A low-ranking intelligence operative (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) working in the office of the U.S. Ambassador in France takes on more than he bargained for when he partners with a wisecracking, fast-shooting, high-ranking U.S. agent (John Travolta) who's been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack.

As the two tear through Paris on an anti-terrorism peace mission, our young agent discovers the deadliest weapons are the one we love the most.

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DIRECTOR, SCREENWRITER AND CAST

Director Pierre Morel, who recently helmed the acclaimed action-thrillers Taken, talks about From Paris with Love : Taken was a single character movie, one guy that had one goal, so it was a pretty straight-forward structure. This one is more complex because when you read the script, it starts out like a funny buddy movie and it was nice to make it evolve, slowly but surely, into a darker plot. From that super fun thing, slowly twist into something darker. The final twist makes it very dark in the end." Read more

Screenwriter Adi Hasak: "I met Luc Besson  through India Osborne who was working with him at the time in Los Angeles. She had read a pilot that I had written for HBO and next thing I knew I was sitting down with Luc Besson in the Four Seasons in Los Angeles. It was just a wonderful meeting. I had been a fan of Luc's for years. I remember seeing Subway, I remember every movie that he made as a director, kind of a milestone in my life. He had this fleshed-out story that he wanted to talk about. It was simple and engaging, about an American hitman that comes to Paris, for 24 hours for a job, and he is driven around town by a guy who works in the Embassy. This character looks up to the hitman and wants to become the hitman. They have one hell of an adventure and at the end of those 24 hours, both come out a better man." Read more

Producer Virginie Besson-Silla: "From Paris With Love is definitely a buddy movie between Wax and Reese. We follow them on a journey through Paris and in those 3 days Reese sees what it takes to become a real agent. So it's a buddy movie with a lot of comedic dialogue and situations, and also a drama because the backdrop to the story is terrorism, which of course is anything but comic. For that reason, Pierre Morel was the perfect director. Pierre has the subtlety to make a movie that combines comedy with a very dramatic story totally credible. " Read more

John Travolta talks about playing Wax: "As an actor I'm first attracted to what I can do with a character that's different than what someone else can do with it. This was an outrageous character and it gave me something to do as an actor. I was able to be someone different than myself. And Luc Besson was an attraction because he's an excellent filmmaker and he wrote the script, and I think Pierre's work was attractive because he proved through a few films that he could do this kind of movie, so all of these elements attracted me." Read more

Jonathan Rhys Meyers talks about his character: "I read the script and I wanted to do this type of movie. I wanted to work with Pierre Morel cause I'd seen Taken. I wanted to work with John and Luc Besson and Virginie. I get to play a guy who has something kind of childish about him, even thought he's a very grown-up guy and a very responsible guy, but he has this idea of what being a spy is all about and it's mainly stuff out of comic books. That element makes him like a child in a sense, but then slowly he  starts to realize that it's not all James Bond cars and nice suits and covert operations. It's very dirty and bloody and messy and disgusting--the real world. He is sort of living out his fantasy and the fantasy turns into a nightmare in front of him." Read more

JOHN TRAVOLTA AND JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS TALKS ABOUT WORKING TOGETHER

JRM I don't think you really ever know whether it will perfectly match until you get there and you start shooting. Then the energy transfer happens. John is an incredibly warm, very open, very generous person, so I knew that I had somebody that had the potential to be very energetic with, to be very comfortable with. But you really don't know until you turn the camera on.
JT Jonathan and I both have a similar attack on acting, so we both approach it in a very naturalistic way, but our energies are similar in that we keep the fire lit throughout a scene and if we don't, we make it happen. So having that agreement where we trust each other and we're comfortable with each other allows for a scene to come alive. Then you really don't know until you see it on screen. We could be having the best time in the world but you have to see it on the screen and then you, as an audience, have to say, "Oh, they have chemistry!" We could feel all the chemistry in the world but it may not be true. In this case, after we saw a little bit of footage together, I think it was, "Wow, that's pretty accurate."  Read more

THE ART OF ORIGINAL FILMMAKING

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