French Media Threaten To Sue Far-right Zemmour For Using Images

Paris, Dec 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Dec, 2021 ) :Celebrities and film companies are among those furious at the use of their images by far-right pundit Eric Zemmour in the short film that announced his run for the presidency.

Zemmour, a 63-year-old writer and tv pundit who declared his candidacy on Tuesday via a YouTube video, is the most stridently anti-Islam and anti-migrant of the challengers seeking to unseat President Emmanuel Macron in April 2022.

Director Luc Besson ("The Fifth Element") was among those reacting angrily after a clip from his 1999 film "Joan of Arc" starring Milla Jovovich appeared in Zemmour's 10-minute video.

Besson told AFP that the images were used "in a fraudulent manner" and that he "shares none of Eric Zemmour's ideas.

" Movie production house Gaumont also took a strong stance, saying they had received no requests from Zemmour's team to use clips from "Joan of Arc" or 1960s classic "A Monkey in Winter" starring Jean-Luc Belmondo, to which it owns the rights.

Both were used by Zemmour as part of his warnings that the traditional France "of Joan of Arc and Louis XIV" and "of Notre Dame and village churches" is disappearing under the weight of migration and foreign cultures.

Gaumont said it "would study all the options open to us" against Zemmour.