How ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ Shot for 160 Days in France and Launched a ‘Zombie School’ for Season 1 and 2 Before Heading to Spain
After 11 seasons, AMC took its iconic show “The Walking Dead” to France for a spinoff, “Daryl Dixon,” and spent 160 days filming season 1 and 2 across the country, from the Mont-Saint-Michel to the Louvre museum, shepherded by a pair of line producers, Raphael Benoliel (“Emily in Paris,””The Killer”) and Augustin de Belloy.
Speaking on a panel at the Deauville American Film Festival’s Industry Encounters event, Benoliel and de Belloy shared anecdotes on the shoot which marked AMC’s first time filming an entire series in Europe.
The U.S. network, which launched season 3 of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” on Monday and is prepping season 4, was initially thinking of coming to France to shoot a few exteriors.
“‘The Walking Dead’ is really a tentpole in the U.S., so AMC wanted to keep that momentum and elevate the show, give a new impulse to the franchise, so one day, an AMC exec thought, ‘How about Darryl Dixon under the Eiffel Tower?’ joked de Belloy.
The line producer, whose banner Left & Right handles physical production and VFX, said AMC knew from the get-go that they “wanted the story to be set in France, but they didn’t know whether or not they would shoot it in France.” They considered other options, including Ireland, but Benoliel and de Bellow managed to demonstrate to them that “artistically and financially, it made a lot of sense to stay in France, and even shoot the rest of the world here.” Indeed, an episode in season 2 takes place in Maine and Greenland, but it all filmed outside of Paris and in the Alps, respectively.
De Belloy pointed to recent examples of movies that filmed in France even though they’re set elsewhere, such as “Emilia Perez,” “The Substance” (taking place in Mexico and Los Angeles, respectively) and Natalie Portman’s next film “The Gallerist” (also starring Jenna Ortega) whose story takes place in Miami.
On top of the strong tax incentive which is a 40% rebate (30% and an additional 10% for movies with VFX), France is a hot destination thanks to its landmarks, including the Louvre museum where “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” also shot. “I took them to a tour at the Louvre and their first reaction was, ‘No way, we can’t do one of the scenes with zombies in the Louvre in front of the Mona Lisa!’ And I said, ‘Yes, it’s technically doable.’ And they were amazed and we did it,” said Benoliel, who recently wrapped filming season 5 of “Emily in Paris” in France and Italy as executive and line producer. He pointed out one of the key thing when reserving these iconic sites is planning, rather than the cost (which can be roughly €20,000 without security expenses). The Louvre, like Versailles, is booked up for a year at any time so it has to be reserved way in advanced, he said.
The bulk of “Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” shot in exteriors, and the remainder in studios, mostly at the Studios de Paris, where they reimagined places like the Moulin Rouge cabaret, among other places.
While AMC then took the series to Spain for season 3 and 4, they’ve kept some of the key crew, including the stunt coordinator, from France, and are still working with Benoliel and de Belloy on the post-production and VFX. As such, the production is still able to continue benefitting from the 40% French tax rebate.
De Belloy and Benoliel put together a crew that was “99% French” in order to “maximize the tax rebate” for AMC. “We had about 10 people coming from U.S., so the executive producers, the showrunner, David Zabel, the directors and Greg Nicotero (the award-winning makeup effects artist) who brought a few people with him, but the rest was French, and the Americans really enjoyed the experience of working with French cinematographers, production designers, costume designers, etc.,” Benoliel said, noting that Nicotero also had some fun working with the local make-up effects artists.
Alongside casting which was done by veteran casting director Juliette Menager (“Emily in Paris,” “Franklin”), there was also a “zombie school” on set which Nicotero launched and spearheaded.
Nicotero’s “method to find the ‘hero zombies,'” de Belloy said, was to bring together “eight people (dancers or contortionists) and train them for two days on how to move, behave, wear the makeup, and do some tests with them.”
Zombies were hired under a two-year long contract with different status. De Belloy explained there three different types of zombies fired for the show. “The hero zombies who spend two hours on the makeup chair every day, then the second layer which require half-an-hour to an hour of makeup, and the third layer, which is just wearing a mask.” In total, about “80 different zombies” worked on the two seasons that filmed in France.
But the French zombies didn’t make it to season 3, as Nicoreto launched a second zombie school in Spain. “It’s full of Spanish zombies now!” quips Benoliel.
The exec producer, who is also actively lobbying to strengthen the tax rebate to take into account above-the-line expenses, said the country can currently accommodate up to five big-sized productions simultaneously.
“At some point, we had ‘The New Look,’ and I was shooting ‘Emily,’ ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ and ‘Etoile’ at the same time, and I think we could have a fifth one and still have access to an A-list crew,” Benoliel said.
France doesn’t have Pinewood or Babelsberg, but it’s bound to expand its offer in the next few years. Over 50 sound stages are being built at the moment as part of a $110 million investment plan from the French government to beef up production infrastructure. One of the new backlot, called TSF Studios Paris, spreads out over 120 acres and reproduces the streets of Paris. In Northern France, meanwhile, an 119-acre former air has been acquired by French billionaire and Mediawan co-founder Xavier Niel through his holding and is being transformed into massive film studio.
The Deauville’s Industry Encounters event, which was organized by the festival’s new head Aude Hesbert with the backing of the National Film Board (CNC), also included panels with the executive producer and VFX supervisor of Coralie Fargeat’s Oscar-winning “The Substance,” and the intimacy coordinator Katherine O’Keefe, as well as the casting directors Antonia Dauphin and Nicolas Derouet, alongside a keynote from Joshua Astrachan, the producer of Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother” which partly filmed in France and won Venice’s Golden Lion.
The industry event also had a political dimension through the presence of Florence Portelli, who is the vice president for culture in the Paris region. Portelli made a fiery speech highlighting the importance of international shoots for the region which she argues is Europe’s “number one hub” for film creation and production, “in terms of days of shooting,” and “financial support to filmmakers with a budget of €24 million per year.”
Portelli also flagged the “challenging context” in the U.S. due to “high cost of production, the impact of the 2023 strikes, and now the pressure of tariffs” that she says “are pushing more and more American productions to seek opportunities abroad.” “Europe — and especially Paris Region — offers a very strong alternative,” she said
Besides “The Gallerist” with Portman, another upcoming U.S. movie that shot in France is “The Amateur” starring Rami Malek.
Speaking on a panel at the Deauville American Film Festival’s Industry Encounters event, Benoliel and de Belloy shared anecdotes on the shoot which marked AMC’s first time filming an entire series in Europe.
The U.S. network, which launched season 3 of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” on Monday and is prepping season 4, was initially thinking of coming to France to shoot a few exteriors.
“‘The Walking Dead’ is really a tentpole in the U.S., so AMC wanted to keep that momentum and elevate the show, give a new impulse to the franchise, so one day, an AMC exec thought, ‘How about Darryl Dixon under the Eiffel Tower?’ joked de Belloy.
The line producer, whose banner Left & Right handles physical production and VFX, said AMC knew from the get-go that they “wanted the story to be set in France, but they didn’t know whether or not they would shoot it in France.” They considered other options, including Ireland, but Benoliel and de Bellow managed to demonstrate to them that “artistically and financially, it made a lot of sense to stay in France, and even shoot the rest of the world here.” Indeed, an episode in season 2 takes place in Maine and Greenland, but it all filmed outside of Paris and in the Alps, respectively.
De Belloy pointed to recent examples of movies that filmed in France even though they’re set elsewhere, such as “Emilia Perez,” “The Substance” (taking place in Mexico and Los Angeles, respectively) and Natalie Portman’s next film “The Gallerist” (also starring Jenna Ortega) whose story takes place in Miami.
On top of the strong tax incentive which is a 40% rebate (30% and an additional 10% for movies with VFX), France is a hot destination thanks to its landmarks, including the Louvre museum where “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” also shot. “I took them to a tour at the Louvre and their first reaction was, ‘No way, we can’t do one of the scenes with zombies in the Louvre in front of the Mona Lisa!’ And I said, ‘Yes, it’s technically doable.’ And they were amazed and we did it,” said Benoliel, who recently wrapped filming season 5 of “Emily in Paris” in France and Italy as executive and line producer. He pointed out one of the key thing when reserving these iconic sites is planning, rather than the cost (which can be roughly €20,000 without security expenses). The Louvre, like Versailles, is booked up for a year at any time so it has to be reserved way in advanced, he said.
The bulk of “Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” shot in exteriors, and the remainder in studios, mostly at the Studios de Paris, where they reimagined places like the Moulin Rouge cabaret, among other places.
While AMC then took the series to Spain for season 3 and 4, they’ve kept some of the key crew, including the stunt coordinator, from France, and are still working with Benoliel and de Belloy on the post-production and VFX. As such, the production is still able to continue benefitting from the 40% French tax rebate.
De Belloy and Benoliel put together a crew that was “99% French” in order to “maximize the tax rebate” for AMC. “We had about 10 people coming from U.S., so the executive producers, the showrunner, David Zabel, the directors and Greg Nicotero (the award-winning makeup effects artist) who brought a few people with him, but the rest was French, and the Americans really enjoyed the experience of working with French cinematographers, production designers, costume designers, etc.,” Benoliel said, noting that Nicotero also had some fun working with the local make-up effects artists.
Alongside casting which was done by veteran casting director Juliette Menager (“Emily in Paris,” “Franklin”), there was also a “zombie school” on set which Nicotero launched and spearheaded.
Nicotero’s “method to find the ‘hero zombies,'” de Belloy said, was to bring together “eight people (dancers or contortionists) and train them for two days on how to move, behave, wear the makeup, and do some tests with them.”
Zombies were hired under a two-year long contract with different status. De Belloy explained there three different types of zombies fired for the show. “The hero zombies who spend two hours on the makeup chair every day, then the second layer which require half-an-hour to an hour of makeup, and the third layer, which is just wearing a mask.” In total, about “80 different zombies” worked on the two seasons that filmed in France.
But the French zombies didn’t make it to season 3, as Nicoreto launched a second zombie school in Spain. “It’s full of Spanish zombies now!” quips Benoliel.
The exec producer, who is also actively lobbying to strengthen the tax rebate to take into account above-the-line expenses, said the country can currently accommodate up to five big-sized productions simultaneously.
“At some point, we had ‘The New Look,’ and I was shooting ‘Emily,’ ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ and ‘Etoile’ at the same time, and I think we could have a fifth one and still have access to an A-list crew,” Benoliel said.
France doesn’t have Pinewood or Babelsberg, but it’s bound to expand its offer in the next few years. Over 50 sound stages are being built at the moment as part of a $110 million investment plan from the French government to beef up production infrastructure. One of the new backlot, called TSF Studios Paris, spreads out over 120 acres and reproduces the streets of Paris. In Northern France, meanwhile, an 119-acre former air has been acquired by French billionaire and Mediawan co-founder Xavier Niel through his holding and is being transformed into massive film studio.
The Deauville’s Industry Encounters event, which was organized by the festival’s new head Aude Hesbert with the backing of the National Film Board (CNC), also included panels with the executive producer and VFX supervisor of Coralie Fargeat’s Oscar-winning “The Substance,” and the intimacy coordinator Katherine O’Keefe, as well as the casting directors Antonia Dauphin and Nicolas Derouet, alongside a keynote from Joshua Astrachan, the producer of Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother” which partly filmed in France and won Venice’s Golden Lion.
The industry event also had a political dimension through the presence of Florence Portelli, who is the vice president for culture in the Paris region. Portelli made a fiery speech highlighting the importance of international shoots for the region which she argues is Europe’s “number one hub” for film creation and production, “in terms of days of shooting,” and “financial support to filmmakers with a budget of €24 million per year.”
Portelli also flagged the “challenging context” in the U.S. due to “high cost of production, the impact of the 2023 strikes, and now the pressure of tariffs” that she says “are pushing more and more American productions to seek opportunities abroad.” “Europe — and especially Paris Region — offers a very strong alternative,” she said
Besides “The Gallerist” with Portman, another upcoming U.S. movie that shot in France is “The Amateur” starring Rami Malek.