After Les Combattantes, TF1 and Netflix join forces for a series on the Second World War with Laetitia Casta

An adaptation of the book The Corneille Network by Ken Follett.

A new large-scale historical fresco is being prepared in French creation.

TF1 and Netflix are developing Le Réseau Corneille, adaptation of the novel by Ken Follett (Jackdaws), with Laetitia Casta in the lead.

This six-episode event series was created and co-written by Camille Treiner (Les Combattantes). It is produced by Thomas Saignes and Raphaël Rocher for Empreinte Digitale, in collaboration with Stéphanie Germain Productions.

The plot takes place in May 1944, a few days before the Landings. Laetitia Casta plays Élisabeth “Betty” Clairet, a widowed mother responsible for putting together an improbable commando made up of five civilian women. Their mission: infiltrate an impregnable castle housing a German communications nerve center and destroy it before the Allies arrive in Normandy. With just a week to prepare, they will have to cross occupied territory, adopt false identities and sneak into the fortress undercover, posing as maintenance personnel, in order to sabotage the underground network.

The series marks the reunion between TF1, Netflix and Camille Treiner, after Les Combattantes, already focused on female figures in times of war.

The screenplay is co-written with Matthieu Missoffe (Syndrome E) and Chloé Marçais (Les Bracelets rouge), while the direction is handled by Mona Bauer (Little Girl Blue).

“Like many of Ken Follett’s historical novels, this one is inspired by a real episode, revisited in a fictionalized way,” explains Thomas Saignes. “It’s the story of five ordinary civilian women whose lives are turned upside down. What begins as helping a wounded British soldier quickly becomes much bigger: they have no choice but to become resistance fighters themselves.”

Filming began at the beginning of May and will continue until the end of July, between Paris, Île-de-France, Val-d’Oise and Normandy, including castle settings and a careful period reconstruction.

No release date yet.