Luc Besson Taken To Court For Refusing Hunters To Shoot Deers On His Land

French film director Luc Besson was taken to court in France on November 4 for refusing to allow deer hunters in his estate to shoot rogue deer.

Hunters in the Orne area, northern Normandy, accused the 60-year-old director of The Fifth Element, Léon: The Professional and Nikita of obstructing the national hunting plan by allowing deer to multiply and roam free on his land.

The hunters are asking Besson to pay around €130,000 ($145,000) in compensation for the damage caused by the rogue deer–a sum which a local hunters federation claim has been accumulating since 2014.

“These people are on the wrong side of history”

The damages include compensation for local farmers that, it is claimed, had their land damaged by the 50 or so deers regularly roaming within Besson’s estate.

“In mid-debate over the ecology and biodiversity tragedy hitting the entire planet, Orne hunters are asking me to kill deer that pass by my home?!,” Besson told French newspaper Le Parisien last month.

“Should I have my children watch from the balcony while I’m at it? These people are on the wrong side of history.”

The hunters’ lawyers, Charles Lagier, said that it was irrelevant whether the director supported hunting or not. “He doesn’t hunt, fair enough. We’re in a democracy, that’s his right. But either he accepts the national hunting plan or he pays the price,” he told the court, according to French agency AFP.  

Besson acquired the 395-acre estate near La Trinité-des-Laitiers, around half of which is forest, in 1998.  

The property includes a red-brick château, which the director, producer and screenwriter uses as a post-production studio.

The trial has been adjourned and a judgement is expected on December 26.

Last month, the Le Grand Bleu director denied rape claims put forward by a young actress.

Dutch actress Sand Van Roy, 29, who starred in Besson’s film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, accused the director of repeatedly raping her over a two-year period.

Besson admitted he had an affair with Van Roy but dismissed the allegations as a “complete and utter lie.”

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Editor’s Note: The Paris prosecution office initially dropped the rape case against Besson in February citing a lack of evidence. The case against Besson was reopened in October. Van Roy is one of several women who have accused Besson of sexual misconduct. The director has denied all allegations.

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