Rape Case Against French Director Luc Besson Dismissed After Judicial Investigation

Frank Ocean has shared a new song that is almost nine minutes long on the latest episode of his Apple Music show, Blonded Radio.The star’s Christmas special of the ad hoc programme aired yesterday (December 25) and featured Ocean speaking with Wim “The Iceman” Hof, a Dutch motivational speaker and athlete.“Me and @iceman_hof had a conversation some time ago when I was in the earlier stages of grief and I remember marbling afterwards at how his energy blasted through the phone,” Ocean wrote on

Mark Keizer A suicidal IT specialist and a blind archivist help a dying woman find the child she gave up for adoption in French director Albert Dupontel’s “Adieu les cons,” rechristened “Bye Bye Morons” in the U.S. (though “So Long, Suckers!” would’ve probably be a better translation).

Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has been told he has been "awful for a long time" as Ralf Rangnick is told to freshen up the dressing room.

Jessica Kiang As sharply engineered as a reel of razor wire, Shariff Korver’s “Do Not Hesitate” is not the first film to expose the sheer lunacy of sending callow, heavily armed young men, versed in a machismo that sees sensitivity as weakness, into hostile territory and expecting everything to work out fine.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentProminent Dubai-based distribution and production outfit Front Row is going forward on its Arabic remake of French hit comedy “Intouchables,” with a writer and director team now attached and plans to start shooting in Egypt in May 2022.For the task of adapting the French original about a grumpy white paraplegic billionaire who strikes a friendship with his street-smart Black ex-con caretaker, Front Row has recruited Egyptian screenwriter Amr El Daly

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has acquired the John Fusco spec script Phantom, a package that includes producers Harvey Mason Jr of Harvey Mason Media, and John Legend and his Get Lifted Film Co producing partner Mike Jackson. Pic will be an adaptation of the 1910 Gaston Leroux novel Phantom of the Opera, set in contemporary New Orleans.

A couple of easyJet passengers have been lifted by authorities in France after “behaving disruptively” whilst flying from Belfast to Lyon.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentNetflix (“Lupin”), Amazon, Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus signed a long-gestating agreement with France’s broadcasting authorities (CSA) on Thursday to start investing 20% of their annual revenues on French content. The CSA expects the investment to be between €250 million ($282 million) to €300 million ($330 million) on average per year.The agreement came together after months of negotiations between French industry guilds, streamers and TV groups.

French media reports. Besson was accused of rape in 2018 by Dutch-Belgian actress Sand Van Roy, who had accused the director of rape, once in September 2016 in London and once in May 2018 in Paris, accusations which Besson has consistently denied.

Simon Cowell's new show Walk The Line is set to air on December 12, with Alesha Dixon, Dawn French, and Gary Barlow on the judging panel. The show will be hosted by Maya Jama, and after the programme was hit by technical blunders already ahead of its debut, Cheryl is said to be feeling disappointed her judging spot was given to Gary, 50.

Bevan French has reached out to Wigan Warriors to confirm he is returning to the club - though he currently remains in Australia.

Netflix’s new short form experiment “Voir” (French for “See”) aims to distill our relationship to cinema by examining what it stirs inside us based on how and what artists put in front of us, what they conceal, and who they choose to point the camera at. This series of short film essays pairs images with the anecdotes and personal observations of individuals who write about the medium in some way.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentA new study from the advocacy group Collectif 50/50 surveying French films from 2019 has revealed that 62% of local film protagonists are perceived as white, highlighting the underrepresentation of visible minorities in French cinema. The study, titled Cinégalités, was unveiled during a day-long conference hosted by Collectif 50/50 on Dec.

Bring on the beauty! Lily Collins made quite the statement with her glam during the first season of Emily in Paris. And after sitting down with the Aurélie Payen, the makeup artist for the show, we can pretty much promise that the second season, which launches on December 22, is going to serve up some seriously stunning looks. 

Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, Paul Verhoeven probably would have eagerly pushed that person down a set of stairs to get his hands on this material, because it’s tailor-made to suit his risqué sensibilities.Hence, the Dutch auteur’s Benedetta (★★☆☆☆) might not be the most divinely right adaptation of Brown’s account of real-life 17th-century Sister Benedetta Carlini, but it is exactly the overheated, mystic lesbian nun thriller that viewers might expect from the

Liza Foreman Eric Lagesse, the CEO/president of Paris-based arthouse distributor and world sales outfit Pyramide Films, received the Industry Tribute Award at Cairo Film Festival on Friday. Variety spoke with him about his relationship with Arab cinema, and the state of the independent film business in France.How do you feel about receiving this tribute?It’s great, but I have had a year to get used to it.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentEric Zemmour, the French far-right pundit and TV journalist who has been called “France’s Trump,” sparked a scandal in French media earlier this week when he announced his presidential bid with a video that incited nationalist fervor and included unauthorized footage from classic movies, TV shows, newscasts and soccer games.The controversy echoes musicians such as Neil Young and the Rolling Stones threatening lawsuits over Donald Trump’s campaign using

Ben Croll When “Summit of the Gods” director Patrick Imbert graduated from France’s Les Gobelins school of animation in the late 1990s, he entered an industry still looking for its right footing.“The market and industry was not as developed as it is today,” Imbert tells Variety. “There were much fewer projects because there were much fewer screens.