Vincent Cassel to Headline Netflix's ‘Quasimodo’

In America, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been co-opted by the Walt Disney Company, which adapted Victor Hugo's enormous tome-sized novel into one of its standard-issue animated musicals in the mid-1990s. (One that has not yet been chosen for a live-action remake, small mercies.) However, the Disney Princessing of Esmarelda aside, outside of the U.S., the story is still mainly viewed on par with Les Misérables, a timeless classic from one of France's greatest writers, based on real history and therefore accorded a higher level of respect. Netflix is now about to put some of that respect back on Hugo's name with its new film, Quasimodo.

This is an interesting move by the streaming service, which has struggled to make inroads in France, particularly on the movie side. The French Film Industry (rightly) recognized that the company's ultimate aim is to undermine the theatrical experience, and had lawmakers there saddling Netflix with insanely long exclusivity periods before anything could stream on it.

However, with the recent deal with Canal+, Netflix is about to expand its French language offerings to match the current levels of Spanish and Korean shows. Many of those shows will be African-produced instead of European, but it's still an opportunity for Netflix, which is far more global than it once was, to make a second first impression on French subscribers. And there's no better way to start than with a film that retells Hugo's famous novel, focusing on the real-life man who inspired it: Quasimodo, played by the Internationally Renowned French star Vincent Cassel (Liaison).