1. Script
Synopsis
Lucy i s a film based on a woman, caught up an illegal
drug deal, however when a series of events lead to her
turning the tables on her capturers and becoming a
warrior that is beyond human logic.
Pre-Production
The fi lm was wri tten by Luc Besson, he based the film on
fiction however, and the film signifies the truth in the
s cience of using more that 10 percent of your brains
capacity. Besson knew that none of the film is fact, but
l iked the idea of i t being possible. His idea for the film
was original, and not based on a film or TV s eries,
Bes son also wrote the original script himself as he was
al so the director.
The budget was estimated at around $40,000,000
dol lars, the production company was mainly Eropacorp,
and this particular production company i s one of the
major feature film producers in Europe and France.
Lucy was produced by Vi rginie Silla; she is known for
producing action and biographical films. She came about
being the producer to Lucy as she is in fact Luc Besson’s
wi fe.
Production Phase
The shoot was difficult; this is mainly as Lucy is a high
action, s cience fiction film resulting in intense camera
s hots a nd filming. A ma in difficulty was the ‘ca r chase’
s cene, Luc Besson actually has to wait for everyone to
leave Paris for a Holy event to film this particular s cene,
and as a result it took 9 years to make.The location
s ce nes were all filmed in Paris, this meant that ‘Arc Fe
Tri omphe’ a nd ‘Pl acefe l a concorde’; two of the busiest
places in the ci ty; were featured in the film.
Scarl ett Johansson is the main actress in the film; she
was excited to be playing the main role, and was
Be s son’s first choice. However previ ously, there was talk
of Angelina Jolie being the main actress however pulled
out at the last minute.
Eropacorp announced that Lucy was the largest budget
fi lm that they has ever founded, a breakdown of the
budget shows that visual effects was one of the top
expenses when making this particular film.
The contributors to the production of the film consist of
Eropacorp that I have already mentioned, and also: TF!
Fi lms Production, Canal+ and Cine+.
Synopsis
The anomaly i s a film based on a former soldier who is
taken captive and awakens in the back of a van where
he learns that he only has a few moments to figure out
how he got there.
Pre-Production
The fi lm was wri tten by a number of different wri tes as
there was five credits however the main writer was
Simon Lewis, he is a novelist and a s creen wri ter
however has only ever worked on this particular film.
He i s not a well-known writer and as there was a
number of different writers, the idea for the film would
have been developed over time by di fferent individuals.
The di rector for the film was Noel Clark, he is an actor as
wel l as a writer, and he is also one of the main
protagonists in the film.
The budget for the film was around £10,000 which i s
very low for what Noel Clark, the director wanted to do
with the film.
The anomaly was produced by Noel Clarke, James
Harri s, Mark Lane, Jessica Caldwell, Robert Jones,
Johnny Fewings, Wayne Marc Godfrey and Damon Lane.
Production Phase
Noel lark describes the shooting as the easy part, he
explains how they spent much more time in editing the
fi lm.
The fi lm was aspiring to have high quality graphics with
amazing special effects however as cri tics agree, the
budget let i t down slightly.
Within the film there are a variety of location and shoot
shots, the film even features New York.
The production company involved is Unstoppable
Enterta inment, this production company has also
produced other films that Noel Clark had worked on
including: 4,3,2,1 (2010) and Adulthood (2008). They are
a much smaller, British independent production
company.
The contributors to the production of the film include
tea shop & Fi lm Company and thefyzz.
2. Distribution Phase
The di stributors include Europacorp distribution and
universal pictures. The track records as a distributor for
uni ve rsal pictures is that i t’s a n American company, and
i s also very well known and has contributed to a number
of box office records.
There were also a number of contributingfactors that
a dded the Lucy’s success. First the a dvertisement of the
fi lm highlighted the action packed visualising s tunning
effects used throughout the film. Also the main actress
hers elf, Johansson, also maximised the advertisement
factor as she is an up and coming success fuelled by her
re s e nt a ppearances in ‘Black Widow’ a nd ‘Ca ptain
Ame ri ca: The Winter Soldier’, a lso the fact that she is
the main focus and is presented as an extremely s trong
female character has acted as a publicity gain for the
fi lms distribution. Other advertisement techniques
included huge billboard posters and TV ads.
Exhibition Phase
When the film was first released, it was shown on July
25th in 3,172 theatres in the United States, it opened
with $17,088,110 placing i t in the top spot for the box
office opening weekend, ahead of the competing film
‘He rcul es’.
The fi lm then proceeded to do better than expected,
with i t earning $43,899,340 at the domestic box office
for the opening weekend.
Lucy was rated four out of five s tars by the telegraph,
and they quoted 'everything Scarlett Johansson does is
worth watching'.
However was then shown with the re view ‘The end of
the movi e goes completely off the rails, but in a way
tha t i s charming in i ts stupidity.’ By the Guardian.
However the film was rated a critical success over all.
Distribution Phase
The di stributors for ‘The Anomaly’ include: Universal
Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures
International. Their track record consists of a large
number of other films including Spring Breakers, Devil
and despicable Me.
One factor that could be a reason for some success of
the fi lm is the fact that two of the main actors are quite
wel l known, Noel Clark has featured in a number of films
and even the series of Doctor Who. Ian Somerhaulder, is
al so known for being a main protagonist in the
successful American series The Vampire Diaries, he has
al so featured in a few other films.
The fi lm was release on the 25th of June 2014 at the
Edinburgh International Film Festival. Then released on
DVD later in October 2014.
Exhibition Phase
When the film was first released in June 2014, i t did not
make a huge profit at all. For their overall profit they
made just over their budget, however as some cri tics
have explained, the sales are much more popular on
DVD rather than when the film was released in the box
office.
The fi lm did not get great reviews at all, one of the
biggest film magazines rated i t only two s tars, a poor
a chi evement, with the ve rdict ‘Big sci-fi ideas done on a
budge t doesn't quite translate into a compelling thriller.’
The fi lm did not have ‘l egs’ it was not in the cinema for a
long time either. Overall critics posted negative reviews
about this film and the main issue was that the budget
was way too low for what Noel Clarke has aspired to do
with all of the special effects and over the top action
s cenes.
