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Whenever depression looms for Joe Queenan, it's time to turn to Johnny Hallyday. What is it about the films of the French Elvis Presley that holds the answer to all life's woes?

The other day I was feeling unusually melancholy, what with the economy in the tank and construction workers building evil McMansions next to my house. One of my friends suggested I watch a Hong Kong gangster movie called Vengeance. He said the film was completely insane and would take my mind off my troubles. I told him all Hong Kong gangster movies were completely insane, but he fired back: "No – this one is really insane."

He was right.

Vengeance, released in 2009, is actually a Franco-Hong Kong collaboration that pools the resources of the legendary actor/director Johnnie To and those of the legendary rock star/actor Johnny Hallyday, the French Elvis Presley. Hallyday, né Jean-Philippe Smet, is in fact Belgian,...

CANNES -- Commercial broadcaster TF1 said Tuesday that it has signed a deal with French producer Alain Goldman's Studio Legende to adapt the production company's films The Crimson Rivers and Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse for television. Each film will be adapted in the 6x52 format, unless the scriptwriters thought differently, TF1 head of fiction Takis Candilis said. Financial details for the deal were not disclosed. The crime thrillers are about a detective who faces the threat of the apocalypse while investigating a series of ritual murders. Released in 2000, The Crimson Rivers was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and stars Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel, and 2004's Crimson Rivers 2 was directed by Olivier Dahan and stars Reno and Christopher Lee.

PARIS -- French producer Alain Goldman said Thursday that he has resigned from France's top producers body because of a statement it issued about Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Goldman -- who has produced The Crimson Rivers and Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse -- said his decision to leave the Union des Producteurs des Films (UPF) was prompted by the group's statement earlier this month in support of producer-distributor Tarak Ben Ammar, whose Quinta Distribution released Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in France. "I resigned because the statement was issued without consulting any of us who are members, and that is not an appropriate way for the union to be functioning," Goldman said in an interview.