Aspired to be a marine biologist; however, at the age of 17, he suffered a serious accident and was told he could never dive again
Made his directing debut in 1983 with the sci-fi movie Le Dernier Combat (The Final Combat), which was filmed in black and white and did not feature any spoken dialogue
Co-founded the French movie studio EuropaCorp in 2000
Wrote the children's book Arthur and the Minimoys in 2002; wrote three other books in the series and made three film adaptations based on the books
Started advertising agency Blue in 2008
Handles all the cinematography on his films himself