MARCH 28, 2002

Le Mans II - the second film

Motor Racing and the cinema have not always been easy bedfellows as Formula 1 found when it tried to do a deal a few years ago with Sylvester Stallone.

MOTOR RACING and the cinema have not always been easy bedfellows as Formula 1 found when it tried to do a deal a few years ago with Sylvester Stallone. In the end Stallone went off and made a film called "Driven" about CART racing. This appeared last year - and did not feature in the recent Oscar ceremonies. Now we hear from France that the country's well-known film director Luc Besson is embarking on a new project to film at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The original Le Mans movie in the 1960s is remembered as one of the classic motor racing movies and Besson hopes to emulate that achievement. Besson has enjoyed considerable international success with Subway (1985), Le Grande Bleu (1988) and Nikita (1990) but his recent efforts have no had quite such an impact at the box office.