Released on February 16, King features a very endearing lion cub who will befriend a 12-year-old teenager. But is the animal real or was it created in computer graphics?
Directed by David Moreau, King tells the story of a lion cub destined for trafficking. He escapes from the airport and takes refuge in the house of Inès, 12, and Alex, 15. The brother and sister then have the crazy idea of taking him home to Africa.
But the pursuit of customs officers does not make their life easier. When Max, their whimsical grandfather whom they have only seen twice in their life, joins the adventure, everything becomes possible.
A DIGITAL CUB?
As surprising as it may seem, the little lion in the film was created on a computer by the Mathematic team. This special effects company has worked on the project since its inception, as Julien Lambert and Fabrice Lagayette explain to us in the video above.
With their teams, the two men supervised all the work on the animal for a final rendering that was more real than life. However, some shots of the feature film were still shot with a real lion cub.
“The few days of shooting with the real King were very unique. When King arrived on the set, it was like shooting with a Hollywood star. I remember that each time he arrived on the set, the atmosphere was almost religious, with only the essential members of the team”explains filmmaker David Moreau.
“You know, even if this animal was still young, it’s still very impressive a lion! We can already see or perceive the power it will have in adulthood and when it is not happy or “He’s had enough, you can feel it right away. Besides, we only did one take, two max”he says in the press kit for the film.
A LITTLE LION MORE REAL THAN NATURE?
If David Moreau called on the Mathematic studio, it was because of the film’s complexity. The director needed the cub to do very specific things at key moments. Complex actions, almost impossible to perform with animals which, due to their young age, are not trained.
“So we storyboarded the whole film in order to know what we could shoot in real life, and what it would be impossible for us to do. Very quickly, the place of VFX imposed itself as the majority. It is the company Mathematic who was responsible for creating King. Their synthetic animal is really very successful and perfectly embodies the role of King, a lion cub with a strong character”says the director.
THE KING TRAILER