General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Asterix & Obelix Take On Caesar

Asterix & Obelix Take On Caesar (French: Astérix et Obélix contre César) is a 1999 French comedy-adventure film directed by Claude Zidi and the first live-action screen adaptation of the Asterix comic book series created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo¹^•². Set in 50 B.C., it follows the Gaulish warriors Asterix and Obelix, whose village resists Roman occupation with the help of a magic potion brewed by the druid Panoramix; when Caesar and his aide de camp Detritus discover the elixir and capture the druid, Asterix and Obelix set out to rescue him³. It stars Christian Clavier as Asterix and Gérard Depardieu as Obelix, with Roberto Benigni as the villainous Detritus³.

Key fact	Detail
French release	3 February 1999, distributed by AMLF on more than 764 prints¹^•⁴
Director and writers	Claude Zidi, screenplay by Claude Zidi and Gérard Lauzier¹
Budget	274 million francs (42.81 million euros) according to Le Monde; other tallies give 250 million francs or 41.87 million euros, then the largest budget for a French-language film⁴^•⁵^•²
French admissions	About 9 million, with one detailed tally at 8,776,988⁶^•⁷
Lead cast	Christian Clavier (Astérix), Gérard Depardieu (Obélix), Roberto Benigni (Lucius Detritus), Gottfried John (Jules César), Laetitia Casta (Falbala), Claude Piéplu (Panoramix)³
Critical scores	Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 42%; AlloCiné press rating 3.1 out of 5 from 18 reviews, audience rating 2.2 from more than 33,000 notes⁸^•¹
Video game	A licensed game based on the film was released in 1999 on PlayStation and 2000 on Windows, developed by Tek 5 and Pathé Interactive and published by Cryo Interactive⁹

Spoilers

Story and adaptation

The film draws on an original screenplay rather than a single album, while borrowing plot elements from several books: Obelix's love for Falbala from Asterix the Legionary, a false soothsayer sowing discord in the village from Asterix and the Soothsayer, and the druid's abduction during a feast from Asterix and the Goths². In the synopsis, the villagers of a small Armorican village defy Caesar by seizing the tax revenue collected for Rome¹. Detritus, played by Roberto Benigni, schemes to take Caesar's place¹¹.

Production

A live-action Asterix film had been contemplated for decades. Early abandoned projects imagined Louis de Funès in the title role, but he declined to wear a mustache; a separate proposal by Claude Lelouch to cast people from the street also came to nothing¹. The project finally moved forward in the 1990s through producer Claude Berri, prompted by his son Thomas Langmann and by Sylvie Uderzo, then general director of Éditions Albert René¹⁰.

The shoot lasted 21 weeks and required 60 actors and 1,495 extras⁴. Financing was shared between France, Germany, and Italy, with the French portion covering half the budget; the risk was carried by Renn Productions, a Pathé subsidiary, and Katharina, a company Berri created in 1996⁴. The producers deliberately withheld foreign sales, except to Italy and Germany, until after the French release, and the score was composed by Jean-Jacques Goldman⁴. Albert Uderzo said he read Zidi's screenplay to check that it respected his characters but did not otherwise intervene, calling the mixture of comic-strip fantasy and live actors both the risk and the excitement of the venture¹.

Reception and box office

The film was a commercial success in France. It opened on 3 February 1999 and took in about $2.8 million in first-day ticket sales¹², launched on more than 764 prints with 790 planned for the second week, on its way to becoming the first French film to reach 800 screens⁴. It drew roughly 9 million admissions in France⁷, and one retrospective analysis calls it a huge economic success¹³. By contrast, its North American release through Lionsgate, beginning 4 June 1999, grossed $1,541,261 domestically, with a further $91,306 from a 2000 re-release in Iceland¹⁴.

Critical reception was mixed. The Tomatometer stands at 42 percent⁸, and AlloCiné's aggregated press score is 3.1 out of 5 against an audience score of 2.2¹. French critics praised the spectacle while faulting the script; one review cited by AlloCiné called it "a diversion of little interest, a barely funny copy of an original packed with humor," while Le Figaro called it "a show of great luxury, sumptuous (...) with a stunning cast"¹⁵. Larousse's film dictionary notes that the producers spared no expense and that the public rewarded them, with audiences flocking "by millions"¹¹.

Place in the series

The film opened a run of five live-action Asterix features. Its successor, Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002), directed by Alain Chabat, became the installment most favorably received by critics and audiences⁸. Depardieu played Obelix in the first four live-action films⁸, while Gilles Lellouche took over the role in Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom (2023) and Clavier declined to play Asterix again after the early 2000s¹^•¹⁷. A restored version of the film was issued in 2022¹⁶, and a Blu-ray followed on 27 September 2023¹.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026