Nearly 30 years after the release of "La Haine", the hit French film is returning in the unlikely form of a stage musical. It's scheduled to make its debut in Paris in the autumn of 2024.
The film's writer-director, Mathieu Kassovitz, is behind the adaptation, which is two years in the making.
Released in 1995, "La Haine" (Hate) won best director at the Cannes Film Festival when Kassovitz was just 27. It made a star of actor Vincent Cassel, who played one of a trio of friends in a poor neighbourhood outside Paris engulfed by riots over police violence.
Around 3,000 people auditioned for the three main roles in the stage version.
"My PR people don't want me to call it a musical because it's a bit corny," Kassovitz told French news agency AFP.
"It's more modern than a classic musical. Hip-hop allows for a more natural approach; it makes sense to have a musical exchange that way."
Trailer for 'La Haine' by French director Matthieu Kassovitz:
The stage show will feature some 30 dancers and around 15 original songs created for the occasion by a dozen artists.
Kassovitz promises interaction with "screens that are sets, sets that move, a mix of technology and live performance".
He told AFP: "We're trying to put the spectator in the place of the camera, to make it immersive."
Kassovitz says he wants the stage show to recreate the "emotion, laughter and rhythm" of the three friends at the centre of the film, the qualities that made it so popular despite its hard-hitting subject.
'Nothing has changed'
Production was already well under way when 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk was killed in June by a police officer during a traffic stop outside Paris, sparking nationwide protests.
Kassovitz said Merzouk's death was different to the events of the film, "but for 30 years I have been called up every month to comment on some blunder".
"These images remind everyone that it never stopped; that's why we have this poster," he said, pointing to the slogan of the play that reads: "Hate, so far nothing has changed."
The show will be staged at La Seine Musicale theatre near Paris from October 2024. Online booking opened a year in advance, on 20 October.
(with AFP)
