Luc Besson

Started by Rudie Obias, April 13, 2003, 01:41:24 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

MacGuffin

Luc Besson talks Leon sequel
Source: Moviehole

There have been rumours. There's been talk. There's even been offers. But none of the matters, says Luc Besson, he's got no plans to do a sequel to his timeless hitman hit "Leon".

According to PR Inside, Besson says he's received numerous offers from screenwriters hoping to write the follow-up to the film – which starred Jean Reno and Natalie Portman as a kindly assassin, and a young orphan, respectively – but he's just not interested. And even more, it's not their sequel to write.

"People say 'Oh, I've written the sequel - here! I'll send you the script.' And I basically send a lawyer and say 'F*** you! It's not yours'. It's not love. It's stealing. These guys are just thieves that's all"

If he changes his mind in the future, Besson says he won't be hiring anyone to pen the follow-up. "If we do a sequel, I will write the sequel. I don't need anyone."

Natalie Portman seems to be the only one that's semi-keen to do a sequel to the film that set her career on fire. Talking to Moviehole last year, the actress said, "I'd jump at the chance". It was revealed that a UK based writer had recently written a spec outline for a sequel and she has had a chat about it, with the writer, but that's as far as it's gotten – and from the sounds of it, will get, based on Besson's comments.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

The long goodbye
France's most successful living director is retiring from film-making. It's a young man's game, Luc Besson, 47, explains to Xan Brooks
Source: The Guardian
 
The Luc Besson leaving do is a quiet affair. Tea and water are the only drinks on offer, and the sole guest in attendance is me. It is a curious experience: a case of hello and goodbye, welcome back and sayonara. On the one hand, Besson is in town to plug the two films he will be unveiling in 2006. On the other, he is here to discuss his imminent retirement. I feel as though I should have brought along a carriage clock.

A few years ago, France's most successful living director announced his intention to quit while he was ahead. He would, he said, make 10 films and then get out of the game. At the time few people took him seriously. But with Angel-A (out this month) and Arthur and the Minimoys (set for release at Christmas), he has reached his limit. He says cinema is a young art form and he has now outgrown it. He takes his kids to the pictures and their schoolmates have only the foggiest idea who he is. He sips his tea with a world-weary air. At the age of 47, Besson manages a fair impression of a jaundiced old fogey with one foot on the golf course.
"Ten is a good number," he explains. "If you have 10 bullets you are much more careful about what you shoot. And I would rather stop too soon than too late. I've seen so many directors make a few too many films, and it's sad. So a few years ago I said, 'I wish I could make 10 films that I'm proud of.'" He shrugs. "If you make 10 films and you like them, it's not so bad, no?"

It is significant he uses the criteria of personal pride as opposed to worldwide acclaim. The director may bridle at being described as an auteur - seeing it as symptomatic of all that is wrong with French cinema - but that's precisely what he is. For all their populist leanings his films stand as flamboyant personal expressions, from the stylised action of Nikita and Leon to the exotic sci-fi fantasies of The Fifth Element. Even his most high-profile misfire, 1999's Joan of Arc, is an oddly endearing calamity: a lavish jumble of clashing accents and historical anachronism that led critics to re-christen it 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. Like it or loathe it, it could have been made by no one else.

I fear that he may have similarly shot himself in the foot with Angel-A, an indulgent redemption song about a small-time hustler who is rescued from suicide by his guardian angel. One might describe it as Besson's remake of It's a Wonderful Life, except the angel is a peroxide vamp who offers to solve the hero's money worries by prostituting herself in the nightclubs of Paris.

As played by newcomer Rie Rasmussen, Angela proves a very Bessonian figure: leggy and lippy, a grungy euro-chick with a heart of gold. She could be the younger cousin of Ann Parillaud in Nikita, or Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element. Parillaud, incidentally, was Besson's first wife; Jovovich his second.

You definitely have a type of woman you like, I tell him. But the director is having none of it. "Mathilda [in Léon] is 11 and dark. In The Fifth Element she's red-haired. Angela is super-tall and blonde. Isabelle Adjani [in Subway] is very bourgeois and Chanel, and Rosanna Arquette in The Big Blue is very natural. So, no. I always love the characters I create for different reasons, but I never try to describe the women I would fall in love with." He gives me a baleful stare. "I don't know where you are going with that question."

He is more comfortable talking about the film itself. Angel-A is a micro-budget, black-and-white production that darts around the Paris streets in the manner of A Bout de Souffle. Besson explains that he conceived the movie as an antidote - not just to the grand canvases of The Fifth Element and Joan of Arc but also to his lengthy preparatory work on Arthur and the Minimoys, an epic children's fantasy that blends live action with computer animation.

"That got a little frustrating," he admits. "As a director, I'm used to putting my hands on the engine. Talking, screaming. Then all of a sudden I'm spending three years sitting at a computer with a nerd and a mouse. And the nerd doesn't even say hi to you." Besson shakes his head. "He doesn't know who you are. He doesn't care. He's 17."

With an effort, the director puts these indignities behind him. "So it's true it made me envy the other way of making films. One actor, one actress, one camera: Go! This film is obviously smaller, shot in black-and-white, with unknown actors, and I know it's not going to beat The Fifth Element in terms of money. But I don't care. The logic is not to go bigger and bigger. The logic is to follow every road."

Much has been made of Besson's own road to the summit. He was raised in the resorts of Greece and Yugoslavia, where his parents worked as diving instructors for Club Med. Besson's ambition was to become a marine biologist. He only turned to film as a fallback plan, following a near-fatal diving accident in his late teens.

"I was never polluted by the world of cinema," he says. "I didn't even have a TV until I was 16. My expression is a reflection of the world I have seen, and in that world everyone was barefoot in bathing suits, following the order of the sea, the natural order of sunrise and sunset. I never went to the cinémathèque. I didn't know much about the masters of world cinema. A film like The Fifth Element is a reflection of my life as a young boy who was into Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, comic-books and Kurosawa." Yet what Besson sees as his strength, others regard as a failing. He has, by his own admission, never been a favourite of the French critics, who dismiss him as a cultural philistine, a peddler of homogenised produce for the multiplex crowd. Inevitably, it was The Fifth Element that served as a lightning-rod for these attacks. Besson shot the film in English, with an American (Bruce Willis) and a Brit (Gary Oldman) in the leading roles. When it went on to become the most commercially successful French production in history, many were quick to claim that it wasn't, in fact, French at all.

Besson shakes his head in bemusement. "It is a stupid argument, no? Look at the Van Gogh painting, Irises. Where does it come from? Van Gogh is from Holland. The irises are in a field in France. And the painting is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. So the specialists say, 'Oh hold on? What nationality is it?' Who cares? Just look at the painting."

He pours himself more tea and says he has no big plans for his retirement. More than anything he wants some time to spend with his friends and family. Film-making is such a demanding mistress, he laments. There are so many things it prevents you from doing. "You pay hard," he sighs. "It makes me sad, in a way."

Besson's sincerity almost has me convinced. It's just that the longer he talks, the busier this life of leisure turns out to be. He will still write screenplays, he admits. And of course, he will still produce. His company, EuropaCorp, is developing plans for a studio complex near Paris so, yes, he is also heavily involved in that.

The tea is drunk and Besson cracks. Out of the blue, he explains that he envisages The Minimoys as a trilogy along the lines of The Lord of the Rings, which naturally means he has a further two instalments to shoot. "And you know what?" he exclaims brightly. "Maybe in two years I will do another movie after all." I leave with the impression that the man is destined for as many comebacks as Frank Sinatra. On balance the carriage clock will have to wait.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

pete

he should change it to "10 good films", 47 is not that old.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

modage

Quote from: MacGuffin on July 24, 2006, 11:54:58 AM
"That got a little frustrating," he admits. "As a director, I'm used to putting my hands on the engine. Talking, screaming. Then all of a sudden I'm spending three years sitting at a computer with a nerd and a mouse. And the nerd doesn't even say hi to you." Besson shakes his head. "He doesn't know who you are. He doesn't care. He's 17."
HILARIOUS.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

Luc Besson Says Latest Film His Last

Luc Besson, director of the "The Professional" and "The Fifth Element" says his latest movie will be his last. The French filmmaker said Monday that he intended to devote himself instead to civic projects, including starting a foundation to help youths in France's depressed inner cities.

Besson's 10th and last movie, "Arthur et les Minimoys," opens in France on Dec. 13.

"They are my 10 little babies," he told RTL radio. "I love them all. I am pleased to have completed this cycle. That is finished."

Besson, 47, said he was keen to try his hand at a whole array of new projects.

"I want to take a little care of my fellow citizens. I want to take a little care of my planet. I want to act in favor of the inner cities, in favor of the environment. I want to do lots of things," he said.

"I am trying to start a foundation. I want to help youths in the inner cities. I am very sensitive about all these youths. I find that they have incredible energy."

The director's other films include "The Big Blue" "Angel-A" and "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc"
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Luc Besson Might Still Direct After All

Screen Daily caught up with Luc Besson to follow-up on the report which said that his last film as a director would be Arthur and the Invisibles.

Besson has now indicated he would reconsider going behind the camera if he finds, "a good script."

"I made 10 films and I never would have imagined being able to do that when I was young. It's the end of a cycle, that's certain. If I don't direct any more films, that's fine. I've said what I had to say. But, I am not an idiot. If someone shows me a good script, I'll direct it," he explained.

Besson also indicated that if Arthur and the Invisibles finds an audience he will begin work on adapting the second book, "Arthur and the Forbidden City," for the big screen with shooting starting as early as June, 2007.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Besson gets studio power
New facility will house nine sound stages, office building

Luc Besson has received the greenlight to convert a disused former power station on the outskirts of Paris into a e130 million ($166 million) film studio.
Local authorities in St. Denis, a suburb north of Paris, gave their approval on Thursday, two years after the project was submitted.

New facility, designated a project of national interest in 2004, will be centered on a 377,000 sq.-foot complex housing nine sound stages and an office building with 323,000 square feet of floor space where Besson's EuropaCorp and other companies will take up residence. 

One of two power generators dating from 1933, which appears in Besson's films "Nikita" and "Leon," will be salvaged as part of the project, which is expected to take 18 months to two years to complete.

Thomson Technicolor and Tarak ben Ammar's Quinta Communications' announced at last year's Cannes Film Festival that they would partner with Besson in the studio, with Quinta's post-production facilities moving into office space there.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Besson tempted back for 'Forbidden' sequel
Source: Production Weekly

Luc Besson is reconsidering returning behind the camera despite a recent interview announcing his retirement from directing. If the adaptation of his novel "Arthur and the Minimoys" finds an audience he will begin work on adapting the second book, "Arthur And The Forbidden City," for the big screen with a shooting start date as early as June. The film will be released on December 13 in France and stars the voices of Madonna, Snoop Dogg and David Bowie for the English version and Mylene Farmer, Alain Bashung and Marc Lavoine in the French version.

The sequel continues the story of Arthur who's backyard looked like an ordinary garden—until he discovered the Minimoys and their vast world where fierce battles are fought, ferocious monsters are faced, and one evil wizard, Maltazard the Cursed, rules from his terrifying stronghold: Necropolis, the forbidden city. Now ten-year-old Arthur—magically transformed into a Minimoy—must help them find a way into this forbidden city in order to rescue Arthur's grandfather, recover a stolen treasure, and save the land of the Minimoys before it's too late.

Besson is also set to co-produce "Hitman," the feature version of Eidos Interactive's videogame franchise of the same name. Timothy Olyphant is attached to play an international assassin known as Agent 47 who works for a mysterious organization dubbed the Agency.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

EXCL: Luc Besson on B13 Sequel, Taken
Source: ComingSoon

Prolific French filmmaker Luc Besson has gone on record that his upcoming kids' flick Arthur and the Invisibles will be his last film as a director (either that or the sequel, depending on how the first movie does). Although the half-animated film took five years to produce, he's kept busy with his production company, while writing other films.

Last year, he co-wrote and produced the cult action film District B13, and when ComingSoon.net sat down to talk to him, he surprised us with the news that he's writing a sequel. It all started with an innocent question about when he decides that it's right to do a sequel to a movie. "It's about the feeling," he told us. "There's some film where you like the cast, you like the characters and you want to see them again. For example, 'The Transporter,' we love this guy, you want to see this guy again. The rule is we will see him again if we have a good story. If we don't have a good story, there's no film. We're not here to just take the money and run. 'B13' I want to do the sequel to, I love the two characters, and there's the room to do another one. I have the idea then I think we're going to make it."

We wondered whether District B13 director Pierre Morel, who is a very in-demand DP after shooting The Transporter and Unleashed, would helm the sequel as well, to which Besson mentioned another new project. "I will propose to him, but now he's going to direct a film for me called 'Taken,' something I wrote. Liam Neeson is going to have the first part. It's a great, great film." He also said there's likely to be some more action for Neeson in the film, something the actor has experience with after appearing in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace and Batman Begins.

Before we were whisked away, we also asked whether he has an idea for another "Transporter" movie somewhere in that busy mind of his, since Jason Statham had previously told us he was up for it. "If we get a good idea, it's with pleasure. Jason is lovely, and the character is great, I love the character. He's cool, he doesn't talk so much, he's low-profile, he doesn't want to show off too much. For me, he's the new cool James Bond."

Arthur and the Invisibles opens everywhere on Friday, January 12. Look for our full exclusive interview with Mr. Besson sometime before then.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Besson creates free 'Boomerang'
Arthus-Bertrand directs green pic
Source: Variety

Luc Besson has teamed with Yann Arthus-Bertrand to make an environmentally themed feature film, "Boomerang."

In an unusual move, the pic, which starts shooting in Brazil next week, will be available for distribution free of charge, once backers have recouped their investment in the film plus 10%, Bertrand said at Mip TV on Tuesday.

Film will be co-produced by French indie shingle Elzevir Prods ("Live and Become") and Besson's Europacorp, with coin from France 2.

"It's never been done in the film industry before, it's a bit complicated, but the idea is to make the film freely available so that as many people as possible will be able to see it," said Arthus-Bertrand, who received Mip TV's inaugural Green Award on Tuesday.

The Gallic photographer, best known for his aerial shots of Earth published in the bestseller "Earth From Above," is in Cannes this week to promote the international rollout of an eight-part TV series based on the same concept, being sold by France Televisions Distribution.

"Boomerang" will shoot in 60 countries and is slated for delivery next year. Principal photography begins next week on a soy plantation in Brazil, where rainforests are being destroyed to grow crops to feed livestock in the developed world, Arthus-Bertrand said.

"The Earth's problems are all interlinked, and the film will be a reflection on that," he said. "We are going to shoot in the most beautiful places in the world."

The green campaigner has a number of other irons in the fire, including a Web site on the latest environmental info, goodplanetinfo.com, being put together with the help of American and European universities.

"Scientific information is out there, but it is hard to locate," said Bertrand, who added he is in talks with Google about the site, which will launch in January.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Besson buys 'Aventures' rights
Graphic novel to be next franchise
Source: Variety

Eyeing its next movie franchise, Luc Besson's EuropaCorp has inked with Gallic graphic novel publisher Casterman for the bigscreen adaptation rights to Jacques Tardi's classic comicbook series "Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc-Sec."

EuropaCorp plans a three-movie bigscreen transition, the first being skedded for delivery in 2009.

EuropaCorp will also produce "From Paris With Love," the next feature from longtime collaborator Pierre Morel, whose latest film with EuropaCorp, the Liam Neeson starrer "Taken," hits French theaters next month.

Published since 1976, with nine novels to date, "Aventures" is set between 1911 and 1922 in a Paris traumatized by World War I. Their heroine, Adele Blanc-Sec, a fetching popular novelist pursued by dumb cops, monsters, rancorous villains and wannabe lovers, is sometimes taken as an early feminist figure in French comic books.

Graphic novels hold a special place in French culture -- where some auteurs are venerated -- and in EuropaCorp's heart.

EuropaCorp's acquisition of the rights to "Aventures" follows its purchase of a stake last July in Septieme Choc, a graphic novel publishing house aimed at encouraging work by young artists from underprivileged areas.

The first titles, including Dikeuss' "Les banlieuZards," are published this month.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Exclusive - Luc Besson and Sci-Fi Fans Rejoice!
Source: Collider

Not every one knows the name "Luc Besson". But you know his work: "La Femme Nikita", "The Professional", "The Fifth Element". You know he's the goods.

And while many directors may want to revisit a genre where they've turned in great work, Besson has been rather silent as a director over the past decade and has only directed three films since "Element" and none of them were science-fiction.

But with his involvement in the two sequels to 2006's "Arthur and the Invisibles" wrapping up, Luc told me that he's finally going to start work on the sci-fi flick he told me about last year.

Flashback to last year: At the press junket for his movie "Angel-A", Luc told me he had an idea for a new sci-fi movie and it might be a trilogy.

When I asked him when he might make it, he said, "Not before two or three years. I got an idea, I think." He also revealed that he wanted to make "The Fifth Element" as a trilogy but the producer "didn't have the guts." As a big fan of that movie, that news was painful.

Flash forward to the present day: I go to cover the press junket for "Transporter 3" (which Besson produced), and I had only one thing on my mind: his plans for that sci-fi flick.

Thankfully, Luc remembered who I was and as we walked from the press conference to the elevators, we talked about the project. While he wouldn't tell me what his sci-fi movie would be about, he did confirm that he's going to be working on it next year! He gave me the sense that come 2009 he's going to sit down, write it out, and see where the idea goes.

Granted, plans change and priorities get shifted, but Luc's been talking about this project for a while and it looks like he's finally returning to sci-fi!

Below you can read Luc's future plans for this flick in his own words.

I'll be sure to provide any updates as I get them.

Collider: When I spoke to you at "Angel A", one of the things you mentioned to me was that you wanted to work on another sci-fi kind of movie, that you had an idea...and I know you're doing Arthur right now, but how is the idea from two years ago...do you still have something?

Luc Besson: Next year.

Collider: Really?

Luc: yeah. It's long too.

Collider: You mentioned to me back then that you were thinking of doing a trilogy.

Luc: Yeah.

Collider: So is that still the plan and the same idea? And when do you think you're getting started?

Luc: Next year.

Collider: Is it going to be a part one or is it a self contained movie with the possibility of doing more? 

Luc: Honestly, right now, I'm all about the characters and I didn't divide yet....it's a big story, I'll see later.

Collider: Do you envision doing it as part of a studio system kind of movie or doing it in France?

Luc: I'm not there yet. First is the story. Characters, story. And when it's good and ready you always find people who like it.

Collider: You mentioned the second and third Arthur movies...so how are those coming along?

Luc: It's done. I still have 3D work on them but the shooting is done. I shot 2 and 3 last summer and we're still working on the 3D. You have 11 layers of work on 3-D and I'm at layer 4. I still have 7 layers to do.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

Luc Besson To Direct Massive Sci-Fi Film To Be Released In 2013-14, Described As 'The Fifth Element' To The Power Of 10
Source: The Playlist

Is Luc Besson deigning to come down from conceptualist impresario mountain and get his hands dirty once more? As a director, Besson helms films fairly infrequently these days, choosing instead to conceive them and hand them off to others; he's created a veritable cottage industry of action films both in France and in the U.S. Between 1999 and 2010, he's made only four pictures and arguably "Arthur and the Invisibles" doesn't count since no adults saw it. We're being harsh and flip, but as a producer/writer Besson has been incredibly busy. In the same time period, he's had a hand in twenty two screenplays, and as a producer he's been involved in 42 films, many of them born from his original idea --"The Transporter" series with Jason Statham is his original concept, as is the "District 13" series and the "Taken" revenge film with Liam Neeson that became a huge surprise hit in the winter of 2008. The recently announced sci-fi film, "Lockout" with Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace is another of his creations, as is "Columbiana" with Zoe Saldana which appears to be his workaround for a "The Professional" sequel. But what Besson generally does is come up with these concepts, co-write them and then hand them off to some talented young director --he's made people like Pierre Morel, Louis Leterrier, Patrick Alessandrin, and Olivier Megaton into relative house-hold names for the action set or at least those in Hollywood looking for directors for hire. It's been reported that his next directing gig would be a untitled love story, but according to an interview with Fantasy.Fr (via Coming Soon) he's working on a new sci-fi film that would be " 'The Fifth Element' [to the] Power 10. " It appears he's been inspired by "Avatar" and James Cameron's 3D work as well. "When I did 'The Fifth Element,' I already had the technological tools that were a little outdated, "he said. "With the advent of digital technology, it is amazing what you can do. The technique has caught the imagination. One can imagine anything, there will always technicians to follow you in your delusion. " Evidently pre-production will begin in 2011 and according to the director production could start in 2012 and 2013, "because it will be very, very big." Besson's next picture is "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec" which still hasn't been scheduled for a U.S. release yet.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Pubrick

Quote from: MacGuffin on October 13, 2010, 01:22:09 PM
Described As 'The Fifth Element' To The Power Of 10

so.. The nine million seven hundred and sixty-five thousand six hundred and twenty-Fifth Element.

i think that's unobtanium.
under the paving stones.

squints

"The myth by no means finds its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the visible imagery reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself is able to put into words and concepts" – Friedrich Nietzsche