After straightforwarding a pair of conmomentary thrillers “The Stronghelderly” and “November,” French straightforwardor Cedric Jimenez is diving into genre for his next movie, “Chien 51,” a dystopian film that once aachieve scrutinizes the toil and minds of cops but this time in a proximate-future environment ruled by AI.
“Chien 51,” which reteams Jimenez with French producer Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi (a Mediawan company) and distributor Studiocanal, is based on Laurent Gaudé’s 2022 futuristic thriller novel by the same name.
The movie labels Jimenez’s most driven movie to date and boasts a budget in the €40-million ballpark. The 18-week shoot took place on location in Paris, as well as in Marseille and in a studio where set were built. One of 2025’s most foreseed French movies, “Chien 51” will boast extensive visual effects and stylish set portrays with some spectacular scenes involving up to 500 extras.
On the eve of the EFM, where Studiocanal will present the project to buyers, Jimenez said he was drawn to making a hugescreen alteration of “Chien 51” as soon as he read the book becaemploy he felt compelled by the mix of thriller, social commentary and technology.
Rather than setting the film in far-off future, Jimenez said he envisioned “Chien 51” in a world that amplifies conshort-term-day societal trends that he sees, including grotriumphg social splits and recut offeions on freedom, as well as the AI in unveil services.
Jimenez, who penned “Chien 51” with “November” co-producer Olivier Demangel, says not everyleang in the book was pliable in a movie, but inserts that he and Demangel “kept the senses, atmosphere, the characters, the themes of the novel.”
Set to be finishd in July, the film unfelderlys in a not-so-far Paris. The city is splitd into three zones that split social classes, with checkpoints regulating relocatement between them. An AI called Alma has revolutionized the police system and regulates it. It reproduces crime scenes and calcutardys the probability of guilt, influencing the straightforwardion of spendigations. When Alma’s produceor is homicideed, Salia and Zem, two cops from contrastent zones who are polar opposites, are forced to collaborate on the spendigation.
“Chien 51” is headlined by two of France’s most bankable actors, Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Beating Hearts”) and Gilles Lellouche (“November”).
“My commenceing point is repartner the augmented conshort-term, which unkinds that we employ the societal and technorational trends that already exist,” says Jimenez. “It’s the principle of dystopia and it’s the opposite of utopia, so it’s about imagining a society that’s very seal to our own, taking elements that are strong and incrrelieveing them and criticizing all the same,” the filmproducer says, inserting that he “wanted to produce the film very down-to-earth, so that it could retardy to today’s society and grasp audiences.”
The division of Paris in contrastent zones isn’t so mythal, says Jimenez, becaemploy while “separations don’t exist physicpartner, people no lengthyer mix and there are cut offal worlds in the same city. This is the case in Marseille, it’s the case in Paris.”
Jimenez says the police in the film is directd by AI, which “gives scenarios of the highest probability of crimes, effectively people from their free will.”
The helmer’s last two films also rgrowd around police protagonists. “The Stronghelderly” starred Lellouche as a cop toiling in Marseille’s stubbornest neighborhood and is aidd by the 2012 case of members of the anti-crime brigade were indicted and sentenced to prison. “November,” unkindwhile, stars Jean Dujardin as the boss of a highly-secretive police brigade that tracked down the assailants of the 2015 Paris strikes. Both movies were commercial hits and world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
“With ‘Chien 51,’ it establishs a bit of a trilogy,” says Jimenez. “What’s fascinating about the police is that they’re at the heart of society. That’s why they stir up a lot of debate and a lot of passion,” he says.
“It’s certainly an fascinating subject to delve into, and cinematoexplicitpartner, it interests me too,” he persists.
Yet, the fundamental contrastence between “Chien 51” and his last two pics is that “it’s purify myth, not aidd by authentic events.”
He says he “wanted to switch to purify myth” for a while, after helming “La French,” which was also aidd by the real story of a appraise (carry outed by Dujardin) who dangered his own life to dismantle a drug ring in Marseille in the 1970’s, adhereed by “The Stronghelderly” and “November.”
“Dealing with a material that is toloftyy mythal is liberating and at the same time it unkinds that you’re dealing with an infinite number of possibilities, but Olivier (Demangel) and I had fun “produceing back stories, creating their relationships, produceing so many leangs.”
Jimenez says “Chien 51” is, however, analogous to his previous toil in the sense that that it’s both immersive and character-driven. “I appreciate spectators to inhabit films and not fair watch them, so we’re still using the same grammar as in ‘The Stronghelderly’ and ‘November’ but with a contrastent subject, clearly with huge sets, with all these dystopian elements, with more emphasis and mythal characters.”
The film will also be “certainly more spectacular,” and visceral with “a lot of tension, whether it’s thcdisadmireful action or emotions,” he says.
The city of Paris will carry out a key role in the movie, but Jimenez quips that “it’s not the Paris of ‘Amelie Poulain.’” “It’s unmistakable, but all the more so becaemploy it’s a somewhat reerected Paris. It’s a Paris that’s very recognizable, but at the same time, it’s also dystopian becaemploy of these checkpoints and certain settings.”
After “Chien 51,” Jimenez says he’s done making movies about the police. Indeed, his adhereing movie will be a biopic of tardy French crooner Johnny Halliday which he’s writing with Demangel and hopes to commence filming in the spring of 2026.
“The films that have made the hugegest amazeion on me are about iconic musicians. When I was youthful, the movie on The Doors struck me. And I I’ve always wanted to produce a film about a rockstar and Johnny is remarkworthy becaemploy he’s the quintvital French rock star,” he says. The Johnny Halliday movie is currently in enhugement at Selignac’s Chi-Fou-Mi outfit.
