[viv]

Blimey, Roy goes international (sort of)! Roy is to appear in French film Death Instinct, the follow-up to Public Enemy No. 1, a series of two films about French criminal Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel, the baddie in Ocean's Twelve).
Roy will play Jean-Paul Mercier, Mesrine's faithfull accomplice in Quebec. It will be shot partly in Quebec (where they robbed banks, killed 2 game wardens and escaped from prison in the early '70s), and Roy will also film some scenes in France.

Gérard Depardieu is also in the cast (playing Mesrine's mentor), as are fellow Quebeckers Gilbert Sicotte (Cap Tourmente) and Christine Beaulieu. The director is currently in Montreal completing the Quebec casting.

The 2 films are being shot simultaneously, beginning in May in France, and moving to Quebec in August/September.

Director: Jean-François Richet
Producer: Français Thomas Langmann
Co-Producer : André Rouleau, Remstar
Budget: "very, very big" according to André Rouleau

Some French documentary footage about Mesrine (spoilers, naturally!)
Part 1 and Part 2

[Isolde]

Blimey

Blimey is right - (my expression: 'bl**dy h*ll........)
Will that man have time for anything else???

Any comments, Sylvia?

[steiny]

Roy is only to appear in the second film, Death Instinct?

[viv]

Roy is only to appear in the second film, Death Instinct?

So it would appear, presumably because part ii deals with the latter part of his career. Quite a bit about Mesrine in Wikipedia.

[steiny]

Thanks, Viv.
BTW, sometimes I just come on the board to stare at your avatar. I love that pic.

[Karen K]

Steiny, I think we need to take our stress relief however and wherever we can. I can live with your choice!

I'll have to hop over to the info, Viv, as soon as I can. Sounds quite interesting and I have no idea who this is.

[steiny]

My, my! M. Mesrine was a very busy fellow, wasn't he.

[viv]

Coincidentally, The Birthday Girl (Nicole Kidman) was on our TV tonight. And the psycho was .... Vincent Cassel.

[Mary]

Thanks for the great intel Viv! Sounds like another challenging character for our guy to play. (When will he ever find the time to fit on all these movies!? ) I'll have to finish reading later, but it looks like it may have overtones of Monica La Mitraille. Was that Jean Paul Belmondo I saw in some of those clips?! (one of my favorites going way back!) What a coincidence about seeing Vincent Cassell on TV Viv!

I agree, steiny, Viv's avatar is an all time fav of mine too. But then again.........those pics of nose, feet & ears weren't bad either!

[Karen K]

Are there any bad parts of Roy???

I certainly am not able to follow the videos well but I certainly understood what his fate was. This should be an interesting part for Roy. I did not watch that much of the videos but is the real guy Roy is playing in there? There was some guy in a court room (it looked like) with a mustache and beard but I haven't the foggiest who that was (2nd video).

[SusanJ]

Thank you very much for that enlightening posting Miss Jan!!

[Karen K]

Miss Jan, thank you for posting this here. I finally had a chance to read it. Very interesting. Even though Roy won't have the lead, we all know he will be excellent as Mercier.

[Shirleym]

The above would be me. I seem to have become unlogged somewhere along the way...

[Mary]

Thanks Miss Jan for the great details!
I agree Babe, I always like to see Roy play the lead too especially in a part like this. AND, we get to see MORE of him! But...........somehow I think his secondary character will be anything BUT second place knowing how he approaches his craft. (always thought Johnny Depp had this quality too - Pirates is a great example!)
And, of course, Roy's part in US of Albert. What a character!

Shirl, I agree with you about the glorification of these types of characters to a certain extent too, but I still love to see Roy play such a variety of parts! (Well, to a certain extent....... )

Here's a couple more articles:
From JDQ: http://cgi.ebay.com/...15352&rd=1&rd=1


From La Presse:
http://www.cyberpres...1/1043/CPARTS01

Not sure if any of these are a repetition of the JDM article, but I thought I'd post them just in case there's a bit more intel. Gotta get it all, you know!

[steiny]

Interesting that you mention Bonnie and Clyde, Shirley, as Mesrine's demise sounds very much like theirs. I agree that folks like these shouldn't be made to seem heroic. They are, after all, outlaws.
I can see how he appealed to the guy-on-the-street. He was certainly bold and clever. For those who see the authorities as "The Man" (NOT Da Man! but...ya' know? ) , I'm sure he was viewed as a hero of sorts.
I am curious about the third man who was supposed to have escaped on 8th May from La Sante. At the beginning it said Mesrine and two others escaped, but then at the end of the paragraph it only mentions Mesrine and Besse as the "only two men who ever escaped from La Sante." Just curious; loose ends just bother me, somtimes.