Filmmaker LUC BESSON made an appearance at WonderCon last weekend to promote the upcoming SCARLETT JOHANSSON action-thriller “Lucy”. During the visit he talked about the possibility of a sequel for not just this film but two of his other big franchises: “Taken” and “The Transporter”.
Asked if “Lucy” is set up as a franchise, Besson says:
“I never think about franchises, to be honest. I always just do the film. The funny thing is that when Taken worked so well, the studio said, ‘Can you make a second one?’ My first reaction was to say no because I didn’t know what to do. Then, I started to think about it, and I got an idea that was good and logical, so we did it. With Lucy, you’ll see the end of the film. I don’t know how we can make a sequel, but if the film is huge, then I will think about it.”
Filming is already rolling on the third “Taken” and Besson was asked what the story for this one will revolve around:
“Taken 1 and 2 is, in fact, the same film in two parts. The first act, someone is taken, and the second act is that revenge. You can see the films back to back and they go together. The third film is another story that has nothing to do with him and his family. No one is taken. The dog is not taken. It’s another story with the same characters. It’s different, but it’s very good. It’s probably the best of the three for me, in terms of the script. The first one was really not pretentious. It was a small film. We were surprised by the success of it because it was honest. Liam [Neeson] was not a super kick-ass actor.”
Finally there’s the “Transporter” franchise with ongoing talks of the reboot with ED SKREIN taking over the role made famous by JASON STATHAM, ‘Frank Martin’. Besson says:
“We’re gonna start another one. We want to maybe refresh the concept and change it, with a new actor and a different energy. It’s a great character. We’re working much more on the story. He’s the character, but we have some pretty weird concepts for the story. It’s gonna be fun.”
For the FULL interview, please head over to COLLIDER.
