Luc Besson Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Natalie Portman may be an outspoken feminist and co-founder of a female-driven soccer club (Angel City FC), but she isn’t a believer in the so-called “female gaze.” In an interview with Vanity Fair France for the magazine’s 10-year anniversary issue, conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Portman argued that “to say that a female director has a particular gaze is reductive of women’s individuality and points of view.” The Harvard-educated actor also said that gender isn’t a factor when she chooses projects. “Female directors should have the same opportunities as their male counterparts.

EXCLUSIVE: Distributor-producer Lucky Red is one of Italy’s most respected independent film and TV companies. Run by former actor Andrea Occhipinti since 1987, the firm has released more than 500 titles and produced more than 50 films.

Woody Allen‘s film Coup de Chance was interrupted by protesters, who urged the Venice Film Festival to “turn the spotlight off on rapists”.As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, a group of around 20 people began demonstrating at the event on Monday (September 4) just as Allen stepped onto the red carpet. As they lined up just beyond the carpet, the group took off their shirts and chanted slogans like “no rape culture” and “no spotlight for rapist directors”.As documented by film journalist Luke Hearfield on X, the protesters handed out fliers headlined “turn the spotlight off on rapists”.

Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, October 4-13) has unveiled its full line-up, including opening and closing films, and announced that Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat has been named as Asian Filmmaker of the Year. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival put aside many of its recent internal and local political problems to Tuesday unveil a large selection ranging from bleeding edge art titles to international festival favorites. “The difficult times are not behind us, but hard work has made this year’s festival better than ever,” said programmer and interim festival chief Nam Dong-chul, speaking at an online press conference. International guests expected to attend the festival include Luc Besson, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Japanese directors Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Korean Americans Justin Chon (“Gook”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”). Hong Kong-based superstar Chow Yun-fat has been named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year and will be in person to receive the award.

Woody Allen received a three-minute standing ovation at the Venice premiere of “Coup de Chance” on Monday night, which would have gone on longer had the filmmaker not started to exit. After two minutes and 30 seconds of sustained applause once the film finished, Allen began to make his way toward the door, cutting the standing ovation short.

Luc Besson is getting candid about his career.

The Venice Film Festival began August 30 with opening-night movie , an Italian World War II drama, kicking off a lineup for the venerable fest’s 80th edition that includes world premieres of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, David Fincher’s The Killer, Ava DuVernay’s Origins, and new films from lightning-rod directors Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson.

Caleb Landry Jones hits the red carpet with longtime girlfriend Katya Zvereva for the premiere of Dogman during the 2023 Venice Film Festival on Thursday (August 31) in Italy.

For a few beautiful years in the early 2000s, Michael Pitt’s spine-chilling blue eyes wreaked havoc in world cinema, from Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers” to Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games.” Then, due to quite a few controversies, the actor stepped away from the limelight, taking on smaller projects here and there and leaving an abyssal gap in the industry: a blue-eyed menace whose presence in any given film immediately signaled some form of psychological torture. Many have tried their hand at filling this gap, from the sprawling Skarsgårds to Dane DeHaan, but no one has come as close to it as Caleb Landry Jones.

Luc Besson’s Dogman had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday night, scoring a nearly six-minute standing ovation from the crowd inside the Palazzo del Cinema.

Luc Besson’s latest film, “Dogman,” made its world premiere at Venice Film Festival, where it earned an enthusiastic 6-minute standing ovation. That tied the 6-minute ovation Venice audiences gave Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” earlier in the evening on the second night of the prestigious festival.

Luc Besson’s Dogman is a superhero movie in search of a comic-book, which makes a refreshing change amid the summer’s raft of DC disappointments. It skews a little close to Todd Phillip’s Golden Lion winner Joker in terms of weirdness and (especially) wardrobe, but it also offers the perfect showcase for star Caleb Landry Jones, who imbues a boisterously insane action thriller with heart and soul in what must surely be a career-high performance. Which is no mean feat for an actor whose work has always been excellent and has so often gone under the radar.

Jessica Kiang Check under most any post relating to the recently released trailer for Luc Besson’s “Dogman,” and you’ll find one, if not several responses riffing, to various degrees of enthusiasm, on the theme of “OMG, what if ‘Joker’ but with dogs?” That rhetorical question can now be answered, following this numbskulled nonsense movie’s inexplicable Venice Competition premiere, with a resounding “If only.” The bludgeoningly obvious, creatively inert, deathly dull tale of a cross-dressing misfit in a wheelchair who favors canine company over that of humans, it is scarcely fit to lap from the same water bowl as Todd Phillips’ controversial Golden Lion winner. Even those who didn’t much like “Joker” have to admit that it did not so actively treat its audience as if they were brain dead that everyone left feeling about 30 IQ points dumber than when they went in.

An emotional Luc Besson and his actors Caleb Landry Jones and Jonica T. Gibbs got a rapturous reception at the press conference for their Venice Film Festival movie DogMan.

EXCLUSIVE: Caleb Landry Jones has built an eclectic resumé since he first appeared as Boy on Bike in 2007’s No Country for Old Men. His diverse credits include X-Men: First Class, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Get Out and Nitram, Justin Kurzel’s 2021 mass murder drama which earned Landry Jones a Best Actor prize in Cannes. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Luc Besson, the formerly A-list director who rose to the top of the box office with his kinetic action films, had his career derailed by rape accusations leveled against him in 2018 by Sand Van Roy, an actress on his film “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.” The ensuing legal battle consumed five years of Besson’s life, but after being cleared last June of all charges by the Cour de Cassation, the French equivalent to the Supreme Court, he’s re-emerging at this year’s Venice Film Festival with the indie drama “Dogman.” But will the industry work with Besson? That’s one of the questions that we discuss during a lengthy interview at the Plaza Athénée Hotel in Paris on the eve of his big premiere. Besson is evasive about the matter, preferring to talk up his latest effort, the story of a bruised man who faces rejection and finds solace in dogs, as well as dissatisfaction with a movie business that’s become more obsessed with superheroes than style.

Sophia Scorziello editor Jamie Christopher, assistant director on Marvel films including “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the entire Harry Potter franchise, died Tuesday in Los Angeles from heart complications. He was 52.

Venice Film Festival. But the SAG-AFTRA strike made it impossible for the tennis drama, which MGM pushed to a 2024 release date, to come to the Lido. So instead, Venice kicked off with World War II drama “Comandante” by young Italian auteur Edoardo De Angelis.

The Venice Film Festival began August 30 with opening-night movie , an Italian World War II drama, kicking off a lineup for the venerable fest’s 80th edition that includes world premieres of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, David Fincher’s The Killer, Ava DuVernay’s Origins, and new films from lightning-rod directors Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with World War II drama “Comandante” by young Italian auteur Edoardo De Angelis packing a strong political punch. Tensions due to the SAG-AFTRA strike lurked in the background, though without stealing the thunder of strong expectations for this year’s lineup.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent It’s official: Adam Driver, Caleb Landry Jones, Mads Mikkelsen and Jessica Chastain are among the stars set to attend the upcoming Venice Film Festival. Following multiple unsourced reports, the festival has confirmed that Driver is expected on the Lido’s red carpet to promote Micheal Mann’s “Ferrari,” in which he plays the titular character, Italian car racing pioneer Enzo Ferrari; Landry Jones is coming for Luc Besson’s “Dogman”; Mikkelsen will make the trek for Danish director Nikolaj Arcel’s “The Promised Land” and Chastain for Mexican auteur Michel Franco’s “Memory,” her first role since her Oscar-winning performance in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” Also expected on the Lido are Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, who play Priscilla and Elvis Presley in Sophia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” as well as Priscilla Presley herself.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Dozens of Hollywood players are staring anxiously at empty Louis Vuitton trunks this week, wondering if A-list stars and select filmmakers will get the greenlight from SAG-AFTRA to attend the rapidly approaching Venice Film Festival. The union’s interim agreements have been a focal point over the past weeks of the contentious strike, as the deals allow some productions to resume and select finished films to engage in publicity.

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has cancelled its swanky Women in Cinema gala event at the upcoming Venice Film Festival in response to the ongoing actors’ strike.

Luc Besson’s DogMan has become one of the first films to receive a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement that will allow talent to do press during the upcoming festival season. Actors will be allowed to promote the pic at its upcoming premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Amazon Prime Video France has signed a multi-year deal with leading French independent distributor Metropolitan FilmExport to bring over 100 movies to local subscribers. Metropolitan FilmExport ranks as one of France’s top purveyors of U.S. franchise films, such as “Lord of the Rings,” “Hunger Games,” and “John Wick.” As such, this deal positions Prime Video in France as a home for premium content for wide audiences.

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is refusing to row back on his decision to invite controversial movie-biz bigwigs Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson to the late summer event, which will take place despite the potential disruption by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. “Luc Besson has been recently fully cleared of any accusations. Woody Allen went under legal scrutiny twice at the end of the ’90s and was absolved,” Barbera said in a new interview with Variety.

The Venice Film Festival confirmed to us today it is hopeful that movies with SAG-AFTRA ‘interim agreements’ will bring their casts to the Lido.

The red carpet may not have as many stars as in previous years, but the 2023 edition of the Venice Film Festival will feature a slew of highly anticipated films. And, likely, their directors taking center stage.

When I write about new trailers that are released, I typically include the studio’s synopsis of the film. It’s just an easy way to concisely provide an explanation for what the film is about and why you should care.