Puy du Fou president Nicolas de Villiers, has shed more light on the Eleven Arches development coming to England in 2016, revealing exclusive details about the upcoming project to AM2.

With the £27m (US$41.4m, €36.7m) development set to open in the northeast of England in June 2016, Eleven Arches will follow the same not-for-profit volunteer model as Puy du Fou. De Villiers and the team behind the project view the multi-million pound visitor attraction as key in the wider regeneration of Bishop Auckland and the surrounding area.

“The project in England is going very well,” said de Villiers speaking exclusively to AM2. “We just gained authorisation to build. We had been expecting to get the planning permission for a while but now we can actually start work.

“It will be a great night show based upon the same artistic model as we did in France with hundreds of actors taking to the stage,” he continued. “The story will be the history of England. It’s written as a novel. It’s not a teaching lesson, it’s like a show, not everything is fact. It’s poetry, it’s like a hymn. It’s a story where we bring the people to life and bring the historical world to life.”

When asked why Puy du Fou, which has been very selective with its locations in its 37-year history, chose Bishop Auckland and County Durham as a location, de Villiers praised Jonathan Ruffer, the hedge fund manager and philanthropist offering financial backing to the multi-million pound project.

“We have chosen not a place but a man,” said de Villiers. “Jonathan Ruffer came to us and said ‘I have a castle and I want to create something in it.’ We had a good feeling at the very beginning on him. We can start anywhere in the world but it depends on the heart of the people who support it and that’s why we chose County Durham.”

De Villiers also revealed to AM2 the opening plot for the story of Eleven Arches, which will start in Roman times and continue all the way up to modern day England over the course of 90 minutes.

“In the very beginning of the story, you see the castle just above the stage and you see a small boy playing on-stage with a football,” said the Puy du Fou president. “He is alone and the sun is setting, the night is coming. On the right of the stage is a hunting lodge. The boy kicks the ball through a window. A man exits and says ‘oh my god, what did you do here?’ The boy apologises and the man asks who he is. The boy says he is just playing football and he doesn’t know the place. The man then tells him the story. They will go through a gate and his costume will change from football player to Roman. This is the beginning of the story.”

Aside from its project in England, Puy du Fou is also developing versions of the historical attraction in Russia – one near Moscow and one in the disputed Crimea region – and also potentially in China and mainland Europe.

“In Russia, we are currently designing the night show near Moscow and it’s a big show,” said de Villiers. “It’s very poetic and is based on Russian legends.

“President Putin supports the project, that’s something useful for Russia and great for us. In China, we are also discussing with many partners on a potential park and also in several countries in Europe. We want to do this UK project first and then we will see what will happen in these other countries.”