At the origin of this initiative, the Puy du Fou, a historical theme park in Vandee, France, which decided to strike a big blow. Second French park behind Disneyland Paris with 2.2 million visitors in 2017, Le Puy du Fou intensifies its communication before the summer season. The park is split into 26 main shows each running for approximately 30 to 40 minutes. The Cinescenie, the history retrospective show, is the biggest one, played only 28 times a year, with each time 2400 actors, 120 horsemen and 4000 volunteered extras called « Puyfolais ». The Puy du Fou offers a journey back in time: from the Middle Ages to the First World War, visitors can relive the great events of history in shows and share the fate of heroes for a day or forever and forget all about the 21st century!

1915, Verdun. Our hero, looks at a picture of his beloved, she's calling for help. The infantryman crawls to a wooden hatch that he opens to fall... into the hold of a 13th century boat! Assailed, he escapes by jumping into the water. He sinks but his sweetheart reaches out her arm. He is hoisted on a boat that turns out to be… a Viking's boat! He flees to the countryside and takes a sword from a rock. He fights King Arthur and his knights before fleeing on a horse. Musketeers accompany him to a Roman arena. He discovers his fiancée in the middle of a chariot race. He frees her and they pose for a picture. At the train station, they tear the picture apart and the infantryman closes his eyes... To reopen them in the trenches, just like visitors whom never stop travelling in Puy du Fou.

In a few seconds, this film needed to make the Puy du Fou's work understandable, to carry strong emotions drawn from history and the French legend with the real scenery, the real actors and the real costumes of the Puy du Fou.

The idea was to shift communication to reach an international level. It's not an ephemeral commercial, the film is destined to last over time and to support the development of the Vendée show abroad. Present in Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the Puy du Fou is now also targeting China. This film without dialogues is easily exportable.

This project required two and a half years of preparation, one week of shooting and five cameras filming simultaneously. The film involved more than 200 actors from Le Puy du Fou, 600 costumes, 30 horses. But also, 2 tons of fireworks, 30 make-up and costume artists, 2 drones and more than 60 hours of rushes. We had 6 days to shoot. Some spectacular sequences like the First World War, or the chariot race scene in the Roman arena would usually require days, sometimes even weeks of shooting when the opening sequence was shot in only one afternoon. Shooting in the park itself was a great challenge, as most of the sets are designed to be seen from a specific angle. The shark scene was the only one we did not shoot inside the park but in the sea, with about 25 real sharks.

The film premiered on Easter Day, Sunday, April 21, at 8:40 pm on TF1, the most watched channel in France. Viewers were then able to discover this film on all the television channels and digital platforms of the TF1 group (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Film Series). "Eternels" was also broadcast on the social networks of Le Puy du Fou, on YouTube and was shown in more than 500 cinemas. The film now has more than 1.5 million views on YouTube. It was praised at its release, many people thinking it was a movie trailer instead of a commercial for the Puy du Fou parc.