spoke to the show’s producer Nicolas Deprost, CEO of the French production outfit Wild Horses, and writer, Oscar winner“Lafayette” kicks off in the spring of 1777, when the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French aristocrat, sets sail from France for the New World, inspired by the spirit of the American Revolution and determined to hitch his fate to the fledgling cause.
The French producer is a self-described “historical geek” and co-creator of the forthcoming historical drama series “Lionheart,” about the 12th-century English King Richard of Lionheart, which is currently being developed with a studio partner. “The thing for me about Lafayette is that he represents all of us when we were young,” said Franzoni. “He’s a kid. He’s a teenager. His head is full of ideas. He’s been reading Rousseau. He’s crazy with ideas. And America happens. America doesn’t happen very often—a real people’s revolution just jumping out of the woodwork.”
Against that historical backdrop is the relationship between the orphaned Lafayette, who was just two years old when his father died fighting the English, and the childless Washington, who was searching for a son. The bond they forged was an especially poignant one for Deprost, who lost his own father a year ago. “It gave me a push to work on this father and son bond…and the way that it makes you evolve [and] builds you as a man,” he said.