Taxi (film series)

Taxi is a series of comedy films, created by French screenwriter and producer Luc Besson, consisting of 5 films. In addition to them, an American-French remake of the 1998 original was also made in 2004 (Taxi) and in 2014 an American-French TV series called Taxi Brooklyn aired on television.

Taxi
Directed by	Gérard Pirès (Taxi) Gérard Krawczyk (Taxi 2–4) Franck Gastambide (Taxi 5)
Written by	Luc Besson (creator)
Release date	Taxi (1998) Taxi 2 (2000) Taxi 3 (2003) Taxi (2004) Taxi 4 (2007) Taxi 5 (2018)
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	$302,761,077

Films

Film	Release date	Director(s)	Screenwriter(s)	Producer(s)
Taxi	April 8, 1998	Gérard Pirès	Luc Besson	Luc Besson, Michèle Pétin & Laurent Pétin
Taxi 2	March 29, 2000	Gérard Krawczyk	Luc Besson	Luc Besson, Michèle Pétin & Laurent Pétin
Taxi 3	January 29, 2003	Gérard Krawczyk	Luc Besson	Luc Besson
Taxi	October 6, 2004	Tim Story	Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon & Jim Kouf	Luc Besson
Taxi 4	February 14, 2007	Gérard Krawczyk	Luc Besson	Luc Besson, Laurent Pétin & Michèle Pétin
Taxi 5	April 11, 2018	Franck Gastambide	Franck Gastambide, Stéphane Kazandjian & Ahmed Hamidi	Luc Besson

Taxi (1998)

Taxi was shot in 1998 by Gérard Pirès based on the script by Luc Besson. It tells the story of the young taxi driver Daniel, who loves risk and high speeds, and clumsy policeman Émilien who team up to catch a German gang of bank robbers. In the end, thanks to Daniel's ingenuity, they succeed. The movie earned $44.4 million at the box office with a budget of $8.1 million.[1]

Taxi 2 (2000)

In 2000, director Gérard Krawczyk filmed the sequel. The scriptwriter and producer of the picture was Luc Besson. At the heart of the story lies the confrontation between Daniel and Émilien about the kidnapping of the Japanese minister of defense who arrived in Marseille to get acquainted with France's achievements in the fight against terrorists. The movie earned $64.4 million at the box office with a budget of €10.7 million.[2]

Taxi 3 (2003)

In 2003 Taxi 3 was released. The director was again Gérard Krawczyk, with Luc Besson still being producer and script writer. Daniel and Émilien reunite once again to fight a gang of bank robbers disguised as Santa Claus. The movie earned $64.5 million at the box office with a budget of €14.5 million.[3]

Taxi (2004)

The success of the series of films Taxi attracted the attention of Hollywood. In 2004, Luc Besson's studio EuropaCorp and the American 20th Century Fox jointly shot a remake of the first Taxi, keeping the same title.

Belle Williams is the fastest taxi driver of New York and dreams of competing in NASCAR. But instead of racing, she has to team up with police officer Andy Washburn, a dimwitted detective and an inept driver. Together, they pursue a gang of bank robbers led by Vanessa – a cold and prudent beauty.

The film turned out to be financially profitable, grossing nearly $69 million worldwide with a budget of $25 million[4] but received negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes with a rating of 10%.[5]

Taxi 4 (2007)

On February 14, 2007, the premiere of the film Taxi 4 was held in France. As in the two previous movies, the director was Gerard Krawczyk, and Luc Besson was scriptwriter and producer. The most dangerous criminal in the world, Albert van den Bosch, escapes from the Marseille police station because of Émilien's incapability. As a result of this, Émilien is dismissed and is now working with Daniel and his wife Petra trying to track down and arrest the escaped criminal. The movie raised more than $65 million at the box office with a budget of €17.3 million.[6]

Taxi 5 (2018)

Taxi 5 premiered in theatres on April 12, 2018. As before, the scriptwriter and producer was Luc Besson, while Gerard Krawczyk was replaced by the young director Franck Gastambide. The characters were also changed, instead of Daniel and Émilien, the heroes of the movie are Daniel's nephew Eddie Makhlouf and the Parisian police officer Silvain Maro, transferred to Marseille. They have to catch a gang of Italian robbers who use Italian supercars as their getaway vehicles.

Future

In an interview with “50 Minutes Inside,” Frank Gastambid announced that if Taxi 5 pays off well at the box office, then Taxi 6 will be his next job. Unfortunately, the film failed at the box office with a budget of €20.39 million, raising only $35 million. Despite this, the director still plans to make the sixth film.

In an interview with the Premiere newspaper, Samy Naseri said that he was ready to star in Taxi 6 if Luc Besson “assembled the old team”, but the actor flatly refuses to work with Gastambid, as he will ruin the sixth film again.

At the Dinar Film Festival of 2018, Sabrina Ouazani confirmed that the sixth film is still in the plans, but the start of filming date and the release one are currently unknown.

Television

Series	Season	Episodes	First released	Last released	Showrunner(s)	Network(s)
Taxi Brooklyn	1	12	April 14, 2014	May 12, 2014	Gary Scott Thompson, Stephen Tolkin & Franck Ollivier	TF1, NBC

Taxi Brooklyn (2014)

In 2014, the television series Taxi Brooklyn, filmed jointly by EuropaCorp Television, the French TV channel TF1 and the American NBC, aired on television. The main creator of the series was Gary Scott Thompson. The plot was based on the first "Taxi".

Caitlin "Cat" Sullivan is an NYPD detective working in Brooklyn. After her driving privileges are suspended, she relies on Leo Romba, a Brooklyn cab driver from France. Leo becomes Cat's driver and a de facto consultant on her cases. While solving crimes with Leo, Cat is also running her own unauthorized investigation into the death of her father, an NYPD detective thought to have been executed by the Capella crime family. In doing so, she clashes with her boss, Captain Baker, and her ex-husband Gregg, who has picked up the case for the FBI.

On the site Rotten Tomatoes, the series received a rating of 38%.[7] On March 6, 2015, NBC cancelled the show.[8]

Cast and crew

Principal cast

List indicator(s)

• This table shows the characters and the actors who have portrayed them throughout the franchise
• Italics indicate the actor only appears in flashbacks via archive footage from previous films
• A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film

Character	Original series					Remake
	Taxi	Taxi 2	Taxi 3	Taxi 4	Taxi 5	Taxi
	1998	2000	2003	2007	2018	2004
Daniel Morales	Samy Naceri				Samy Naceri (Mentioned)
Émilien Coutant-Kerbalec	Frédéric Diefenthal				Frédéric Diefenthal (Mentioned)
Lilly Bertineau	Marion Cotillard			Marion Cotillard (Mentioned)
Petra	Emma Wiklund
Commissaire Gérard Gibert	Bernard Farcy
Alain Trésor	Édouard Montoute
General Edmond Bertineau		Jean-Christophe Bouvet			Jean-Christophe Bouvet (Mentioned)
Sylvain Marot					Franck Gastambide
Eddy Maklouf					Malik Bentalha
Samia					Sabrina Ouazani
Sandy					Sand Van Roy
Isabelle "Belle" Precious Williams						Queen Latifah
Detective Andrew Washburn						Jimmy Fallon

Additional crew

Title	Taxi	Taxi 2	Taxi 3	Taxi 4	Taxi 5
Director	Gérard Pirès	Gérard Krawczyk			Franck Gastambide
Screenplay	Luc Besson				Franck Gastambide Stéphane Kazandjian Luc Besson
Editing	Véronique Lange	Thierry Hosse	Yann Herve	Kristin Luca Navarro Friederic Toraval	Julien Rey
Producer	Luc Besson
	Michèle Pétin
	Laurent Pétin
Music	Akhenaton	Al Kemya	Kore & Skalp	Tefa, Masta Weallstar—Da. Octopusss	Kore
Cinematographer	Jean-Pierre Sauveur	Gerard Sterin		Pierre Morel	Vincent Richard
Premiere	8 April 1998	29 March 2000	29 January 2003	10 February 2007 (Marseille) 15 February 2007 (rest of France)	7 April 2018 (Marseille) 11 April 2018 (rest of France)
Runtime	90 min.	88 min.	87 min.	97 min.	102 min.
Budget	€8.1 mln[9]	€10.7 mln[10]	€14.49 mln[11]	€17.3 mln[12]	€20.39 mln[13]
Genre	Comedy Action
Country	France
Company
	ARP Sélection
	TF1 Films Production
	StudioCanal			Apipoulaï
	Leeloo Productions		EuropaCorp
Distributor  France	EuropaCorp Distribution

Reception

Box office performance

	Film					All films of the Taxi (film series)
	Taxi	Taxi 2	Taxi 3	Taxi 4	Taxi 5
France	$37,980,000[9]	$63,704,000[10]	$35,752,480[11]	$33,342,703[12]	$21,899,085[14]	$192,678,268
United States	$268,254[9]	$729,844[10]	$497,208[11]	—	—	$1,495,306
Worldwide	$44,218,015[9]	$64,433,844[10]	$64,497,208[11]	$65,114,802[12]	$64,497,208[14]	$302,761,077

Music

Soundtracks

Title	U.S. release date	Length	Composer(s)	Label
Taxi: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	1998	TBA	TBA	TBA
Taxi 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	2000	TBA	TBA	TBA
Taxi 3: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	2003	TBA	TBA	TBA
Taxi: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	2004	TBA	TBA	TBA
Taxi 4: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	2007	TBA	TBA	TBA
Taxi 5: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	2018	TBA	TBA	TBA

Other media

Video games

Taxi 2 – Based on Taxi 2. Released in 2000

Taxi 3 – Based on Taxi 3. Released in 2003

References

1. "Taxi (1998) - JPBox-Office". jpbox-office.com. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
2. "Taxi 2 (2000)". JP's Box-Office (in French). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
3. "Taxi 3 (2003)". JP's Box-Office (in French). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
4. "Taxi (2004) – International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
5. "Taxi (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
6. "Taxi 4 (2007)". JP's Box-Office (in French). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
7. "Taxi Brooklyn: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
8. Trevor Kimball (March 6, 2015). "'Taxi Brooklyn' Canceled By NBC, No Season Two". TV Series Finale. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
9. "Box-office Taxi (1998)". JP's box-office (in French). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
10. "Box-office Taxi 2 (2000)". JP's box-office (in French). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
11. "Box-office Taxi 3 (2003)". JP's box-office (in French). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
12. "Box-office Taxi 4 (2007)". JP's box-office (in French). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
13. Jamal Henni (April 7, 2018). "Pourquoi a-t-il fallu attendre Taxi 5 pendant onze ans?". BFM Business (in French). Retrieved April 10, 2018.
14. "Box-office Taxi 5 (2018)". JP's box-office (in French). Retrieved May 8, 2018.