Was it actually essential to adapt “the legendary office” with Michael Fassbender and Richard Gere? | EUROtoday

On May 23, 2025

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JWhere will the Americans go to adapt what they do not perceive? We needed to dare to make a remake of the cult sequence The legendary workplacemasterpiece of felted spy labeled third finest sequence of the last decade by the New York Times. Canal+ did it – or fairly let it go. The Agencyproduced by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (writers of Spectrum and ofEdge of Tomorrow) and launched within the United States in November 2024 on Paramount+, landed in France on Canal+, in an odd recreation of duplication.

Same body, identical intrigue, even existential vertigo as the unique sequence. But French class was swapped in opposition to the heavy effectivity of American business. The most ironic? It’s that we won’t cease watching.

The Agency exported to London, with Michael Fassbender

No extra mortier boulevard, DGSE reception website, its low ceiling workplaces and its pale lighting. Make method for a CIA put in in a glass tower in London, half-sarcophagus high-tech, half-vitrin safety. In the packing containers since 2017, The Agency took his time to exfiltrate The legendary workplace. She took the chance to refine her profiling: Michael Fassbender performs Martian (Martian in English), double bodybuilded from Malotru (Mathieu Kassovitz), CIA agent with metal blue gaze and tight jaw. He returned to London after a six -year mission in Ethiopia, the place he fell in love with a Sudanese tutorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paxmy31nffa

A tailor -made function for an actor in search of redemption. Star adulated within the early 2010s, named the Oscars twice (for Shame And 12 Years a Slave)Michael Fassbender had chained the large roles – earlier than disappearing from the radar, caught up in some failures (Assassin’s CreedThe snowman) and accusations of home violence. As if a hatch had opened underneath his toes. And as discreetly as he escaped it, Michael Fassbender has been again on the display screen currently. The Killer, by David Fincher in 2023, then The Insider, From Steven Soderbergh final March, the place he embodies half of a few spies alongside Cate Blanchett.

The Agency Sign greater than ever his comeback. “I am happy to resume the job of actor, because I realize that it is the only thing I can do,” he informed Indiewire. Around him gravitate Richard Gere, as a cerebral boss of the European CIA, Jeffrey Wright, to duplicate Jean-Pierre Darroussin, and Jodie Turner-Smith as an mental in love.

Éric Rochant absent from the American remake of Legendary

Everything sticks (nearly) faithfully to the primary season of his mannequin: a lacking agent, a brand new recruit liable for infiltrating Iran, Martian’s issue in abandoning his false id … Certain intrigues have been moved, or reshaped: the central character operates now not within the Middle East, however in Sudan, and Russia turns into a extra specific playground, updating geopolitical pressure.

“From the start, my role was to be the interface with the Americans to preserve the DNA of Desk And the writing of Eric Rochant, explains Alex Berger, holder of the rights of the French series. This does not prevent The Agency To deviate from its model, with a more current geopolitics, certain slightly different narrative arches, stronger action scenes and larger means. »»

The catch? The series does not take advantage of the change of country to infuse new approaches, which would have allowed fans of the Legendary to discover differences in the operation of intelligence agencies. And what, in Éric Rochant, distilled himself with modesty and acuity becomes mechanical, even demonstrative. Because The legendary office cultivated discretion, and the heavy silences of meaning. The Agency Prefers the hammered replicas and a good dose of action scenes-choreographed shootings with helicopters that explode … We went from Jean-Pierre Melville to Jason Bourne!

The problem may be there. Éric Rochant did not participate in the remake. Neither in the scenario, nor to production, nor to realization. It is not even credited in the credits. Alex Berger and Pascal Breton accompanied the Americans. Result, we may repaint the decor, copy the narrative arcs, translate the dialogues and have means to pass the DGSE for an SME, the soul is not.

An addictive, but useless remake, before seeing the rest of the Desk

Let’s be honest: while we are sprawled on the sofa on Sunday evening, The Agency Look at with some pleasure. The pace is good, the tension well posed. It’s catchy, calibrated, neat. But, for those who loved The legendary officethe experience evokes a guided tour at the Grévin museum, in a familiar setting where the characters were exchanged by pale copies. We have fun recognizing the silhouettes, situations, issues. But finesse has disappeared.

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

And above all, it’s sorely missing in relevance for the French spectator. The Agency is offered on Canal+, the identical that broadcast The workplace. What brushes the absurd: why provide a replica – even nicely carried out – to those that have already tasted the unique? Unless you assume that the collective reminiscence doesn’t exceed 5 years or that Canal+ subscribers have modified since 2020. And irony of the calendar: at first of November, Alex Berger revealed that The legendary workplace would have a comply with -up, targeted on relations with Africa. So, what use?

The Agency will enchantment to the Americans hanging on their televisions who’ve by no means seen The workplace. Either. For them, it’s going to undoubtedly be a shock. But, for us, French, it’s a advertising operation coupled with an editorial nonsense. In France, we go.

https://www.lepoint.fr/pop-culture/the-agency-fallait-il-vraiment-adapter-le-bureau-des-legendes-avec-michael-fassbender-et-richard-gere-22-05-2025-2590255_2920.php