HBO Max Unveils Medical Drama In France Following Success Of ‘The Pitt’

Earlier this year, HBO Max content boss Sarah Aubrey told us her team wanted to replicate the success of Emmy-winner The Pitt around the world, and France appears to be one of the first destinations.

Unveiled today at La Rochelle Fiction Festival, HBO Max is making Rush [working title], a medical drama set in Paris following a close-knit group of mobile medical teams. They race against time and their personal battles to save lives, bringing emergency medicine to street corners, metro carriages, private homes and iconic landmarks – where every call is a crisis, every decision has consequences, and every moment is a chance for human connection.

The show is created and written by Nils-Antoine Sambuc (Belphégor, In Treatment FR, Soleil Noir), and co-written by Gaëlle Bellan, Maya Haffar, and Maxime Crupeaux, with Neal Baer (ER) as EP.

Rush has shades of The Pitt, which swept the Emmys on Monday night including another win for lead Noah Wyle and is preparing a third season. Aubrey told us in March that HBO Max was developing medical dramas in both France and Italy, with no word yet on the Italian one. “To me that’s the model to emulate: Take a genre and a set of characters audiences feel very familiar with and want in their homes every week, and overlay that with a creator who is really excited to tell a specific story authentically,” she said at Series Mania. “Then you get something special that is also popular.”

HBO Max is also making Bodycam [working title] in France, a thriller/horror following two beat cops who shoot an unarmed teenager, wounding him. They decide to cover it up, but the teen has disappeared with one of their bodycams, which captured the incident. As they race to recover the incriminating footage, a string of strange attacks starts tearing through the local Police force until an officer goes missing.

This one comes from Timothée Hochet (Lost Media, Calls) and Benjamin Adam (Privilèges, L’Opéra), with the collaboration of Mehdi Ouahab, and is co-written by Hélène Faure and Maxime Berthémy.

At La Rochelle, Clémentine Bobin, Director of Original Scripted Production for HBO Max France, said: “Our slate of local series is built around a simple belief, stemming from the deep HBO legacy: the most compelling stories offer bold takes on familiar narratives and genres, take risks, champion strong voices, and offer a distinctive perspective on the world.”

“Following the launch of French Original Privilèges and Paolo this year, Rush and Bodycam continue to build on that ambition. Both are driven by a strong creative vision, each embracing a familiar genre as a toolbox to tell unique, engaging and deeply contemporary stories.”

Outside of the U.S., France is one of HBO Max’s most crucial territories and the team has been commissioning local fare for a number of years.