28/06/2006

The fourth sequel to Taxi, the French blockbuster-type franchise, began shooting this week in top secrecy at studios in Epinay-sur-Seine, Paris.

Scripted by Luc Besson, Taxi 4 will star Samy Naceri (Best Actor Award at Cannes 2006 for Days of Glory) and Frédéric Diefenthal in the roles of Daniel, the mad Marseille taxi driver, and Emilien, the police officer. Apart from the absence of Marion Cotillard who, this time around, turned down the invitation to continue the adventure, the feature will star its regular cast: Emma Sjoberg, Bernard Farcy, Edouard Montoute and Jean-Christophe Bouvet. As for the director, yet to be named, it could be Gérard Krawczyk who made Taxi 2 and Taxi 3.

A real goldmine for the film’s producers, Luc Besson (EuropaCorp) and Laurent and Michèle Pétin (ARP Sélection), Taxi’s three sequels grossed over $200m worldwide. Taxi (1998) garnered 6.4m admissions in France and 2.2m abroad, while Taxi 2 (2000) clocked up 10.3m admissions in France (19th best result ever) and 5m in 37 other countries worldwide. Taxi 3 (2003) has been the most popular French language feature distributed internationally, grossing €18m outside of France in 2003.

According to Unifrance, the third sequel did particularly well in Japan (€6.5m) and Russia (€2.5m for approximately 1.2m admissions. In French theatres, Taxi 3 garnered a total 6.5m admissions after a record release on January 29, 2003 on 1,040 screens.

With very good TV ratings (12m viewers for Taxi, 10m for Taxi 2 and 9.4m for Taxi 3 on TF1), the comedy is traditionally pre-bought and co-produced by TF1 Films Production and Taxi 4 will be no exception.

Theatrical release is scheduled for late 2007, with EuropaCorp to handle the film’s distribution, as well as its international sales. The outfit has of late developed a preference for the Hollywood system of franchises, by also releasing sequels to The Transporter.

(Translated from French)