French director Luc Besson is in Beijing to promote his latest movie "Arthur and the Minimoys". Aimed at a childhood audience, it will be widely released across China on Jan. 19.(File Photo)

French director Luc Besson is in Beijing to promote his latest movie "Arthur and the Minimoys". Aimed at a childhood audience, it will be widely released across China on Jan. 19.

This movie is an adaptation of his best selling novel "Arthur and the Minimoys". It is a family adventure about a boy who, after his grandfather disappears, sets out to save his family home from expansionist real estate developers.

At the press conference in Beijing Tuesday, Luc Besson said that what he wanted to express in this movie was childhood itself, that what you learn in your childhood benefits your whole life.

"But there are too many bad things shown on TV nowadays: like theft, pollution and racial discrimination. As a grown-up, I feel shameful about what we often leave for our kids to watch. I want to say sorry to them through this movie."

Responding to media reports that this is just another Hollywood product, Luc Besson disagrees. He pointed to the fact that "Arthur" had topped box office takings in many European countries, receiving positive reviews from film critics, but failed to register as a hit in the United States. "Hollywood believes in American values, but this movie appreciates the general value of human beings, that is, to learn to share, to respect people and nature."

The director expressed his affection for Chinese movies and, when giving a lecture at the Beijing Film Academy on Monday, mentioned the young Chinese director Lu Chuan. He said he had enjoyed Lu Chuan's Tibetan antelope movie "Ke Ke Xi Li Mountain Patrol" and expressed his intention to cooperate with him in future.

One week earlier, Luc Besson had purchased the French distribution rights to last year's Chinese box office hit "Crazy Stone".

The director will continue to give press conferences in Shanghai on Jan. 19.

"Arthur and the Minimoys" has cost over 4 years of Luc Besson's time. Its budget was 65 million Euros, the highest in French filmmaking history.

Editor: Donald