EuropaCorp chief stands down

Christophe Lambert, CEO of French filmmaker Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp, has resigned.

Christopher Lambert

The French movie studio, which has ramped up its TV activities in recent years with shows like Transporter, has named former Universal Pictures chairman Mark Shmuger as his replacement on an interim basis.

Lambert became CEO in 2010 following a stint as deputy CEO of Besson’s holding company Frontline.

He will now focus on producing his own projects after securing funding for Besson’s forthcoming pictures Valérian and The City of a Thousand Planets.

The firm’s US TV arm, EuropaCorp Television USA, which launched in 2014, was last reported to be working on a TV adaptation of the movie Taken for NBC.