"The Lost Tombs of Notre-Dame"
French producer ZED has secured a production deal with the PBS science series NOVA for the documentary film "The Lost Tombs of Notre-Dame", to mark the re-opening of the world-famous cathedral in December. With exclusive access to the cathedral excavation site, "The Lost Tombs of Notre-Dame" (52', 4K, directed by Florence Tran, produced by Marion Papillon and Academy Award Winner Christine Le Goff) is a deep dive into an exceptional scientific and archaeological adventure that promises to throw fresh light on the history of Notre-Dame.
The documentary will broadcast on ARTE France on November 30, as part of a special evening dedicated to the monument, ahead of its re-opening on December 7 and 8. NOVA's version of the film will air December 18 on PBS in the U.S. and will be available for streaming at pbs.org/nova, NOVA on YouTube and the PBS app.
Produced for ARTE France and with NOVA / GBH for PBS, with the participation of Inrap and CNRS Images, the film has also been pre-sold to TV5 Québec-Canada, Planète+, Česká Televize, Foxtel, RTBF and Mediaset.
ZED’s President Manuel Catteau said: “This new agreement on the American market testifies to our teams’ ability to raise productions to the highest editorial and artistic level, and to meet the demands of a partner as prodigious as NOVA / GBH for PBS.”
“We are thrilled to be working with ZED to bring this incredible international story to audiences in the US,” said NOVA Co-Executive Producer Chris Schmidt. “It’s a privilege to be able to take viewers inside this riveting forensic mystery – buried for centuries underneath the Notre-Dame cathedral.”
“Thanks to the work of ZED’s teams, this documentary perfectly represents the ambition that ARTE cultivates for its audiences, and in particular for its platform: great stories about humanity’s heritage through unprecedented access, highlighting the cutting-edge research of experts and supported by very high production value,” declared Head of the Specialist Factual and Natural History Unit of ARTE France Hélène Ganichaud.