How the film "Taxi 3" was filmed: footage from filming and 11 interesting facts about the film (11 photos)

After the success of the first two parts of the film “Taxi,” Besson and his comrades realized that it was too early to close the project, so the release of a new third part was only a matter of time. And this time came in 2003.





From left to right: Frederic Diefenthal (Emilien), Sami Naceri (Daniel), Gerard Krawczyk (director of Taxi 2,3 and 4)

1. In order to attract more audience around the world, the creators decided to involve someone from the Hollywood elite. This person was Sylvester Stallone, who played this tough guy at the very beginning of the film, who didn’t even feel sick from Daniel’s ride.



Sylvester Stallone in the movie "Taxi 3"

True, the appearance of a Hollywood star did not greatly popularize the film even among Americans. But the attempt was counted.

And by the way, the most interesting thing is that Stallone did not even come to France (filming took place in the USA) and did not interact with Sami Naceri, who played Daniel. Naseri and Sylvester Stallone themselves filmed separately from each other, but in editing they did everything right.

By the way, Sylvester Stallone's name is not even listed in the credits. And all because he starred for free out of friendship with Luc Besson. And the Actors Guild has its own rules about this.

2. But despite the fact that Sylvester Stallone did not greatly increase the interest of the American audience, the film nevertheless attracted the interest of Hollywood studio bosses. It was thanks to the third part of the film that the Americans acquired the rights to film a remake, and already in 2004 the film “New York Taxi” was released.





Still from the film "New York Taxi" (2004)

3. The screensaver for the third part of the film is nothing more than a reference to the James Bond films. True, here the screensaver has a humorous overtones.

4. According to director Gerard Krawczyk, the most difficult part was filming the first scene, where Sylvester Stallone’s character was running away from his pursuers. Naturally, Stallone was not there, and all the stunts were performed by stuntmen. A huge number of takes were wasted before the stuntman landed correctly or performed the required action exactly according to the script.



Stuntman who played Sylvester Stallone's character

For example, the scene of jumping from a bicycle onto a fishing net alone took a whole day, since the stuntman could not grab onto this same net during the jump. As a result, he dived into the water all day, which really pissed him off. Only at sunset the scene finally took shape, which caused a flurry of applause.

5. In one of the scenes, Daniel had to ride on only two wheels. And of course, it was not Sami Naceri who was driving at that moment, but stuntman Michel Julien. Interestingly, Michel actually drove the car on two wheels, and no additional devices were used.



6. In the film you can see a poster for the film "Wasabi" with Jean Reno in the title role. As with Taxi 3, Wasabi was written and produced by Luc Besson and directed by Gerard Krawczyk.

7. In the third part of the film, the hero drives a Peugeot 407, and not a Peugeot 406, as was the case in the previous parts. You can read more about the filming of the first part of the film "Taxi" in one of my previous articles.

Director Gerard Krawczyk complained that the Peugeot 407 held the road too well, making it difficult to film scenes with sharp turns. In order to make a sharp turn, crew members had to lubricate the wheels to make them slide.



However, during the filming of one of the scenes, the guys overdid it so much that the car almost hit a member of the film crew, crashing into the curb. Fortunately, it was only a broken wheel. However, this particular scene was included in the final version of the film, despite the fact that such an outcome was not planned.



8. In the scene with the swimming pool, a real car was pushed into the pond, but before that it was first lightened by taking out almost all the “stuffing” from it. Because of this, she sank so slowly that a member of the film crew even had to help the car sink.



Naturally, at that time there were mannequins inside the car, and the actors inside the sunken car were filmed separately.



9. The two gendarmes sitting in the van at the very beginning of the film were played by director Gerard Krawczyk and sound engineer Vincent Tully. According to Gerard Krawczyk, thanks to this small acting experience, he began to better understand the actors themselves.



Gerard Krawczyk (left) and Vincent Tuly (right)

10. There were a lot of problems during filming in the mountains. First of all, it was very cold there. Well, secondly, the sun shone in this area for about 5 hours a day, which is why the filming was greatly extended, since the film required ideal sunny weather.



11. With a budget of approximately $16 million, the film grossed $65.5 million worldwide. It is not difficult to guess that the third part became financially successful.