‘Jim Queen’ Flexes A Sweaty New Teaser Following Its Raucous Cannes Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

Gay men and gym queens, beware. When Heterosis, a mysterious virus that turns gay men straight, sweeps through the Parisian gay scene, Jim, the six-packed sovereign of the gym queens, goes from Pride royalty to social outcast. In order to restore his status and return to his true self, Jim must race to find a cure before the disease erases the community that once worshiped him. His only support? Lucien, a freshly out twink with more heart than abs. Things are about to get hairy.

Presented four years ago at Cartoon Movie as a concept, Jim Queen came back to the Bordeaux-based event with a sweaty, glittery bang this year, where producers, investors, and distributors alike were treated to a 14-minute sneak preview of the feature from directors Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané, powered by the unconventional Bobbypills animation studio.

There, Cartoon Brew met with Arthur Delabays, head of development and producer at Bobbypills Paris. In March, he was still teasing a big festival premiere. Now that the film has made its world premiere in Cannes’ Midnight Screenings section, we look back on the making of this sparkly French achievement, along with an exclusive teaser.

“Jim Queen was born straight out of the Parisian gay clubbing scene,” Delabays said ahead of the Cartoon Movie preview. “Marco Nguyen, who had been working in animation for a long time, came to us with a project inspired by his other life, one where he throws giant gay-friendly afterworks in Paris.”

With thousands gathering every month, these events inspired Nguyen and brought him to the studio with this wild concept. Jim Queen struck a chord with David Alric, the founder of Bobbypills, and his team.

“Marco showed us a short promo clip that he had produced for the parties, and everything was already there. Rhythm, music, affectionate spoofing of the gay community, and a distinctive animation style that convinced us immediately of the project’s potential. Playing with heterosexual stereotypes as well as heteronormativity, while also building strong characters and bringing queer adult animation to the forefront, was very, very exciting.”

To muscle up this pitch, which started as a platform-oriented series and evolved into an inclusive, flamboyant 85-minute 2D comedy for young adults and adults, Bobbypills and adult animation specialists built a fantastic team of four to carry out their first feature.

Marco Nguyen and Simon Balteaux, respectively the director and scriptwriter who came up with Jim Queen, were paired with in-house talents Nicolas Athané and Brice Chevillard (Mr. Flap, Startup Heroes, Dead Cells: Immortalis).

“It happens that Mr. Flap was Marco’s favorite Bobbypills series, so the match was quickly made between the two duos. Brice, who joined as co-writer, brought continuity and energy to the project throughout the development phases. Eventually, he voiced four or five characters in the film. He’s that kind of crazy, so it felt natural for him to bring this part of his Bobbypills experience to the film.”

The mix results in a shiny, heartfelt feature that, according to Delabays, is the product of a bold concept powered by Bobbypills’ signature fast-paced comedic touch, which is maximized during the storyboard and animatic development process.

“It has become sort of our DNA, and we’re trying to replicate this writing procedure more and more in our projects. Jim Queen temp dialogue was recorded and refined on Skype during COVID, with the writers performing their own lines. It was incredibly funny. We quickly reached a very strong dialogue cut, and it helped us obtain the CNC’s ‘avance sur recettes,’ a unique achievement for an adult animated comedy.”

A French-Belgian coproduction between Bobbypills and Belgian production powerhouse UMedia, Jim Queen was animated by Bobbypills between Paris and Bordeaux, with the help of La Réunion-based Gao Shan Pictures and Studio Waooh! in Belgium. It was a first-time experience for Bobbypills, which had always produced its own content before this project.

“All our partner studios did an awesome job. To be honest, we were a bit scared because it was our very first co-production, and we had heard nightmarish stories about co-productions going wrong. But our teams really locked the animatic, art direction, and layout before handing everything over to our two animation partners, and they did a bang-up job.”

According to Delabays, both Gao Shan and Waooh! welcomed this adult-driven animated project as a true blessing and poured their souls into the film.

“We really felt how much it was a breath of fresh air for those young audience-driven studios, and communication was exceptionally smooth during the whole process. It was a true pleasure.”

Pleasure is also at the heart of the Jim Queen experience. Raunchy comedy meets catchy clubbing tunes widely associated with gay communities across the globe. Nguyen and his team pushed themselves further and found clever ways to integrate songs by Céline Dion and Jean-Jacques Goldman into the film without skyrocketing the budget. They also managed to secure a clubbing hit for the ending, no spoilers, which will definitely have audiences shaking their own sculpted buttocks.

For the soundtrack, Bobbypills worked with Mathieu Rosenzweig and Benjamin Nakache, aka Kirozen.

“They did an amazing job matching our changing atmospheres, from clubbing and gyms to a more fantasy-like soundscape when our characters wander through the Louvre,” added Delabays. “Through sound, we go from a Berghain-like ambiance to a mystical quest setting, and we’re so thankful to Kirozen for crafting such an amazing score.”

Yet with all this positive energy and good vibes, it is not all glitter and merriment in the land of Jim Queen. Even with strong partnerships, deep involvement from all teams, and an overwhelmingly successful crowdfunding campaign, Bobbypills shared at Cartoon Movie that it had not yet secured a French broadcaster and that the studio was putting more than 30% of the budget up itself.

It’s a bold, high-risk gamble, but also a true testament to the team’s belief in the project. To quote co-director Marco Nguyen: “In a world that is becoming harder and more divided, a film that makes you laugh at yourself and love the person next to you feels, to me, like something worth making.”

Following its Cannes premiere, Jim Queen will hit French theaters on June 17.

International sales for the increasingly buzzy title are handled by Global Constellation, a match made at Cartoon Movie four years ago. It’s a testament to the key role Cartoon events play in the European market and in launching titles for Cannes. Back in 2022, another film was presented alongside Jim Queen and many others at Cartoon Movie, Gints Zilbalodis’s Latvian Oscar winner, Flow.