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Netflix Unpacks Apac

Singing from the same Kim sheet: Sara Merican headed to Tokyo this week for a Netflix Asia Pacific showcase event, which brought together many of the streamer’s key players from the region. Amid the manga and k-drama deluge, she sat down with Minyoung Kim, Netflix’s VP of Content for Apac to discuss everything from the streamer’s multi-billion-dollar program and movie investment in Korea to how she hopes zombie films from Indonesia and Thailand will land later this year. She even got into talking about the chance of live sports coming out of Apac (spoiler: not likely). An interesting nugget was the disclosure that Netflix is potentially on track to spend even more...

A new movie by Luc Besson, June and John, which was filmed with a phone in Los Angeles during the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020, has a new trailer and poster ahead of a spring 2025 release, per Variety. The film from The Fifth Elementdirector stars newcomers Mathida Price as June and Luke Stanton Eddy as John.

Kinology, who co-produced with Besson's EuropaCorp, originally showcased the film to potential buyers and distributors during the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, but nothing was heard about it until the unveiling of the trailer and poster. The official plot, according to Variety, follows:

"John, a young man stuck in a monotonous routine, whose life is transformed when he meets June, a vibrant and fearless woman. Together, they embark on a whirlwind adventure filled with passion, risk, and self-discovery — a race against the clock (and the law) that injects color, magic, and love into their lives."

Will 'June & John...

French filmmaker Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element”) is back after bringing us “Dogman” in 2023 with a surprise project heading to the European Film Market. This new movie, “June & John,” is a romantic comedy set in Los Angeles that stars newcomers Matilda Price and Luke Stanton Eddy.

Shot in L.A. during the 2020 lockdown with a phone should be a very different experience for audiences accustomed to Besson’s bigger adventures if you’re unfamiliar with the yearly event.

Continue reading ‘June & John’ Trailer: Luc Besson Shot A Secret L.A. Rom-Com With A Phone During The 2020 Lockdown at The Playlist.

"The future is the last unexplored territory where anything could happen!" Europacorp has revealed the official trailer for June & John, a romantic thriller secret project made by Luc Besson years ago during the start of the pandemic. This was shot by Luc Besson sometime after Anna (2019) and his other recent film DogMan (which opened last year). Variety describes it as a "secret project that he shot during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020" that was apparently filmed entirely on a phone (it doesn't say iPhone or another?) in Los Angeles. I guess they had no budget & nothing to work with in 2020. Besson's June & John is described as a "love story for the ages" starring newcomers Matilda Price and Luke Stanton Eddy, featuring "at least one helicopter chase and an open-topped car driving into the sunset." This the story of John, a man of banal existence. John runs into a woman both beautiful and mysterious: June.

Almost three years after it was first announced and with radio silence since then, “June & John” — Luc Besson’s secret project that he shot during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020 — has re-emerged with guns blazing (literally). Variety can exclusively reveal a trailer and posters for the feature that appear to take the French director back to the slick and stylized filmmaking that would first make his name.

“June & John,” which will have its market premiere at the European Film Market in Berlin on Thursday, is described as a “love story for the ages,” and stars newcomers Matilda Price and Luke Stanton Eddy. Kinology — which first introduced the project to buyers at the 2022 edition of Cannes — is handling sales and says several distributors have already committed to releasing the film in spring 2025.

The plot — which had remained under wraps until now — follows John, a young man stuck in a monotonous routine,...

After slowly returning to production in the wake of a restructuring, EuropaCorp, the company founded by “The Professional” director Luc Besson, is now fully back in action with several French and international films in the pipeline. These include the Snoop Dogg sci-fi movie “The Last Man,” and “Disorder,” a thriller starring Dylan Sprayberry (Teen Wolf”) and Thalia Besson who plays Geneviève in “Emily in Paris” season 4.

The banner, which is best known for its high voltage franchise movies such as “Taken,” “The Transporter” and the Scarlett Johansson movie “Lucy,” is also about to ramp up its output in the scripted TV space. EuropaCorp is nearing a deal with a Federation Studios label to team on the development and production of series based on its best known IP’s, Variety has learned. Although a “Lucy” spin-off was previously in development, it’s not believed to be part of the franchises that...

Exclusive: One of the last big European Film Market pre-sales projects to be revealed is one of the most intriguing as SAG winner Caleb Landry Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri) has been set to star with two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) in Dracula – A Love Tale, a big-budget reimagining of the Dracula story from Lucy filmmaker and Taken creator Luc Besson.

Based on Bram Stoker’s iconic novel, sources close to the production confirm to us that the project will be Besson’s next movie and mark his own take on the vampire classic about the dark Prince who is condemned to eternal life.

We hear this has an origin story element to it exploring in a little more depth the gothic romance between Prince Vladimir and his wife whose loss turns him to forsake God and become a vampire. Buyers familiar with Besson’s script tell...