27/07/2011

In the first stage in its comeback strategy, Luc Besson’s company EuropaCorp is today launching its English-language production Colombiana [+see also:
trailer
film profile], directed by Olivier Mégaton and starring Zoé Saldana (Avatar). After a 2010-2011 financial year marked by losses of €30.2m (for a turnover down slightly at €178.7m) as a result of a downturn in international sales activity and disappointing results for Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds, the studio has been restructured and is counting in particular on its English-language films (notably The Lady – see news, to be released in France on November 30) in order to break even again in 2011-2012.

Colombiana was made for a €32.13m budget including co-production support from TF1 Films Productions and pre-acquisitions from Canal+ and Ciné+.

The film opens in Colombia in 1992 when nine-year-old Cataleya witnesses her parents’ murder. Only just escaping the massacre, she takes refuge in the United States with her gangster uncle Emilio.

Fifteen years later, she works for him as a hit-woman. She leaves her mark on the murders by drawing an orchid on her victims’ chests: a message intended for her parents’ killers. For Cataleya (who is pursued by an FBI agent) is determined to see her vengeance through to the end… even if it means losing all those she loves.

Scripted by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, the film is being released with the tagline "Vengeance is beautiful". It will be launched in the US on August 26, in Finland, Norway and the UK on September 9, in Germany on September 15, in Sweden on September 16 and in the Netherlands on September 26.

"I wanted to make a Jason Bourne-style action film, but with a female protagonist" explained Mégaton."Colombiana is a sort of homage to Nikita and Leon: The Professional. I wanted to explore and push to its limits the psychology of the main character." The film’s shoot travelled around a lot (Paris, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans and Mexico).

Among this Wednesday’s other new releases are Valérie Mréjen and Bernard Scheller’s Iris in Bloom [+see also:
trailer
interview: Adèle Haenel
film profile] (unveiled in the latest Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, see review – distributed by Shellac); Austrian director Jessica Hausner’s fascinating Lourdes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jessica Hausner
film profile] (Sophie Dulac Distribution); Guy Mazarguil’s L’art de Séduire [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“The Art of Seduction”, Zelig Films Distribution); and two Norwegian films: Anne Sewisky’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner Happy Happy [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news – Happiness Distribution); and Andre Ovredal’s Troll Hunter [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andre Øvredal
film profile] (Universal Pictures France).

(Translated from French)