"Changing Rooms"
APC Studios Group has secured a deal with Canadian Sphère Média to adapt the cult France Télévisions’ series "Changing Rooms", which has just celebrated its 13th season in Quebec for AMI-télé and Radio-Canada. Filming is set to start in December 2023, APC handles worldwide distribution rights for the format and original series.
Created by Adda Abdelli and Fabrice Chanut, "Changing Rooms" addresses disability with humor and an offbeat style. The series, produced by Philippe Braunstein (Avalon) and Sophie Deloche (Astharté & Cie), was broadcast on France 2 in primetime, rebroadcast on TV5Monde, and extremely popular on social media. Running for twelve years, the serie soffered its audiences a family environment in which disability was included, self-deprecation welcome, and delightful social satire thrown in all directions. The original series began broadcasting recently on MHZ SVOD service in the United States.
In "Changing Rooms" (600x3’), Romy and Orson, two Parasport swimmers, take audience into the changing rooms of the swimming pool where they train, but also into their vision of the world full of humor and derision. Emmanuelle Guilbart and Laurent Boissel, Joint-CEOs and Co-Founders at APC, said: “We are delighted to take the unique concept of 'Changing Rooms' on a new journey. We are confident the show’s universal message of inclusion, and its tone that is both caring and hilariously cheeky, will delight audiences in Quebec and new audiences around the world.”
Producers Philippe Braunstein (Les Films d’Avalon) and Sophie Deloche (Astharte) said: “Depending on the country and the moment, the presence of disabled people in the media differs completely. When 'Changing Rooms' started in France in 2011, it was close to zero: there was Josephine, Guardian Angel… and that’s it. We blissfully accompanied disabled athletes, cast disabled actors, and addressed disabled themes. But in doing so we also discovered the talent – all handicaps aside, of a formidable team of authors, as gifted at making people laugh as at moving people. We are proud that this combination is also proving to be a winner on the other side of the Atlantic, with our Quebec cousins whose Changing Rooms we can’t wait to discover.”
Renaud Chassé, Executive Producer at Sphère Média, added “It’s a real human adventure, a truly exciting project to adapt this successful French series to Quebec. With its fair but also ironic look at daily life and society, we are convinced that Changing Rooms will appeal to the Quebec public.”