a Native of Philadelphia, Alex Shepherd has had several lives. Creator with Antoine de Caunes of the tv show “Rapido”, it is associated with Alain Chabat for the creation of “Burger Quiz” and produced the series as the envy of the world, The Office of captions . The man cultivates discretion, preferring to put the director Eric Rochant and the players of his Office before. For Le Figaro , however, it was agreed to lift the veil of Stealth , his next fiction whose first episodes are already ready and the filming could begin by the end of 2019, beginning of 2020.
LE FIGARO. – How did you get the idea of a series on special Forces?
Alex SHEPHERD. – in The course of our research for The Office of legends, I was struck to see to what extent the notion of war had changed. For decades, the dogma that prevailed was “disproportionate response”. To be clear, you throw a stone, it will return you all of the cavalry. Today, we apply the exact opposite: in the field, we send small units for operations targeted, Task Force. Very high-level, experts in geopolitics, psychology, weapons handling, and electronics, this handful of soldiers sent only to the other side of the world is supported, “back-office”, by a lot of”intelligence”, of human intelligence, drones, satellites… The idea is to expose less of people for more efficiency. The exact opposite of the First world War.
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Why this topic fascinates you?
In The Office of Captions , we had the opportunity to discuss the service Action. These military ultra-trained to manage the operations that are not claimed by France. The special Forces, just as secrets, are the official version. If the diplomatic track doesn’t work, them go on a mission with the blue flag-white-red stitched on the shoulder. France has developed an organization fascinating where you will find talent the best, the most skilled and the most skilled in all the military, Air, Land, Sea, and Cyber, to be integrated within the units under the command of the COS (special operations command). This transversal organization is really special and I wanted to tell her story of her everyday life through two characters: a man and a woman.
within the Defense, the special Forces are a subject particularly sensitive. They are the armed arm of the Republic. How was your first meeting?
“I believe very much in the cooperation between the entertainment world and that of the Defence. The relationship centuries between the Pentagon and Hollywood is a model. Everyone wins”
The premiere of season two of the Office of the Legends was at Balard in paris West, at the headquarters of the French armed Forces. During the evening, I was able to meet the general, Saint-Quentin, which, at the time, ran the special Forces. I made her the pitch for my new series, Stealth. He listened to me twenty minutes very gently before I say that, of course, he was interested but that his service had need of the utmost discretion. I replied that we had used with the CCD, and The Bureau of Legends. The similarity between the special Forces and spies of the DGSE, it is to be ordinary people who make a business extraordinary. They are all hyperqualifiés, but they are people. They have a family, sometimes disappear for months, have a double life and a moral contract with France. They are ready to die for the Nation, to defend our democracy. The human side is central to our history, even if the context of action is present. In fine, I was put in the hands of the responsible of the Communication of the COS. I am franco-american, I was raised in the United States but I live in France. I believe very much in the cooperation between the entertainment world and the world of Defence. The relationship centuries between the Pentagon and Hollywood is a model. Everyone wins. For the army, which seeks to recruit young people more and more graduates, a series more realistic about this life, and these trades, in my opinion is more informative than posters 4×3 in the subway. We need both, but our feature producer of the series is the fruit of the style Rochant…Realistic and plausible.
strength of the Office of the Legends , it is to have Eric Rochant as showrunner. A specialist spies. Who have you selected for Stealth ?
Eric Rochant is a showrunner, because he is the visionary creator of the Office of the Legends, co-director and executive producer with me in our society-The Oligarchs Productions. For Stealth , he had an author who knows well the culture and the military. I met him at a TED conference, and later at Bernard Weber ( The Ants ), who is a mutual friend. Gilles Malençon ( Knights of The sky ) was the military school. He was in the army, but an incident forced him to change lanes. It is steeped in this medium ever since. His father was a pilot in the Air force and he himself has kept all his friends students. They remained in this area and are now colonels and generals. The more complicated for virgil has been to understand the culture to which we do not suspect the accuracy of the special Forces. It is gone already, several times on the ground. The idea is to remove the side James Bond and be as realistic as possible. Thanks to the Mission Cinéma of the Armed forces, we have also been able to more encounters. We were thus able to interact with all of the profiles that constitute the units of the COS. These specialists were of course amazingly diverse, ancient Sciences Po, grandes écoles, but also of men trained by the army, which is a great lift to career.
Where are you writing?
We are in the midst of writing workshops, we apply the same method of development for the Office of the Legends with several authors and writers around Gilles Malençon. Several episodes are ready. We have already done several readings and meetings with, for example, the vice-admiral Laurent Isnard, who now heads the COS (special operations command). We anticipate being in a shooting late 2019, early 2020, for broadcast in 2020 on a string leader of france.
