The French series Stealthy It was supposed to have its world premiere on Apple TV on December 2, but two weeks later all of its promotional content disappeared from the Internet as if it had never been filmed, and the launch was canceled without a new date. The cancellation comes after the production company Gaumont launched an investigation to establish whether the fiction is a never-recognized plagiarism, as confirmed by the famous French distributor Variety.
The series stars important names in the French industry such as Benoît Magimel, winner of the best actor award at Cannes for The pianist and three-time César winner, and Mélanie Laurent, two-time César winner. Its synopsis described it as a thriller which follows Franck (Magimel), who one Sunday hunting with his friends, comes across another group who begins to chase them without any explanation. When one of his companions is shot, Franck’s friends counterattack and manage to shoot down one of their rivals. After this event, the protagonist tries to return to his normal life with his wife Krystel (Laurent), but in the following days he begins to feel that he and his friends are being watched and persecuted for revenge.
The story of plagiarism, discovered by the French journalist Clement Garin, highlighted that the screenwriter Cedric Anger was inspired by the novel shootwritten by the American Douglas Fairbairn in 1973 and adapted to the cinema in 1976 as I shootbut he never recognized him. Anger explained in his text that Apple not only canceled the premiere and removed all trailers and press releases, as well as banning those involved from talking about the project, but is also thinking, together with Gaumont (who also removed the references from his website), of filing a lawsuit against Garin for production costs.
“The broadcast has been temporarily postponed and we are conducting a thorough investigation into production-related issues. We take intellectual property issues very seriously,” Gaumont explained in his statement to the magazine on Monday. Variety. Fairbairn died in 1997, so a paternity agreement would be in the hands of his heirs.
Last September, Apple TV had already postponed the series premiere The wise one with Jessica Chastain, for its similarities to what happened around the murder of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, which the actress openly criticized. For now, that thriller It also doesn’t have a new release date.
