Lucy (2014 film)

Lucy
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLuc Besson
Written byLuc Besson
Produced byVirginie Besson-Silla
Starring
CinematographyThierry Arbogast
Edited byJulien Rey
Music byÉric Serra
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 25 July 2014 (2014-07-25) (United States)[1]
  • 6 August 2014 (2014-08-06) (France)[2]
Running time
90 minutes[3]
Country
Languages
  • English
  • Taiwanese Mandarin
  • Korean
  • French
Budget$40 million[5]
Box office$469 million[5]

Lucy is a 2014 English-language French science fiction action film[5] written and directed by Luc Besson for his company EuropaCorp, and produced by his wife, Virginie Besson-Silla. It is an English-language film shot in Taipei, Paris, and New York City. It stars Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-sik, and Amr Waked. Johansson portrays the titular character, a woman who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic, psychedelic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream.

The film was released on 25 July 2014 and became a massive box office success,[6] grossing over $469 million worldwide, more than eleven times the budget of $40 million. It received generally positive, but also polarized, critical reviews. Although praise was given for its themes, visuals, and Johansson's performance, many critics found the plot nonsensical, especially its focus on the ten percent of the brain myth and resulting abilities.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ Kroll, Justin (May 23, 2014). "Universal Moves Up Scarlett Johansson's 'Lucy' to July 25". Variety. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
  2. ^ Lee, Hsin-Yin (April 4, 2014). "French director's new movie helps promote Taipei". Focus Taiwan. Central News Agency. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  3. ^ "LUCY (15)". Universal Studios. British Board of Film Classification. August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  4. ^ Dargis, Manohla (2014). "Lucy (2014)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  5. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference BOM was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Gettell, Oliver (July 28, 2014). "'Lucy': 5 reasons the Scarlett Johansson film ruled the box office". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  7. ^ Lombardi, Ken (July 25, 2014). ""Lucy," "Hercules" both get strength from critics". CBS News. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  8. ^ Blackburn, Ralph (July 20, 2014). "Lucy, Limitless, Transcendence - Why the 'underused brain' is a film-makers' myth". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved July 24, 2014.