It was a joke on YouTube between Pierre Niney, McFly and Carlito and it becomes a movie: Leaf Man will be one of Prime Video’s next unmissable comedies.
Fans were waiting for it and it’s now official: Feuilleman, the French superhero imagined by Pierre Niney, McFly and Carlito will come to life in a feature film. What was just a joke launched by the actor, who has had successes with Le Flambeau and LOL: who laughs comes out, and fed by the two YouTubers becomes a reality.
The trio are currently working on this film, which will be broadcast exclusively on Prime Video, as the platform announced during a press conference on Monday June 19 revealing the streaming service’s 2023/2024 line-up.
Feuilleman, from joke to film
It all started in January 2021 in a video “We call random people”, a very popular concept by McFly and Carlito, in which Pierre Niney participated. The principle is simple: they must take turns answering questions of general knowledge and if they are wrong, they will have to call one of their contacts at random and prank them, that is to say make them believe in a story or a made-up joke.
During this video, Pierre Niney had to call “Pacotte”, a French cinema production manager, to pitch him an idea for a script. McFly launches the idea of a project on a blank sheet of paper and Pierre Niney transforms it into Feuilleman, a French superhero disguised as a sheet:
“He’s a leaf man. It’s the story of a guy who has the weight of a leaf. Suddenly, he throws himself from the top of buildings”this is how Pierre Niney presented the idea “pretty crazy” of this film to the production manager.
He even mentioned a certain “Verwoman, a worm woman” during the conversation where he made believe that he was reluctant to face the project and that the production manager should curb the enthusiasm of the duo of YouTubers.
This passage of the video was obviously taken everywhere following its publication and especially praised by the fans of McFly and Carlito but also of Pierre Niney, who expected only one thing: that this film really see the light of day. Some illustrators and designers had even imagined fake posters that they had posted on the networks.
We will have to wait a year before we hear from Feuille Man, in February 2022. It is via an Instagram post from McFly that we learn that the film is in writing. “We 3 is a great story, we 3, on the same level of equality hehe. Joking aside, the writing is progressing with Florent Bernard”.
The YouTuber seemed to announce that a script by Feuilleman was in progress and that the trio had called on the help of Florent Bernard, also called FloBer, French director and screenwriter. This former member of the Golden Mustache collective worked on Bloqués and La Flamme and he hosts the FloodCast.
Pierre Niney also raised the subject in the popcorn show where he explained that everyone was talking to him about Feuilleman: “Feuilleman, it’s really absurd because I did three years at the National Conservatory, five years at the Comédie Française and the role that people talk to me about the most is literally Feuilleman”.
He also commented on the photo posted by McFly as follows: “a photo of an attempted writing meeting”, “there will surely be something”. The actor did not want to advance too much at this time and surely keep the surprise.
A year later, it’s now official: Feuilleman will indeed be a film. The team even created a Feuilleman Instagram account six weeks ago to document the progress of the feature film.
The project is still in development but Prime Video teases it like this: “Pierre Niney, McFly and Carlito bring together the ambition of cinema and the creativity of YouTube to give birth to the first French superhero: FEUILLEMAN”.
The McFly and Carlito video that sparked this idea has racked up nearly 18 million views, which bodes well for Feuilleman when it hits Prime Video.