Bardot royalty… white lotus? HBO hit the books at €21,000 per night for series four | White lotus

WWill it be a deadly pétanque attack under the palms of the umbrella? Some pool tricks in a €21,000-per-night private villa? Maybe a poisoned cocktail on the balcony overlooking luxury yachts in the Mediterranean?

Bienvenue For the fourth season of The White Lotus on the Côte d’Azur; Judging by previous series, someone didn’t make it out of the French Riviera alive.

Saint-Tropez is preparing to roll out the red carpet for perhaps the most promiscuous group of wealthy visitors ever. After Hawaii, Sicily and Thailand, a new all-star cast, including Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Coogan and Marissa Long, will head to the south of France in April to film the next installment of the hugely successful HBO series.

American director and actor Mike White, who created the series, is said to still be in the middle of writing the next installment, but luxury hotspots along the Mediterranean coast as well as Paris and possibly the Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 13 to 26, are expected to feature during filming, according to leaked reports.

The main event will be filmed at the 19th-century Château de la Messardière, set in 32 acres of pine, cypress and jasmine trees atop a high hill overlooking the Mediterranean. Now a luxury hotel, it is located just 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) from the city and Pampelonne Beach, where director Roger Vadim filmed And God Created Woman, which launched Brigitte Bardot to stardom.

The estate’s website states that it was originally commissioned to be built by wealthy cognac merchant Gabriel Dupuy d’Angiac as a wedding gift for his daughter Louise and her husband Henri Brisson de la Messardiere, a cavalry officer. It was later converted into a hotel and was the scene of high society parties in the 1920s until money ran out and it was left to fall apart.

Having changed hands several times since then and undergoing complete refurbishment, it is now part of the Airelles Collection of five-star hotels. For those who can afford one of its 86 rooms, suites or villas – the palace’s website doesn’t stoop to anything as vulgar as room prices but are said to range from €1,350 to €21,000 (£18,200) per night – there’s a spa with hammam, sauna, fitness centre, indoor and outdoor pools, a children’s activity club, a Michelin-starred restaurant and trips to the beach. By Rolls Royce car with driver.

The hotel is currently closed, but will reopen a few days before filming begins in April. Production is expected to continue for six months. Other stars include AJ Michalka, Alexander Ludwig and Australian actor Caleb Jonte Edwards. HBO hasn’t confirmed a release date, but it’s unlikely to be before 2027.

White’s research of newsreels certainly turned up a useful plot device: the Messardière family crest, which dates back to the 8th century Carolingian dynasty, is said to be: Victor et Inermis Or “victorious and defenseless.”