As many of you may have seen, Deadline reported that the fourth season of The White Lotus will take place in France—big news for those who enjoyed the armchair travel and rich-people-on-their-worst-behavior aspects of Emily in Paris, but are looking for something a bit more top shelf. If you’re wondering why we didn’t write about it last week, it’s because we actually put together an entire piece hypothesizing about possible France locations, plot ideas, and our dream cast for a French White Lotus season, all the way back in April. Since no more details have been shared thus far, you’ll just have to wait for Mike White to spill the tea… though there is one hotel that is a likely contender for this season’s backdrop (which happens to have also gotten some screen time on Emily).
I’ve written many times before about the recent uptick in bilingual or English-language TV shows and movies filmed on location in France: Drops of God, Étoile, the recent Bonjour Tristesse remake. There are also more high budget French-language shows being heavily promoted by streamers, which largely dates back to the opening of Netflix’s Paris office in 2020. (Part of their agreement with the French government was that, to continue operations, a large percentage of their revenue had to be devoted to producing domestic French content.)
For the better part of a century American film crews have flocked to France to take advantage of its iconic cityscapes, creating an entire culture of “set jetting” in Paris and other popular destinations. However, what has changed more recently is that a lot of the movies being shot in France today aren’t intended to look like it at all. Both the English-language body horror The Substance and the Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez were shot in France, though they were set, respectively, in LA and Mexico City. TV shows like Prime Target and Vanished filmed scenes in the South of France that were meant to stand in for Middle Eastern locations like Jordan and Iraq. This tactic appears to be particularly advantageous to productions with a variety of international locations, including France, as they can utilize the country’s easily-identifiable architecture, then switch to more nondescript countryside filming locations, or one of France’s many sound stages.
Tax breaks are a major incentive here—a whopping 30% of expenses, which can be bumped up to 40% if visual effects are also done in France and exceed €2 million. In particular, a number of recent animated films have taken advantage of this VFX bonus, including multiple films in the Despicable Me franchise, The Super Mario Bros. 2, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. France is also investing in the construction of numerous new studios and sound stages, as part of the France 2030 infrastructure bill.
In addition, the strong foundations of France’s film industry allow production companies to work efficiently within the country, even with a much smaller crew. As French film crews have strict weekly caps on working hours, unexpected overtime costs can be avoided, and many American directors who have filmed there report overall positive experiences, with crew members who are genuinely excited to be working on these projects. All in all, you’re probably going to be seeing a lot more American and international films shot or produced in France, whether those are jet-setting action movies, indie darlings, or blockbuster animated films. The White Lotus is just hopping on the bandwagon.
