The fifth movie in the Taxi series, directed by Franck Gastambide and starring him and Malik Bentalha in leading roles, will air on TMC this Thursday evening. Gastambide and Bentalha take over from the earlier pair of Samy Naceri and Frédéric Diefenthal. Released in theaters in 2018, Taxi 5 follows Sylvain Marot (Gastambide), a top cop from Paris and an excellent driver, who is sent against his will to the Municipal Police of Marseille. His mission is to stop the powerful "Gang des Italiens," who are robbing jewelry stores using fast Ferraris. To achieve this, he has to work with Eddy Maklouf (Bentalha), the nephew of the well-known Daniel (Samy Naceri), who is the worst private hire driver in Marseille but the only one who can find the legendary white TAXI. The film is described as action-packed and humorous, with an energetic and wild tone. According to the director of Pattaya, Franck Gastambide was initially writing an action comedy that he wanted to film with Omar Sy. However, Bentalha encouraged him to reach out to Luc Besson about Taxi 5. Gastambide thus contacted Besson on Instagram, and Besson replied. A meeting was arranged with the filmmaker at Cité du cinéma. While filming Valérian, Besson met with Gastambide and Bentalha, who had also contacted him while eating a kebab in their underwear at home. Thanks to the success of Kaïra and Pattaya, Gastambide presented his idea of a reboot to an attentive Luc Besson for an hour. After this discussion, Besson gave his approval, and Taxi 5 was launched. Gastambide wrote Taxi 5 in collaboration with Luc Besson and Stéphane Kazandjian, also co-screenwriter of Pattaya. According to the director, Besson represented traditional France, while he represented the new generation, each bringing their ideas to complement each other. One, with his experience, helped temper the other's sometimes extreme humor. "Besson always made sure it remained a Taxi and not Kaïra behind the wheel," notes Gastambide. "In one of the first scripts, I had gone a bit too far. I had imagined that Malik Bentalha's wife was a nympho and had a running gag where Malik dropped her off in a car at a nudist club or a fire station without realizing anything. Luc told me it was super funny... but to keep that joke for my next film." More than 3.6 million people watched Taxi 5 in theaters. The film will be broadcast on TMC at 21:25 this Thursday.