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As she prepares for her latest cinematic outing, the long-awaited sci-fi epic Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, actress and model Cara Delevingne has spoken about her ambitions to be a director in the future and how Luc Besson has sparked inspiration within her.

Luc Besson with Cara Delevingne at CinemaCon 2017

The British actress, 24, was speaking at CinemaCon in Las Vegas alongside the movie’s director, Luc Besson, and admitted that her experience of playing Laureline, opposite main star Dane DeHaan’s titular character of Valerian, plus the experience of being on-set with Leon and Nikita director Besson, had inspired her to get behind the camera herself.

Continue reading: Cara Delevingne Admits To Directing Ambitions

Let’s talk about Lucy. Luc Besson’s latest sci-fi/action/horror/mess has so far been described as anything from unscientific to outlandish to downright laughable. So far critics have decried the plot, interspersed with gratuitous stock footage of hunting cheetahs (no, really) as a “frantic exercise in pseudoscience and goofball metaphysics” (The Chicago Reader). Still, even its worst critics admit that Lucy has its strong points – Scarlett Johansson’s performance being the strongest. Based mostly on her acting, The Telegraph's review goes as far as to call Lucy "the blockbuster of the summer."

If nothing else, Lucy is worth seeing for Scarlett Johansson alone.

According to Den of Geek’s Ryan Lambie, Johansson is “the magnet which holds Besson’s bonkers storyline together. The genre elements may scratch up against one another or sometimes collapse entirely, but Johansson remains a relateable, likeable lead, even when her character does things that go against the grain of a leading lady somewhat.”

Continue reading: Reviews: Scarlett Johansson Saves Luc Besson's Messy "Lucy"

In the wake of especially strong buzz from critics who have seen the film, the cast of  assembled for their world premiere in Los Angeles this week, including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Glenn Close, Karen Gillan and Michael Rooker. They then dashed across to London for a Leicester Square premiere, where they were joined by Disney/Marvel colleagues Mark Hamill and Chris Hemsworth, plus Diesel's Fast & Furious costar Elsa Pataky. The film opens next week. Browse through our gallery of the premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy - Los Angeles, California, USA. We also have some shots of celebrities at the 'Guardians of Galaxy' premiere in London.

Luc Besson's new action romp Lucy opens today in the US and next month in the UK. In a new short feature, Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman give a backstage look at working with Besson on the movie, including glimpses of the crew filming elaborate action scenes. The clip ends with a brief trailer for the finished film. Watch 'Lucy - Luc Besson' Featurette.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Guardians Holds Two Premieres, Plus First Glimpses Of Fifty Shades, The Imitation Game And Mad Max: Fury Road

Early reviews of Scarlett Johansson’s new movie Lucy are piling up ahead of its theatrical release, and it’s looking like the film is an entertaining, if mixed, bag.

Scarlett Johansson plays the lead in forthcoming thriller Lucy

Directed by Luc Besson, Johansson plays Lucy, a woman living in Taipei and forced to work for drug gangs as a mule. After the drugs she is carrying absorb themselves into her body, her brain begins to use more than the normal 10% of its capacity and becomes close to superhuman.

Continue reading: What The Critics Are Saying About Scarlett Johansson's 'Lucy'

Prisoners successful rode the wave of critical acclaim thrust it's way to emerge as the top performing movie at the box office this weekend. Taking in £21.4 million between Friday and Sunday, the film easily beat it's closest rival, the horror sequel Insidious 2, to the top spot, in what was one of the slowest weekends at the movies all year.

Hugh Jackman (L) and Jake Gyllenhaal (R) star in the kidnap thriller

The Warner Bros. action-drama opened across 3,260 locations this weekend, and off the back of strong critical reception and with little else on offer, the film was always front-runner for the box office crown. With a strong cast led by Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, the films see's father Keller Dover (Jackman) as his world is torn apart when his six-year-old daughter and her friend go missing at Thanksgiving. When Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) is called in to find the girls, he makes a promise to Keller that he will see his daughter again. The case looks solved when the RV-dwelling loner Alex Jones (Paul Dano) is found at the scene and immediately becomes the prime suspect. But with only a 48 hour hold on him, the police are unable to make Jones talk in time before he can be re-released. Enraged, Keller decides to take matters into his own hands and it is soon up to Loki to get to the bottom of the case before it's too late for the missing girls, and too late for Keller and Jones.

Continue reading: 'Prisoners' Steals Away The Top Spot At Slow Weekend Box Office

Thinking of heading to the theater this weekend to catch a new release? Well, as the major studios prepare their premium Oscar-bait for the November and December release dates, there isn't a whole lot to choose from. Still, Luc Besson's new comedy The Family - starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer and executive produced by Martin Scorsese - should satisfy family crowds not keen on seeing another Insidious movie.

Robert De Niro Means Business In 'The Family'

The off-beat movie follows a mafia boss and his family who relocate to a sleepy town in France under the witness protection program after snitching on the mob. Despite the best efforts of Tommy Lee Jones's Agent Stansfield, the family can't help but revert to its old ways and eventually get tracked down by a couple of former mafia cronies. Of course, chaos ensues in the most unlikely of settings.

Continue reading: 'The Family': Who Says Robert De Niro Doesn't Make Good Movies Anymore?

Many people must have left the cinema having seen the first Taken and thought; "that was great, I can't see any sequels coming out of it though." Well how wrong you were because not only did they manage to milk a sequel out of it but they've also managed to turn the kidnap thriller into a whole trilogy, and one time renowned thespian Liam Neeson will be around for the full trio of films.

Deadline reported on Monday (June 24) that the Irishman was closing in on a whopping $20 million deal to reprise his role as retired CIA man Bryan Mills for a third time, with production on the film expected to begin in February next year. Neeson was initially reluctant to take on the role of Mills for a second time, but a massive $15 million offer proved too good to turn down and now to entice him for another film EuropaCorp - the production team behind the first team - are looking to bump up his pay cheque once again.

Once Neeson is on board, the film company will look to strike up deals with co-stars Maggie Grace, who played his kidnapped daughter in the first film and his rescuer in the second, and Famke Janssen, who played his ex-wife. Neeson is the top priority for the filmmakers though, because no Liam Neeson equals no Taken. No word on who will direct yet, although Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote the first two films together, are currently working on the script. Taken 2 director Olivier Megaton looks the most likely appointment to direct.

Continue reading: I Will Find You, And I Will Give You $20 Million: Liam Neeson Will Get Massive Pay Cheque For Taken 3

John D'Leo, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dianna Agron in 'The Family'

From director Luc Besson (Taken, Léon) comes a new gangster movieThe Family- only this time Besson has made a black comedy. The Family stars Hollywood heavyweights Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer as a husband and wife duo. The pair co-starred together in 2007's Stardust but hadn't actually 'performed' together until now.

The plot follows the Manzoni family, led by patriarchal Giovanni (De Niro), who are placed under witness protection after snitching on the mafia. After the mafia turn on him, wanting him dead, Giovanni's family are moved en masse from Brooklyn to Normandy in France reinventing themselves as 'the Blakes' but encounter difficulties when trying to fit in.

Continue reading: Robert De Niro Stars In Mobster-Comedy 'The Family' [Trailer And Pictures]

Taken 2 is expected to shove aside all it's competitors at the Box Office when the kidnapping sequel hits cinemas over the weekend, with pre-release audience surveys suggesting that the action flick could take up to $45-50 million.

Liam Neeson returns to his role as a former CIA operative with a knack for kicking ass and taking names, only this time round it is Neeson's Bryan Mill character and his on-screen wife (played by Famke Janssen) who are taken hostage. The sequel was co-financed by Fox and writer/director/producer Luc Besson's Europa Corp for about $45 million, a sizeable increase compared to the last instalment. Still, if these estimates are anything to go by then the investment will be more than worth it.

The only major competition for Taken 2 comes in the form of two animated films, the Tim Burton's remake of Frankenweenie (a live-action short that Burton made in the early 80's) and the Adam Sandler starring Hotel Transylvania. Whilst Taken 2 will presumably take care of the adult audiences, it is up to the two spooky animations to do battle for the attention of the younger audiences, with Frankenweenie predicted to just edge past it's rival.

Liam Neeson returns as CIA agent Brian Mills in Taken 2. He’s already confirmed to MTV that there won’t be a Taken 3, as he “couldn't envisage a storyline that would warrant a sequel” but was there really a need for Taken 2? The first movie, which he describes as “a wonderful little compact European thriller,” told the tale of Mills attempting to rescue his daughter, who had been kidnapped.

Obviously, repeating that storyline would have been a little tiresome, so the writer / producer Luc Besson turned the tale on its head and this time around, it’s Mills himself who gets kidnapped. According to Neeson’s interview with The Guardian, Besson “propositioned a couple of ideas and came back with this scenario and I remember thinking ‘yeah, this could maybe work. It’s rooted in something real, you know?” Describing the premise of the Taken movies, Neeson explains “it’s a guy trying to be a father, albeit an overprotective one… 100% of his energy goes into that; suddenly he’s taken into the field.”

Unfortunately for Neeson and Besson, movie critics have not agreed with the need for another Taken movie. Time Out’s Tom Huddleston said “A cynical, contemptuous film whose sole reason for existing appears to be to squeeze the pockets of anyone who enjoyed the first movie. Don't give it the satisfaction.” Empire magazine agreed, saying “The first one offered the novel sight of Oskar Schindler going Commando. Unfortunately, this half-hearted sequel is low on novelty and lower on fun.”