- Samy Narci, Taxi, France,1997. Paris realisateurLuc Besson knocked off the quickie action script while awaiting Columbia’s all clear for The Fifth Element – totally forgotten now in the wake of the enormous Taxi franchise, a French salute to John Landis’ Blues Brothersmovie. Attal and Olivier Martinez were also in the loop for cabby Daniel helping a loser cop in… Well, Paris stpidly refused permission for such motor-mayhem on its streets. After Bordaeux and Lyon were checked, Marseille won the location and heaps of tourism publicity and Paris fell to its knees begging to be part of Taxi 2. Narci made two more before a long awaited reboot in 2017 with Taxi.
- Alain Chabat, Trésor, France, 2009. “Two weeks after the premiere day, Claude asked me to take over. Yvan had back problems.” It proved to be the final film of realisateur-producteur Claude Berri.
- José Garcia, Nous finirons ensemble, France, 1918. For his much expected sequel to his box-office triumph, Les Petits Mouchoirs, actor-turned-director Guillaume Canet wanted someone to nick Francois Cluzet’s work, house and wife. He called Attal, another French actor-turned director (who had been in Canet’s great send-up, Rock ‘n Roll) and then ran into Garcia and wanted to work with him. Next day, Canet heard Attal had to leave because of a clash of dates… Far from a cool seducer, Garcia was quite frightening as the other man, not helped by looking so much like Robertg Downey Jr out of place in a French movie.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 3