Asterix and Obelix: Cleopatra mission arrives tonight on Netflix. The film joins the catalog of the platform, while The fight of the chiefs is on the verge of relaunching the adventures of the little mustachioed, the integration of one of the most cult films of French cinema promises to offer some beautiful TV evenings. However, the footage almost never saw the light of day. The fault of a complicated shooting, and to not frankly optimal conditions.
The scene where everything has changed
On February 7, 2001, the team ofAsterix and Obelix: Cleopatra mission is about to shoot one of the most spectacular scenes in the film: the discovery of the pyramid site by Numberbis, mobilizing 2,000 extras from the whole region of Ouarzazate. The day is crucial: in addition to being the most expensive in filming, it also represents a real logistical challenge. While rehearsals start under the Moroccan sun, the wind suddenly rises. In a few minutes, the sky disappears behind a cloud of sand. The 2,000 extras are looking to take shelter, while technicians try to save cameras and materials from the long weather.
The storm lasts almost eight hours, forcing the team to capitulate. Impossible to turneven impossible to stay outside. For the team, it’s the cold shower: you have to store everything, protect the equipment, and above all, disperse the extras in the surrounding villages. The most expensive day of filming is lost. Unable to postpone the next day: It will take more than a month To contact each figure, make them sign a new discharge, organize buses to bring them back to the set. A titanic logistical headache, which could have signed the death warrant of the project if the production had not kept good.
A month late
The sandstorm is not the only obstacle to which the team had to face on the set of Cleopatra mission. The ambient heat, flirting with 55 ° C under the spotlights and the sets. Despite these extreme conditions, the scene of the site is finally replayed, under more mild weather. The sequence is monumentaland becomes one of the most emblematic passages in the film.
Still, if the storm had lasted longer, if the production had failed to recall the extras, or if the budget had exploded because of the deadlines imposed by weather conditions, Asterix and Obelix: Cleopatra mission Could never have seen the light of day.
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