Luc Besson’s Anna Set For Summer Release

April 10, 2019

The Hollywood Reporter has brought word that the upcoming Luc Besson crime-thriller Anna, which has been ready for a theatrical release for almost two years, is finally heading to theaters on June 21 through Lionsgate’s Summit label.

The film, which was originally set to hit theaters last year, has been surrounded by controversy following a report from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets star Sand Van Roy in May 2018 alleging that Besson drugged and raped her in a Paris hotel, with Lionsgate and Summit shelving the film after a total of nine women filed harassment reports. Following the Paris prosecutor’s dismissal of the rape charges in late February due to a lack of evidence, Lionsgate has decided to move forward with a summer release.

Anna is an English-language action thriller, budgeted in the $30 million range. The film, based on an original idea and written by Besson, began shooting in November 2017. The film features an all-star ensemble led by Sasha Luss (Valerian) and also starring Helen Mirren (The Nutcracker and the Four Realms), Luke Evans (The Alienist), Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders) and Eric Godon (The Missing).

After the disappointing returns on 2017’s mega-budget Valerian, EuropaCorp will continue focusing on making action thrillers and sci-fi films along the lines of Taken, Lucy, The Professional and The Fifth Element, but they will produce less of them and Besson will now have more oversight over each of them. The projects will carry a budget of about $25 to $35 million per film.