TF1 International is teaming with EuropaCorp Television for a €10m miniseries based on Jean-Christophe Grangé’s best-selling novel, The Flight Of The Storks.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky director Jan Kounen [pictured] will direct the series which TF1 is selling at the upcoming MipTV market in 2x90’ and 4x45’ formats.

The project is a co-production with South Africa and Germany and was developed by Canal Plus. Denis McGrath wrote the script which will be shot in English starting this June. Grangé is one of France’s best-known authors and notably wrote Crimson Rivers, the novel which Alain Goldman and Gaumont brought to the big screen in 2000 and which was part of a new wave of big budget French action films made with US-style values.

Storks story follows a young academic who teams with an amateur ornithologist to follow storks on their migration from Switzerland to Africa. When the ornithologist is found dead under mysterious circumstances, the academic pursues the birds on his own, ultimately ending up embroiled in an international web of intrigue. TF1 has not yet announced casting.

The company will also handle sales on cop series Profiling, the miniseries Teen Mom starring Victoria Abril and Chef Secrets, a lifestyle program that visits the kitchens of France’s most famous chefs. Also being highlighted is the animated series Red Caps about Santa’s elves which will be made into a feature for release this Christmas as Santa’s Magic Crystal.