format Love Island, a period drama from Borgia writer Marie Roussin and a spy drama from Narcos and Hannibal producer Gaumont.

The Svod service is making a French version of ITV Studios entertainment series Love Island, which airs on CBS in the U.S., and has commissioned eight-part series Voltaire, Mixte and Operations Totems as well as a new adventure reality competition.

The shows were announced at a showcase held in Paris this morning.

Voltaire, Mixte takes place in an all-male high school when women are allowed in for the first time. Set in 1960s France, the series will look at the relationships and “hormonal fireworks” of the time. It will cover topics such as love, emancipation, sexuality and self-acceptance.

Roussin is showrunner and the series is produced by Hotel de la Plage producer...

Jacques Audiard, whose latest film “The Sisters Brothers” with John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix and Jake Gyllenhaal earned him a best director prize at Venice, will make his TV debut with the Canal Plus hit original spy series “The Bureau.”

The Palme d’Or winning director of “Dheepan” will direct some episodes of the fifth and final season of “The Bureau,” along with the series creator Eric Rochant, Jérôme Salle, Thomas Bidegain, Anna Novion, Samuel Collardey and Mathieu Kassovitz, who is also the star of “The Bureau.”

Audiard, one of France’s most revered filmmakers, also co-wrote the fifth season of “The Bureau” with Bidegain, his writing partner on several films including “The Sisters Brothers,” as well as Cécile Ducrocq, Capucine Rochant, Hippolyte Girardot, Dominique Baumard, Camille de Castelnau, Olivier Dujols, Raphaël Chevènement, with the collaboration of Valentine Milville.

“The Bureau” revolves around a member of a clandestine branch of...