Director Luc Besson’s, EuropaCorp has announced that the French motion picture company will be scaling back its production slate after making record losses of $135 million in the last financial year. Although their project, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, grossed $223 million worldwide, it also had a massive $177.2 million budget,
The company plans to continue making thrillers and sci-fi in the mould of its more successful product such as Taken, Lucy and The Professional, but there will be fewer projects overall. Each movie will be budgeted between $25 to $35 million and there will be more television projects produced.
Besson has completed the script for LUCY 2; the sequel to his 2014 Scarlett Johansson sci-fi thriller hit. No definitive date has been announced, but it will likely be released in early 2019. Johansson’s Lucy was a character who accidentally had a massive overdose of a new synthetic drug. The incident allowed her to gain access to 100 percent of her brain and eventually the ability to travel through Space and Time. It was made for $40 million and grossed $463.4 million worldwide. It also starred Morgan Freeman.
Before the Lucy sequel happens, Besson’s next movie will be an English-language action thriller budgeted in the $30 million range. The film will has a female lead and starts shooting next month.
