Luc Besson Photo: CFP

French filmmaker Luc Besson, who made the action-heavy franchises Taken and The Transporter and the films Lucy and The Professional, has become a US tax resident, his production company EuropaCorp said on Monday.

The move to Hollywood was not to flee French taxes but rather to regulate his life in America, where he already owns a home, a EuropaCorp spokesman told AFP, confirming information reported by the French television network BFMTV.

"He is in the United States, so he pays taxes there," the spokesman said.

"When you work in the US in an American company - in this case the American subsidiary of EuropaCorp - and your family is going to live in California, you become an American tax resident," he explained.

The spokesman said that Besson, 56, will continue to pay some French taxes, "notably on royalties."

"He is not seeking to become a tax exile," the spokesman stressed, asserting that income taxes for residents in California and France were roughly the same.

Other French celebrities have sought tax shelters. One of France's most famous actors, Gerard Depardieu, became a tax exile in 2013, taking up citizenship in Russia where he reportedly pays just six percent tax on his income.

Besson pulls in over six million euros ($1 million) a year, most of it in royalties and directing fees, with an annual salary of 790,000 euros plus 324,000 euros in company benefits, BFMTV reported.