HBO Acquires North American Television & Streaming Rights to LAETITIA

HBO has acquired the North American television and streaming rights to the six-episode French limited drama series LAETITIA from France tv distribution and Academy Award winning director of "Murder on a Sunday Morning," Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. The first French series ever to be selected for the Sundance Film Festival in 2019, the limited series debuts MONDAY, AUGUST 30 (10:00-10:50 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max. Following the disappearance of eighteen-year-old "Laetitia" (Sophie Breyer) and the repercussions that follow her twin sister "Jessica" (Marie Colomb), the series is based on the true events that shook France in 2011, and the best-selling book by Ivan Jablonka, "Laëtitia ou la fin des hommes" (Laetitia or the end of men") published by Editions du Seuil, 2016.

The lead cast includes Sophie Breyer ("Raw") as Laetitia, Marie Colomb ("Sunshine State of Mind") as Jessica, Yannick Choirat ("Victor Hugo," "Last Love") as Detective Frantz Touchais, Sam Karmann as Gilles Patron ("True Enough"), Alix Poisson ('The Returned," "The Collection") as Béatrice Prieur, Kévin Azaïs ("A Taste of Ink," "Love at First Sight") as Franck, Noam Morgensztern ("Just Love!") as Tony Meilhon, Clotilde Mollet ("The Intouchables") as Michelle Patron, Cyril Descours ("Paris, je t'aime") as Judge Martinot, and Guillaume Marquet ("Love Crime") as Loïc Nallet.

Based on true events, LAETITIA chronicles the disappearance of a teenage girl in western France. Left to reconstruct the teenager's final hours for answers, investigators (led by Yannick Choirat) begin to uncover deeply troubling details of Laetitia's (Sophie Breyer) and her twin sister Jessica's (Marie Colomb) upbringing. As they search to uncover the details behind her final days, this highly polarizing case casts a sharp eye on France's legal system, police force, social services and how a single act of violence can impact an entire country.

"Behind Laetitia's tragic murder, there was an unknown world, an abusive social environment with shattered individual destinies," says writer and director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. "This is a true story and it starts with classic police work, an investigation about the disappearance of an eighteen year old girl. To me it very quickly became an investigation about the life of that young woman which is much more fascinating and something for which I feel a great deal of responsibility and humility in being able to tell. We have to remember Laetitia, not the way she died, but the way she lived."

LAETITIA is adapted from Ivan Jablonka's book published by Editions du Seuil 2016; written by Antoine Lacomblez & written and directed by Academy Award winning director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade; executive produced by Jean Labib (CPB Films); produced by Judith Louis and Christophe Louis (L'lle Clavel); co-produced by France Télévisions, Be-Films/ RTBF and Pictanovo. Distributed by France tv distribution.

LAETITIA will be available to stream featured on HBO Max and can be found on its International Genre page alongside a curated selection of programming from around the world. It is the latest international program made available to HBO's U.S. subscribers and joins HBO Europe's "30 Coins," "Beartown," "The Investigation," and "Patria"; Max Originals "Valley of Tears" and "Gomorrah"; and classics from the HBO Max library including "City of God," "Cinema Paradiso," and "Life is Beautiful."

Watch the trailer here: