Laurent Tirard Dies: French Director Of ‘Little Nicolas’ & ‘Astérix & Obélix: God Save Britannia” Was 57

French screenwriter and director Laurent Tirard, whose best-known works included adaptations of René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé’s Little Nicholas and Nicolas On Holiday, has died at the age of 57 after a long illness.

Tirard was a well-liked figure in the French film industry who made 15 features over the course of two decades.

They also included Molière (2007), starring Romain Duris as the historic playwright; Astérix & Obélix: God Save Britannia (2012) with Catherine Deneuve, Fabrice Luchini and Guillaume Gallienne; romantic comedy Up For Love with Jean Dujardin and Virginie Efira, costume drama Return Of A Hero (2018), also starring Oscar winner Dujardin.

He also directed early episodes of hit show Call My Agent!.

“He had a talent for capturing and retelling human stories with a lot of humor and sensibility,” PR agency BCG Presse wrote in a release announcing Tirard’s death on September 5 in Paris, after battling with illness.

Noting how Tirard had been influenced by the work of Jacques Tati and a great admirer of Star Wars, the release recounted how the director spent time in the U.S., driven by his love of American cinema, studying filmmaking at New York University and then becoming a script reader for Warner Brothers

On his return to France, Tirard got a job as a journalist for the cinema magazine Studio, through which he interviewed a number of top directors including Woody Allen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese.

He broke into filmmaking in his own right with the short film De Source Sûre (2007) which feaured Gad Emaleh in the cast.

His final film was the 2022 nun comedy Oh My Goodness! about five nuns who enter a cycling race with their sights set on the big cash prize to help renovate their dilapidated convent.