Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: the third opus of a French comedy.
While traveling by plane to Europe, American director and producer John Hughes (Breakfast Club, Maman j’ai missed l’avion, Miracle sur la 34e rue) watches Les Visiteurs, a cult French comedy that brought together nearly 14 million spectators when it was released in 1993.
As soon as he arrived, he contacted Gaumont to negotiate the rights to the screenplay with Jean-Marie Poiré and Christian Clavier. The latter rework the original script alongside him, with the collaboration of Chris Columbus (Gremlins, The Goonies, Mom, I missed the plane), transposing the action in particular to England and the United States:
Since the Middle Ages, Count Thibault de Malfete and his squire André le Pâté find themselves thrown by mistake into the Chicago of the year 2000.
Regarding the main roles, Jean Reno and Christian Clavier return to service. The first is already known across the Atlantic thanks to Léon, Mission: Impossible and Godzilla, while the second, totally unknown there, is playing in English for the first time in his career. English-speaking actors such as Christina Applegate, Malcolm McDowell, Tara Reid and Matt Ross round out the cast.
Visitors to America (“Just Visiting” en VO) landed on the screens in 2001. But it found its audience neither in the United States nor in France. at 35 million.
This commercial disaster also plunged the accounts of the Gaumont company, already very weakened by the bitter failure of Vatel in the spring of 2000, with a loss of 437 million francs.
Crowned with the Bidet d’Or for Worst Film Idea, Visitors to America has one of the worst average viewer ratings on AlloCiné, ie 1 out of 5 for 9,113 ratings.
Visitors to America by Jean-Marie Poiré with Jean Reno, Christian Clavier, Christina Applegate…
Tonight on TFX at 9:05 p.m.