Paddington meets Astérix as Canal+ and Hachette forge book-to-screen alliance

French broadcaster Canal+ and publishing giant Hachette Livre are joining forces to leverage Hachette's extensive literary catalogue for premium screen adaptations, they said on Tuesday.

The new joint venture, named ON SCREEN, brings the maker of Paddington and the publisher of Astérix under a single roof dedicated to turning pages into pixels.

The venture will give Canal+ privileged access to the world's third-largest publishing group's catalogue of more than 100,000 titles, spanning fiction, children's and young adult books, and illustrated works published in a dozen languages.

Hachette owns the rights to Astérix, one of the world's best-selling comic book series with more than 370 million copies sold and its published authors include James Patterson, Stephenie Meyer and Michael Connelly.

Canal+'s films business, StudioCanal, has meanwhile built Paddington into one of cinema's most beloved franchises, a model it now hopes to replicate at scale.

The market rationale is compelling: book adaptations represent around 40 per cent of the top 100 global box office while accounting for less than 10 per cent of total film production, the companies said.

"This opens a clear opportunity to rethink how literary IP is brought to screen, and to build a sustained pipeline of premium adaptations with global reach," they added.

StudioCanal has already laid the groundwork, having launched Stories, a dedicated literary adaptation label, in 2024.

Both companies were spun off from media conglomerate Vivendi in December 2024, with Canal+ listed in London and Hachette on Euronext Growth Paris.

Despite their separation, France's Bolloré family remains a major shareholder of both, holding around 30 per cent in each company.