Political thriller by French PM to be made into film

Paris (AFP) – A novel co-written by France’s new Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is to be made into a film, his publisher said Monday.

“In the Shadows”, a political thriller set during the final days of a neck-and-neck French presidential election, is being adapted for the screen by one of the country’s best-loved actors, Guillaume Gallienne, according to reports.

“It has been optioned to be adapted and the project has been launched,” Philippe’s publishers JC Lattes told AFP.

But they refused to divulge any other details of the screen version of the 2011 potboiler.

The book, which Philippe wrote with fellow right-wing political insider Gilles Boyer, caused a minor stir because of the sexism of its principal character.

Male chauvinism in the French political establishment has become a hot-button issue after incidents in which female MPs claimed to have been groped, whistled at or subject to sexist comments in parliament.

Critics also wondered if the character’s lusting after his party’s busty spin doctor might be indicative of the prime minister’s own sublimated desires.

Boyer, who wrote another thriller “The Hour of Truth” with Philippe in 2007, is set to join the prime minister’s office as an advisor next month.

Philippe, mayor of the English Channel port of Le Havre and a member of the conservative Republicans party, defected to lead centrist President Emmanuel Macron’s government after May’s presidential election.

According to the Figaro newspaper, the rights to Philippe’s novel have been bought by Elzevir Films, with Gallienne said to be directing the story. 

Gallienne won two prizes at the Cannes film festival in 2013 with his crowd-pleasing “Garcons et Guillaume, a table!” which he not only wrote and directed, but played in as both a mummy-boy and his mother.

Elzevir Films refused to comment.