Gaumont Teams With ‘Black Box’ Director on AI-Themed Thriller ‘The Residence’ Starring Cecile de France, Lars Mikkelsen, Mylene Farmer (EXCLUSIVE)

Following a pair of box office hits “Black Box” and “A Perfect Man,” hot French filmmaker Yann Gozlan is now directing Cécile de France (“The Young Pope”), Lars Mikkelsen (“House of Cards”) and French music icon Mylène Farmer in “The Residence,” a tense psychological thriller revolving around AI.

Gaumont is co-producing and handling international sales on the high-concept movie whose first still is being unveiled by Variety. Gaumont’s EVP of international sales and distribution Alexis Cassanet and his team will be teasing the buzzy French project to buyers at the AFM.

Set in a near future, “The Residence” follows Clarissa (De France), a novelist with writer’s block who joins a prestigious, state-of-the-art artist residency where she’s been assigned an AI assistant named Dalloway (Farmer). The latter quickly becomes more than a simple assistant and turns into a true confidante for Clarissa. Feeling unsettled by Dalloway’s increasingly intrusive presence, Clarissa is warned by Mathias, a whistleblower artist who tells her about the true motives behind the residency and the tech company funding it. Clarissa begins to suspect that this seemingly perfect situation is in fact a meticulously crafted trap.

“The Residence” is produced by Nicolas Altmayer and Éric Altmayer’s Mandarin & Compagnie, the leading French outfit behind Francois Ozon’s movies such as “By The Grace of God,” and “Monsieur Aznavour” starring Tahar Rahim.

Currently in post, the movie marks Gozlan’s follow up to “Black Box,” a flight-themed French thriller which grossed $9.4 million from 1.2 million tickets sold at the French box office. Pierre Niney stars in the film as a skilled black box analyst investigating the deadly crash of a brand new aircraft. Gozlan’s feature debut, “A Perfect Man,” which also starred Niney, was also successful in theaters and sold around the world.

“In ‘The Residence,’ Yann Gozlan proves once again that he’s an expert in creating gripping French thrillers with timely themes,” says Cassanet. “Here, he’s tackling the newsy topic of AI’s impact on artists, movies and literature, and he’s approaching it in a way that’s once again both modern and entertaining, and with a cast that’s very appealing,” he continued.

Gaumont is planning to release the movie in France during the third quarter of 2025. The company’s AFM slate also includes “High in the Clouds,” the long-awaited feature adaptation of Paul McCartney’s children’s adventure novel; and Olivier Assayas’ “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” a political thriller starring Paul Dano, Alicia VikanderJude Law, Zach Galifianakis and Tom Sturridge, based on Giuliano da Empoli’s bestseller by the same name.