“Asterix and Obelix: the Middle Empire” by Guillaume Canet is it closer to the original screenplay of Claude Zidi’s film, or is it an adaptation like those of Alain Chabat, Laurent Tirard and the duo Fredéric Forrestier – Thomas Langman? Reply.
The Asterixes follow each other (more or less closely) but are not alike. Because the interpreter of the little Gaul has often changed in the films in real shots. That a director has never made more than one opus. And that each new adventure takes us to a different setting.
Directed by Guillaume Canet, who becomes the first filmmaker to direct a film and embody Asterix at the same time, The Middle Empire takes us to China, as its title suggests. The time of an adventure that was not born under the pen of Réné Goscinny and the pencil of Albert Uderzo.
Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Empire is not, in fact, adapted from a comic strip, but rather from an original scenario that Guillaume Canet co-wrote with Julien Hervé and Philippe Mechelen, who notably worked on Les Tuche. On this point, the film more than that of Claude Zidi, which was not an adaptation either, unlike those of Alain Chabat, Laurent Tirard and the duo Frédéric Forestier – Thomas Langmann.
With one detail: a comic strip inspired by Guillaume Canet’s film will be published one week after the cinema release, i.e. on February 8. Or rather, an illustrated album, where drawings by Fabrice Tarrin occupy the entire page, instead of being arranged in boxes.
Editions Albert René Image from the album
An album in which the heroes, as well as Caesar and Cleopatra, have their usual look, while the secondary characters have some traits of their respective interpreters (Jonathan Cohen, Julie Chen, Manu Payet…). And who returns to the major events of the story told by Guillaume Canet in this adventure which comic book collectors will ultimately be able to keep track of.