Hot Picks: Air Cocaine

A year after StudioCanal announced it would start selling unscripted programming for the first time, its second factual title takes off.

True-crime series Air Cocaine tells the story of a Falcon 50 private jet that was found with drugs on board, and the subsequent investigation across multiple countries, combining never-before-seen footage, interviews and dramatisation based on first-hand accounts and official documents.

The story opens in 2013, when a flight from the Dominican Republic to Saint-Tropez is intercepted by the Dominican authorities with 700kg of cocaine on board, leading to the arrest of the two French pilots and nearly 50 civilians.

The case was still under investigation at the time of production, but the series covers the initial involvement of the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the arrests made across the Dominican Republic and France, and the shocking escape of the pilots, which led to a dramatic showdown in Egypt.

The combination of “ambitiously high production values” and “great storytelling” sets this entry apart, says Alix Lebrat, chief operating officer of TV series at distributor StudioCanal.

“It is pretty amazing that the starting point is a private plane carrying 700kg of cocaine, and two pilots saying they know nothing about it. The story is captivating, bold and unique,” she says.

The producers secured unprecedented access to the key players, including the pilots and the Dominican authorities, and travelled to the Dominican Republic to attend court sessions.

“It feels globally relevant because there are interviews with the authorities of the Dominican Republic in Spanish and with the pilots and their lawyers in French,” says Lebrat. “We are especially interested in stories with international appeal.”

It is for this reason that she believes the show fits “perfectly” into streamers’ slates and traditional broadcasters’ programming.

She also cites the production teams’ “great track record”, with producers including Memento’s Thierry Marro, who is also behind North Korean nuclear doc All The Dictator’s Men, and Broadster’s Aurélien Combelles, who produced fashion doc Gaga By Gaultier.