You may have seen reports - not here, mind - that Luc Besson is prepping a sequel to the 2014 sci-fi romp Lucy, with Scarlett Johansson playing an American woman who becomes... well, God? Who knows.
The report originated on Variety a few days ago and had it from Europacorp's CEO, Marc Schmuger (that's his real name), that a sequel was being actively developed. Moreover, Schmuger said that Luc Besson had already written the script. This, of course, went out into the world and was subsequently rejigged and rewritten as confirmation that Lucy 2 was happening.
Not so, according to Luc Besson himself. In a Facebook post last night, Besson rubbished the reporting on Lucy 2 and said it was "fake news."
Speaking directly to film journalists everywhere, Besson praised us and said we "do a great job, noble and useful. You investigate, cross-reference the information, then you recut it so that the truth, of which you are the spokesperson, can be heard. What an honor for you to inform, prevent, guide, decrypt even ... But that was before. Before the Internet and your unbridled and idiotic race to the scoop."
Uh-oh,. This is going somewhere. Besson continues on, saying that "(it) does not matter if the info is right or wrong as long as we're the first to say anything. To hell with ethics and morals. Let us take up a foreign article and let us simply translate it, without perspective, without discernment. When did you lose that faith? When did you give up? We may make films that you don't like, but we apply, often for years, to serve our love and our faith. Please try to regain your dignity, your nobility, your courage. We would need you so much in this very difficult time. Take it easy. Respect yourself."
"For the record: No I'm not preparing Lucy 2. Neither yesterday nor tomorrow. Yet this fake news went around the world thanks to you .... You will tell me: "It's not a big deal." It's true, you're right ... but it's "fake" and normally this word shouldn't be part of your vocabulary, because if we can't believe you, how do we hold a democracy?"
So, let's recap this for a moment - Variety, one of the industry's most trusted sources of news and information, quoted the CEO of Europacorp directly that Lucy 2 was happening. The director blames journalists for reporting what the CEO of the studio said.
Now, it is quite possible that Variety was working off a translation or something and simply messed up or misconstrued what the guy said, but that seems kind of unlikely - especially considering that it seems pretty difficult to mess up something 'sequel' and 'Lucy' in a translation. Moreover, Variety doesn't make any mention of sourcing the quote from somewhere else - so who knows what happened, really?