Decades ago, Luc Besson had a dream: to build a world-standard studio complex in Paris, comparable to British pine wood. He wanted to attract iconic international shoots and block all locations in France from Hollywood filming, before moving to London or back to the United States to shoot the interior.

Besson opened La Cité du Cinéma in 2012, with 102,000 square feet of Les Studios de Paris, the largest sound stage complex in the Paris region, with a stunning cathedral-style hall.

On Friday, variety Cannes’ Global Dialogue Summit, Brigitte Segal, Brigitte Segal, Les Studios de Paris head and French line producer Doyen’s John Bernard pandemic and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Bernard recalled that when he was doing business in France, no American studio asked about the French shooting studio’s work. The pandemic proves a game-changer. The production line produced by Bernard, Apple TV+'s "new look" will initially be shot in Paris and then moved to Budapest for studio work.

"Cowved suddenly changed the way the movie had to be made. It changed the way you could move from one country to the country and have multiple hubs because you had to go through at least one week to ten days of quarantine staff and the cast between each place," Bernard recalls. "Your production designer could potentially lose the entire week of preparation because of his time traveling between Budapest and Paris."

So Apple TV+ settled in Paris to shoot "new look". “We not only proved the way we shot, but also the budget we summed up together, and in fact, it’s more efficient and cheaper to stay in one place,” Bernard said.

Les Studios de Paris is the largest and latest dedicated studio in France with nine sound stages, workshops and woodworking mills, camera rental and sound companies, and has hosted Pablo Larrain's "Jackie", by Netflix's Netflix Hit the Walking of Walking of Walking dead dead diex dix. However, the Olympics proved another turning point. The entire Cite du Cinéma was taken over for 10 months to house part of the Olympic village, the nave of the restaurant, which was trained by Paris de Paris Soundages. At first, when the Olympic Committee explained their plans, Siegel said she was “depressed.”

But the 10-month hiatus allowed her to think about how to take the studio to the next level, thus facilitating their merger as a hub, one-stop large international shoot.

“The Olympics made me think the studio needed to be a place where they could put their camp on our ground, store their trucks on site, guard the dogs’ scene, and shoot at night in Paris, come back, pick up the equipment and go out again,” she said.

To this end, Segal is creating a 30,000-square-foot base camp that can accommodate three large works at a time, Segal said. The Olympics are five minutes from the studio. Sigal plans to conduct multi-story parking facilities and pre-assembly workshops.

The tax discounts made by France on international production have already provided a benchmark return of 30% for the qualified expenses incurred by France. VFX spends over €2 million (US$2.2 million), not only on VFX, but all spending triggered a 10% rebate.

"If there is production of any scale, you'll definitely get a 10% bonus with a minimum $2.2 million price of VFX. So suddenly, all of your spending can be up to 40%."

He pointed out that the cost of American crew members does not count as a return, which is a huge motivation for crew members in France. France’s single hub model can only work if the crew’s quality proof is only the quality of a large shot in France. Segar and Bernard believe that this is definitely the case.

"It's a key element to getting into the studio. You have to be able to build a scene that looks great. You have to make patinas, painters and sculptors in an efficient and cost-effective way," Bernard said.