EXCLUSIVE: Studiocanal has unveiled first pictures for French director Gilles de Maistre’s upcoming characteristic The Desert Youngster retelling the true story of a teenager raised by ostriches within the Sahara, forward of launching the film on the EFM.
At the moment in post-production with a deliberate 2026 launch, the characteristic follows Maistre’s hit Autumn and the Black Jaguar, which grossed $30M on the worldwide field workplace, and upcoming launch Moon The Panda, which hits French cinemas in April.
As with most of Maistre’s earlier options, which additionally embody The Wolf and the Lion and Mia and the White Lion, the manufacturing concerned working with kids and real-life animals, on this case ostriches and younger Fennec foxes.
The film follows 14-year-old Solar who has written and efficiently printed a narrative primarily based on an unimaginable story instructed by her late grandfather a couple of wild little one referred to as Hadara, who’s saved by a bunch of ostriches when he turns into separated from his household in a storm, and is then raised within the desert amid a bunch of untamed animals, together with his greatest good friend, a desert fox.
When Solar is invited to journey to the Sahara by a local people who has heard about her guide, she meets Kharouba, a Nomad woman of her personal age, and realizes there could also be rather more to Hadara than only a character in a bedtime story.
“One of many novelties of this mission for Gilles, is that the screenplay is loosely impressed by a real story, which we acquired from a Swedish journalist,” feedback producer Catherine Camborde, who has labored on all of Maistre’s options below his Mai-Juin Productions banner.
“Within the early twentieth century, this little one was separated from his dad and mom’ travelling caravan within the Sahara and was then welcomed and raised by ostriches for 10 years. We’re revisiting the parable of the wild little one, made fashionable by characters equivalent to Tarzan or Mowgli, however by no means instructed by means of such a rare true story.”
The Desert Youngster
Mai-Juin Productions
Studiocanal, which beforehand dealt with gross sales on Autumn and the Black Jaguar and Mia and the White Lion, will unveil a primary teaser for the film on the market, revealing first pictures of its sweeping desert landscapes and little one and animal protagonists for the primary time.
Youngster casting for the roles of the protagonist was in depth with the manufacturing utilizing actors aged three, six and 12 years outdated to play Hadara throughout the arc of his story. Common French actor Kev Adams can be within the forged within the function of the grandfather as a younger man.
Maistre and his animal specialists have lengthy expertise of dealing with with actual animals on set, however Camborde reveals that working with ostriches and the Fennec foxes was as difficult as working with lions, wolves and jaguars.
“As with all our productions, we did quite a lot of work prematurely. Ostriches are extraordinarily giant animals weighing round 130 kilos (286 kilos). The ostriches we used had been raised in captivity, however they’re nonetheless wild animals and must be approached with care,” she explains.
“They’ve extraordinarily lengthy eyesight and acute listening to, so it’s a must to take that under consideration when creating the set to make sure they don’t get distracted or spooked by noises and motion, each round them and within the distance.”
“Fennecs, then again, are very skittish and run round all over. You need to get the timing proper to shoot them. We deal with our animals like stars on set and in the event that they drained, or we sense they’re not within the temper, we cease. There’s no pointing forcing it, it received’t work, there can be no alchemy.”
The movie was shot near the Moroccan villages of Erfoud and Merzouga within the Sahara Desert near the Algerian border and Belgium over the summer season of 2024.
As with all of Maistre’s productions, the animals have been since rehoused – this time in a refuge in Marrakech, the place their well-being is being paid for by Juin-Mai Productions, with the prices factored into the movie’s price range.
