An Emotional Luc Besson Gets Rapturous Reception At Venice Presser For ‘DogMan’: “The Only Two Things That Can Save You Are Love And Art, Definitely Not Money”
An emotional Luc Besson and his actors Caleb Landry Jones and Jojo T. Gibbs got a rapturous reception at the press conference for their Venice Film Festival movie DogMan.
The filmmaker and lead Landry Jones were applauded on multiple occasions, with one journalist moved to tears when asking her question.
More from Deadline
The film is being billed by some as a comeback movie for Fifth Element, Lucy and Leon director Besson who has had a tumultuous five years after the high-profile box office failure of Valerian, the demise of his French studio EuropaCorp and a long-running legal entanglement relating to a rape allegation, of which he was recently cleared.
“The only two things that can save you are love and art, definitely not money. When you have both you’re lucky,” the filmmaker told the audience.
At one stage, the director thanked his actors and producer wife Virginie Besson-Silla before himself fighting back tears. The filmmaker was on self-deprecating form, saying “I’m not a specialist in cinema”.
Speaking of his method and how he cast Landry Jones, the filmmaker said he wrote to “escape the world”: “I’m very proud of my freedom. I wake up, start writing at 5am, and no one can stop me. I leave the script to the side for a couple of weeks. My first fear [about DogMan] was ‘who is gonna play that’. I feared I wouldn’t find an actor crazy enough to do that.”
In a surreal turn, Landry Jones spent the entire press conference answering questions in a Scottish accent in preparation for his next role as a Scotsman. You can read our exclusive interview with Landry Jones here.
Besson described the versatile actor as a “chameleon”. In the film, Landry Jones plays a tormented young man who was abused as a child and who finds salvation through the love of his dogs. The performance is already drawing plenty of praise from industry and journalists we’ve spoken to.
The actor said of his method for DogMan, in which at one stage he does a drag performance as Edith Piaf: “I’d watch Edith Piaf. If that [scene] didn’t work, the film wouldn’t work. My job is to be a sponge. Fill it up with stuff and hope something comes out.”
The film’s canine characters also got plenty of love from those at the press conference. Besson said they worked with around 70 dogs during the movie.
Pic will have a theatrical rollout in France and Europe starting in late September and early October. Besson is producing under his banner Luc Besson Production. France’s leading commercial network TF1 pre-bought the movie and is co-producing it.
Best of Deadline
SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreements: Full List Of Movies And TV Series
Venice Film Festival 2023 Photos: Adam Driver, ‘El Conde’ Premiere, Luc Besson & George Clooney
2023 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
