Ginger & Fed boards French historical comedy ‘Moliere, Cyrano & The Young King’

EXCLUSIVE: Ginger & Fed has boarded Michel Leclerc’s Moliere, Cyrano & The Young King, an IP-heavy French adventure comedy about the titular 17th-century playwright, poet-novelist and French king Louis XIV.

The film is set during an uprising in Paris when the Sun King is secretly replaced at court by a lookalike to keep him out of danger. He joins a traveling theatre troupe alongside Cyrano de Bergerac and Moliere where he discovers the joy of the stage and the power of friendship. But with intrigue brewing back home, will the young royal return in time to embrace his royal destiny?

The film stars Artus, who directed and starred in last year’s French breakout hit A Little Something Extra, while other cast include Julia Piaton, Dora Tillier, Franck Dubosc, Nemo Schiffman and Niels Hamel Brochen.

Prolific French production house Mandarin is producing with Elephant Story, and Le Pacte will release in France on June 24, 2026.

The film shot over the summer in locations that included châteaux in Fontainebleau, Vaux-le-Vicomte, the Château de Brissac in Angers, Ile Saint Louis, the banks of the Loire, and the streets of Le Mans, where Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s 1990 adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac was filmed. (The real de Bergerac inspired Edmond Rostand’s largely fictionalised 1897 play about his life.)

Ginger & Fed’s Sabine Chemaly said: “This story is a pure delight. It’s a love letter to theatre and life itself – between Cinema Paradiso and Shakespeare In Love. It shines with wit, rhythm and emotion, and it is a vibrant, modern tale rooted in history, where three legendary figures of France light up the stage with charm and panache.”

• Apple, Mark Wahlberg lining up remake of Norwegian dark comedy ‘Headhunters’