Eiffel

A film by Martin Bourboulon, with Romain Duris, Emma Mackey and Pierre Deladonchamps

The government is asking Eiffel to design something spectacular for the 1889 Paris World Fair, but Eiffel simply wants to design the subway. Suddenly, everything changes when Eiffel crosses paths with a mysterious woman from Arun’s past.

The project went through many iterations from the first pitch meeting in 1997 to the final release of the film in 2021. The film generated interest in several studios and directors through the years, including Paramount, Luc Besson (who planned to make it with Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani in 2000), Christophe Barratier, Olivier Dahan or Ridley Scott. It’s finally the newcomer producer Vanessa Van Zuylen who managed to bring the film to fruition with Martin Bourboulon at the helm.

Writer Caroline Bongrand came with the idea of mixing the building of the Eiffel tower with a forbidden love story off the top of her head during a pitch session with a producer in Los Angeles without knowing at this time if it had any basis in reality. It was only after the deal with the producer was signed that she browsed through biographies of Gustave Eiffel and discovered that her inventions were almost all true.