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Jaume Collet-Serra

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House of Wax is a 2005 slasher film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra , in his feature directorial debut, and written by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes . The film stars Elisha Cuthbert , Chad Michael Murray , Brian Van Holt in a dual role, Paris Hilton , Jared Padalecki , Jon Abrahams , and Robert Ri'chard . It is a remake of the 1953 film of the same name , itself a remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum , based on the story "The Wax Works" by Charles S. Belden . The soundtrack features music by bands including Deftones , My Chemical Romance , and Interpol .

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57-456: Jaume Collet-Serra ( Catalan: [ˈʒawmə kuˈʎɛt ˈsɛrə] ; born 23 March 1974) is a Spanish-American film director and producer. He has directed the horror films House of Wax (2005), Orphan (2009), and The Shallows (2016). Collet-Serra is also known for his collaborations with Liam Neeson on the thriller films Unknown (2011), Non-Stop (2014), Run All Night (2015), and The Commuter (2018), and Dwayne Johnson on

114-413: A 2016 horror-thriller starring Blake Lively , from a script by Anthony Jaswinski, and The Commuter , an action-thriller starring Liam Neeson , which was released on January 12, 2018, and also features Vera Farmiga , Sam Neill , and Elizabeth McGovern . Collet-Serra served as director for Jungle Cruise from The Walt Disney Company , starring Dwayne Johnson . The film was based on the concept of

171-561: A broken headlight and realizes it was he who visited the campsite, she flees, chased by Bo who catches her and takes her to the gas station cellar. Vincent covers Wade's body in molten wax. Realizing they will not arrive at the game in time, Paige and Blake return to the campsite while Nick and Dalton arrive in Ambrose to look for Carly and Wade. When Carly attempts to call for help, Bo cuts off her fingertip. She gets Nick's attention who fends off Bo and frees Carly, while Dalton finds Wade as part of

228-504: A daughter, Juliette, born in 1987. Parillaud starred in Besson's La Femme Nikita (1990). They divorced in 1991. Besson's second wife was actress and director Maïwenn Le Besco , whom he started dating when he was 32 and she was 15. They married in late 1992 when Le Besco, 16, was pregnant with their daughter Shanna , who was born on 3 January 1993. Le Besco later claimed that their relationship inspired Besson's film Léon (1994), where

285-457: A fantastic platform. Jaume loves mentoring new talent." The venture's first film was Mindscape , a psychological thriller about a man with the ability to enter people's memories, starring Taissa Farmiga , Mark Strong , and Brian Cox . Collet-Serra executive produced the found footage comedy-horror film Hooked Up , which was directed by Pablo Larcuen and was shot on an iPhone . Collet-Serra directed and executive produced The Shallows ,

342-464: A feel for the industry. He worked as an assistant to directors including Claude Faraldo and Patrick Grandperret . He directed three short films, a commissioned documentary, and several commercials. He then moved to the United States for three years, but returned to Paris, where he formed his own production company. He first named it Les Films du Loup , then changed it to Les Films du Dauphin . In

399-467: A funeral. While waiting, they visit the central feature of the town: "Trudy's House of Wax", a wax museum which is itself, like everything inside, made of wax. They follow Bo to his house to get the fan belt; Carly waits in his truck while Wade goes inside to use the bathroom. Wade is knocked unconscious by Bo's twin brother, Vincent, who wears a wax mask to cover his facial disfigurement from where they were once conjoined . When Carly notices Bo's truck has

456-492: A guy whose brother was a third assistant on a short film. It's true. So, I said: 'OK, let's go on the set.' So I went on the set. The day after I went back to see my mum and told her that I was going to make films and stop school and 'bye. And I did it! Very soon after I made a short film and it was very, very bad. I wanted to prove that I could do something, so I made a short film. That was in fact my main concern, to be able to show that I could do one." Besson reportedly worked on

513-516: A metal pipe. Vincent encounters the Joneses in the House of Wax basement. Nick unintentionally starts a fire causing an inferno. Upstairs, Nick battles Bo and is stabbed in the leg before Carly beats Bo to death with a baseball bat . Vincent chases Carly to the top floor where she tries to reason with him but then stabs him in the back. Vincent falls to his death on top of Bo's corpse, while the Joneses escape as

570-547: A mysterious nine-year-old girl. The film received mixed critical reviews but was a box office success, earning around $ 80 million on a $ 20 million budget. Collet-Serra then directed Unknown , a 2011 action thriller starring Liam Neeson , Diane Kruger , January Jones , Aidan Quinn , Bruno Ganz , and Frank Langella . The film is based on the 2003 French novel published in English as Out of My Head , by Didier Van Cauwelaert . Collet-Serra made his television directing debut with

627-634: A pivotal figure in the Cinéma du look movement—a specific, highly visual style produced from the 1980s into the early 1990s. Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988) and La Femme Nikita (1990) are all considered of this stylistic school. The term was coined by critic Raphaël Bassan in a 1989 essay in La Revue du Cinema n° 449 . A partisan of the experimental cinema and friend of New Wave (" nouvelle vague ") directors, Bassan grouped Besson with Jean-Jacques Beineix and Leos Carax as three directors who shared

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684-517: Is going to shake the pillars of the moviemaking establishment." Besson directed a biopic of Aung San Suu Kyi called The Lady (2011) (original title Dans la Lumiere ). He also worked on Lockout (2012). Many of Besson's films have achieved popular, if not always critical, success. Reviews were mixed for Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue) . Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that

741-519: Is really only one question: Is it fun? Yes. Lots. Definitely." Bruce Westbrook of the Houston Chronicle called it boring and poorly-acted, though he complimented Cuthbert and Murray. A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "The set design is fairly elaborate by the standards of the genre, and the victims don't die in precisely the order you might expect, but everything else goes pretty much according to formula". House of Wax: Music from

798-512: Is two families, and I am the only bad souvenir of something that doesn't work," he said in the International Herald Tribune . "And if I disappear, then everything is perfect. The rage to exist comes from here. I have to do something! Otherwise I am going to die." At age 17, Besson had a diving accident that left him unable to dive. In a 2000 interview with The Guardian , he described how this influenced his choice of career: "I

855-444: The Goal! film trilogy, in which the main character, star Mexican footballer Santiago Muñez ( Kuno Becker ), goes to play for Real Madrid . Collet-Serra reunited with producer Silver for his third film, Orphan , a 2009 American psychological horror film starring Vera Farmiga , Peter Sarsgaard , and Isabelle Fuhrman , about on a couple who, after the death of their unborn child, adopt

912-555: The Tribeca Film Festival and was released in United States theaters on May 6, 2005, by Warner Bros. Pictures . It grossed $ 70.1 million worldwide and received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized its lack of originality, screenplay, and characters, but praised the performances and atmosphere. On the way to a football game, Carly Jones, her brother Nick, her boyfriend Wade Felton and their friends – Dalton Chapman, Paige Edwards and Blake Johnson – set up camp for

969-662: The investigating judge . Directed features Among Besson's awards are the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film Critics Prize, Fantasporto Audience Jury Award-Special Mention, Best Director, and Best Film, for Le Dernier Combat in 1983; the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon-Best Director-Foreign Film, for La Femme Nikita , 1990; the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, Nil by Mouth , 1997; and

1026-420: The 1953 original, House of Wax is a formulaic but better-than-average teen slasher flick." On Metacritic , which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 41 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave

1083-513: The ABC pilot The River , a horror drama from Paranormal Activity writer-director Oren Peli . The show was met with generally favourable reviews. In December 2012, he began filming for his next film Non-Stop , which starred Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore . Collet-Serra formed his own production house Ombra Films. With money from StudioCanal , the small company set out to make low-budget English-language horror films, with an eye toward launching

1140-670: The Best Director Cesar Award, for The Fifth Element , 1997. Besson was awarded the Inkpot Award in 2016. In 2000, Besson superseded his production company by co-founding EuropaCorp with Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, with whom he had frequently worked since 1985. Le Pogam had then been Distribution Director with Gaumont . EuropaCorp has had strong growth based on several English-language films, with international distribution. It has production facilities in Paris, Normandy, and Hollywood, and

1197-665: The Dragon and Unleashed . His English-language films Taken , Taken 2 , and Taken 3 , all co-written with Kamen and starring Liam Neeson , have been major successes, with Taken 2 becoming the largest-grossing export French film. Besson produced the promotional movie for the Paris 2012 Olympic bid . Besson won the Lumières Award for Best Director and the César Award for Best Director , for his film The Fifth Element (1997). He

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1254-838: The French call a 'film générationnel,' a defining moment in the culture." Besson created the hugely successful Arthur series , which comprises Arthur and the Minimoys , Arthur and the Forbidden City , Arthur and the Vengeance of Maltazard and Arthur and the War of the Two Worlds . He directed Arthur and the Invisibles , an adaptation of the first two books of the collection, starring Madonna and Robert DeNiro . A film with live action and animation , it

1311-490: The House of Wax melts to the ground. The next morning local authorities, having seen the smoke, arrive and report that the town had been abandoned for a decade since the sugar mill went out of business. As the Joneses are driven away in an ambulance, one of the officers is told that the Sinclair family did not have just two sons, but three. The ambulance passes by Lester, who waves the siblings goodbye while smiling. House of Wax

1368-455: The House of Wax, restrained in his wax coating. Dalton tries to free Wade by peeling off the wax from his face, inadvertently removing his skin in the process. Vincent ambushes Dalton and slashes off a section of Wade's face, causing him to die of shock, before decapitating Dalton. While searching the town for help, the Joneses realize that the wax figures, both in the House of Wax and placed around Ambrose to make it appear populated, are actually

1425-483: The Motion Picture is the soundtrack for House of Wax , consisting of commercially recorded songs. A second album was released containing the film score composed by John Ottman , and was simply titled House of Wax . One song from the film does not appear on the soundtrack: "Roland" by Interpol appears in the scene at the beginning of the film when the group decides to camp overnight. The song that plays during

1482-520: The absence of consent of the civil party is not established and the existence of a constraint, threat, violence, is not characterized". In April 2022, Van Roy submitted a complaint against the magistrate in charge of the case. In June 2023, Besson was definitively cleared of all charges, following a ruling by the Court of Cassation , the highest judicial court in France. This ruling prevents Van Roy from suing him on

1539-426: The accuser was "someone he knows, towards whom he has never behaved inappropriately". In February 2019, French prosecutors dropped the case against him, citing lack of evidence. In December 2021, a judge dismissed the case against Besson following a second investigation. The public prosecutor's office in Paris stated that "the investigations clearly establish that the criminal facts of rape were not committed, that

1596-569: The best film producers, for refining and revolutionizing action film. He wrote that Besson dramatizes the struggle of his characters "as a conscientious resistance to human degradation". In 2012, film critic Eric Kohn wrote in Indiewire : "Luc Besson’s filmography has been spotty for years, littered with equal amounts of sensationalistic pop art and flashy duds, a tendency that extends beyond his directing credits." Besson has been married four times; first, in 1986, to actress Anne Parillaud . They had

1653-503: The blockbuster films Jungle Cruise (2021) and Black Adam (2022). Collet-Serra was born in Sant Iscle de Vallalta, Catalonia, Spain . At the age of 18, he moved to Los Angeles , California and attended Columbia College Hollywood , working as an editor on the side. After graduating in 1996, he began directing music videos and television commercials for brands such as PlayStation , Budweiser , and Verizon . In 2005, Collet-Serra

1710-518: The careers of up-and-coming Spanish filmmakers. Juan Sola, Collet-Serra's producing partner, told Deadline Hollywood , "We've seen how many talented directors are coming out of Spain , but there hasn't really been a platform for them to find work in films. They look up to Jaume as a guy they want to become and we thought, how about a company that creates a bridge between Spain and the U.S., similar to what Luc Besson provided in France? Already, we are being bombarded, and we feel directors will find Ombra

1767-481: The creation of more than 50 films . Besson was born in Paris , to parents who both worked as Club Med scuba-diving instructors. Influenced by this, he planned to become a marine biologist . He spent much of his youth traveling with his parents to tourist resorts in Italy , Yugoslavia , and Greece . The family returned to France when he was 10. His parents divorced, and both remarried; of this, he said: "Here there

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1824-563: The early 1980s, Besson met Éric Serra and asked him to compose the score for his first short film, L'Avant dernier . He subsequently had Serra compose for other films. Since the late 20th century, Besson has written and produced numerous action movies, including the Taxi series (1998–2007), the Transporter series (2002–2008; another collaboration with Robert Mark Kamen), and the Jet Li films Kiss of

1881-417: The end credits is " Helena " by My Chemical Romance. According to Carey Hayes, after House of Wax ' s release there had been discussions of developing a prequel , but these plans did not materialize due to the film's lack of success at the box office. Luc Besson Luc Paul Maurice Besson ( French: [lyk bɛsɔ̃] ; born 18 March 1959) is a French filmmaker. He directed or produced

1938-535: The film grossed $ 12 million in its opening weekend. House of Wax earned $ 70 million worldwide, $ 32 million of which came from North American receipts. House of Wax also earned $ 42 million in VHS/DVD rentals. A marketing campaign was launched to promote the film entitled "See Paris Die", to capitalize on the appearance of Paris Hilton in the film, as her casting had been met with disapproval by some horror fans. The campaign promised that viewers would "See Paris Die" in

1995-466: The film in a gruesome fashion and Hilton created shirts featuring the slogan. On July 13, 2021 a collector's edition Blu-Ray of House of Wax was released (under license from Warner Bros. ) by Scream Factory in the US & Canada. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 27% based on 161 reviews and the average rating is 4.29/10. The site's consensus reads, "Bearing little resemblance to

2052-424: The film two out of four stars and wrote, " House of Wax is not a good movie, but it is an efficient one and will deliver most of what anyone attending House of Wax could reasonably expect...assuming it would be unreasonable to expect very much." He said of Hilton's performance that "she is no better or worse than the typical Dead Post-Teenager and does exactly what she is required to do in a movie like this, with all

2109-492: The films Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), and La Femme Nikita (1990). Associated with the Cinéma du look film movement, he has been nominated for a César Award for Best Director and Best Picture for his films Léon: The Professional (1994) and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). He won Best Director and Best French Director for his sci-fi action film The Fifth Element (1997). He wrote and directed

2166-564: The first drafts of Le Grand Bleu ( The Big Blue ) while still in his teens. Out of boredom, he started writing stories, including the background to what he later developed as The Fifth Element (1997), one of his most popular movies, inspired by the French comic books he read as a teenager. He directed and co-wrote the screenplay of this science fiction thriller with American screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen . At 18, Besson returned to his birthplace of Paris, where he took odd jobs in film to get

2223-436: The movie was "too long and initially awkward but is clearly the work of a visionary. " "When the film had its premiere on opening night at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival , it was mercilessly drubbed, but no matter; it was a smash," observed the International Herald Tribune in a 2007 profile of Besson. "Embraced by young people who kept returning to see it again, the movie sold 10 million tickets and quickly became what

2280-636: The movie," said Jovovich. He married Jovovich on December 14, 1997, when he was 38 and she was 21. They divorced in 1999. On August 28, 2004, at age 45, Besson married film producer Virginie Silla , 32. They have three children, including the actress Thalia Besson . In 2018, Dutch-Belgian actress Sand Van Roy , who appeared in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets , accused Besson of rape. The director's lawyer Thierry Marembert stated that Besson "categorically denies these fantasist accusations" and that

2337-469: The night in a wood. A stranger in a pickup truck arrives, then leaves after Nick smashes one of his headlights. The next day, Wade discovers his car's fan belt has been severed; a local named Lester offers to drive Wade and Carly to the nearby town of Ambrose while the rest of the group head to the game. In Ambrose, which is virtually a ghost town , Bo Sinclair offers to sell Carly and Wade a fan belt and drive them back to their car after he finishes attending

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2394-413: The plot involved the emotional relationship between an adult man and a 12-year-old girl (played by then 12-year-old Natalie Portman ). Their marriage ended in 1997, when Besson became involved with actress Milla Jovovich , then 19, during the production of The Fifth Element (1997). "We sensed the special chemistry between us immediately at the auditions and it just intensified during the filming of

2451-655: The ride of the same name at Disneyland . In June 2019, Collet-Serra signed on to direct Black Adam , written by Adam Sztykiel and starring Dwayne Johnson. Johnson served as a producer on the project alongside Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia, Beau Flynn , and Scott Sheldon. Collet-Serra emerged as the frontrunner to direct after his work on Jungle Cruise . The film is a co-production between Warner Bros. Pictures , New Line Cinema , DC Films , Seven Bucks Productions , and FlynnPicturesCo. film studios. Production began in April 2021. In March 2019 TheWrap reported that Collet-Serra

2508-488: The same charges in France or elsewhere in Europe. Several other women, including a former assistant, two students of Cité du Cinéma studio, and a former employee of Besson's EuropaCorp , who all wished to remain anonymous, described "inappropriate sexual behavior" by the director. Having no physical evidence to support their stories, they did not press charges and avoided a defamation countersuit. Their stories were not used by

2565-453: The sci-fi action film Lucy (2014) and the space opera film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). In 1980, near the beginning of his career, he founded his own production company, Les Films du Loup, later renamed Les Films du Dauphin. It was superseded in 2000 when he co-founded EuropaCorp with longtime collaborator Pierre-Ange Le Pogam  [ fr ] . As writer, director, or producer, Besson has been involved in

2622-527: The set during production. The $ 7 million lawsuit alleged that Mr. Fletcher and Wax Productions were grossly negligent over the fire, which destroyed part of the Gold Coast 's Warner Bros. Movie World studios. The alleged grounds of negligence included not having firefighters on stand-by and using timber props near a naked flame. The set where the fire broke out was demolished and is now a field kept for Movie World for future projects. Opening in 3,111 theaters,

2679-475: The skill—admittedly finite—that is required." Film critic Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post , gave the film four out of five stars, calling it a "guilty pleasure" and wrote that it gives horror fans exactly what they want. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle rated it 4/5 stars and wrote, "After a month, no one will talk about this movie again. Still, with a picture like this, there

2736-430: The style of "le look". These directors were later critically described as "favouring style over substance, and spectacle over narrative". Besson, and most of the filmmakers so categorised, were uncomfortable with the label. He contrasted their work with France's New Wave . " Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut were rebelling against existing cultural values and used cinema as a means of expression simply because it

2793-410: The wax-coated corpses of its inhabitants and visitors lured there. Vincent had been attempting to continue the wax sculpting work of his mother and the House of Wax's creator, Trudy Sinclair, after her death, but Bo began manipulating Vincent into making more realistic figures out of their victims. At the campsite, Vincent murders Blake and chases Paige into an abandoned sugar mill, where he kills her with

2850-410: Was 17 and I wondered what I was going to do. ... So I took a piece of paper and on the left I put everything I could do, or had skills for, and all the things I couldn't do. The first line was shorter and I could see that I loved writing, I loved images, I was taking a lot of pictures. So I thought maybe movies would be good. But I thought that to really know I should go to a set. And a friend of mine knew

2907-641: Was announced that Collet-Serra would direct The Woman in the Yard , produced by Jason Blum 's Blumhouse Productions and starring Danielle Deadwyler . The film was originally scheduled to be released on January 10, 2025, but was removed from the release schedule in March 2024. Collet-Serra resides in the Hollywood Hills West neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Producer Executive producer only House of Wax (2005 film) House of Wax premiered at

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2964-455: Was filmed at Warner Bros. Movie World , Australia. The set used for the town of Ambrose was constructed a few miles down the road, off Hollindale Road, in the Guanaba area. In January 2006, Village Roadshow Studios owners Village Theme Park Management and Warner Brothers Movie World Australia announced they were suing special effects expert David Fletcher and Wax Productions because of a fire on

3021-451: Was given an opportunity to direct his first feature film by producer Joel Silver . The film, House of Wax , was a remake of the 1953 film of the same name , and starred Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray and featured Paris Hilton . Despite a negative critical reception, it was a financial success. Two years later, Collet-Serra directed Goal II: Living the Dream , the second film in

3078-613: Was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture César Awards for his films Léon: The Professional (1994) and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). French actor Jean Reno has appeared in several films by Besson, including Le dernier combat (1983), Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), La Femme Nikita (1990), and Léon: The Professional (1994). In summer 2024, Besson directed Dracula: A Love Tale , an adaptation of Dracula starring Caleb Landry Jones and features Christophe Waltz . Critics such as Raphaël Bassan and Guy Austin cite Besson as

3135-545: Was released in the UK and the US, as well as in France. Besson has been described as "the most Hollywood of French filmmakers". Scott Tobias wrote that his "slick, commercial" action movies were "so interchangeable—drugs, sleaze, chuckling supervillainy , and Hong Kong -style effects—that each new project probably starts with white-out on the title page." American film critic Armond White has praised Besson, whom he ranks as one of

3192-548: Was the most avant-garde medium at the time," said Besson in a 1985 interview in The New York Times . "Today, the revolution is occurring entirely within the industry and is led by people who want to change the look of movies by making them better, more convincing and pleasurable to watch. "Because it's becoming increasingly difficult to break into this field, we have developed a psychological armor and are ready to do anything in order to work," he added. "I think our ardor alone

3249-414: Was to direct Victory , a remake of the 1981 film Escape to Victory . In August 2021, Collet-Serra signed on to direct a sequel to Jungle Cruise . Collet-Serra is also set to direct an upcoming thriller for Netflix , titled Carry-On . It will follow a TSA agent blackmailed into allowing a dangerous package on board a flight and will star Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman . In February 2024, it

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