After a chapter of his career in which Luc Besson has made political biopics and comic-strip movies, both with an oddly old-fashioned feel, the Fifth Element man is going back to the future with Lucy. It’s a thriller-cum-sci-fi-cum-sudoku-puzzle of a film that promises to match muscle and mind with the action style his fans know and love him for. The movie has a new clip for its public below showing its titular heroine at a very early stage of her hair-raising journey.
Introducing Scarlett Johansson's American-ingénue-abroad and her nemesis, a criminal overlord played by **Oldboy **himself, Choi Min-sik, the scene is set for a job lot of mysterious blue narcotics to be foisted on - or rather, *in *- a seriously unwilling mule in this Taiwanese hotel suite. Octopus on room service, anyone?
If you've seen the trailer, you'll know that the story follows on from this scene with an inopportune kick to the midriff that dislodges the blueness. As it is absorbed into Lucy's bloodstream, her brain capacity steadily increases, unleashing powers in her that make Black Widow look like a daddy longlegs with co-ordination issues.
"She understood the story and was very excited by it," Besson explains of his lead. "She’s the kind of actress who *wants *to have the challenge. When she does (Broadway play) Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, it’s challenging for an actress: you have to work the accent... but she loved that, she’s a hard worker. I met a couple of actresses who want to be stars so much that they don’t want to take any risks, they want to play the easy thing. They say, ‘Oh yes, I would love to do the film!’ but you can tell that they won’t survive."
**Lucy **arrives in UK cinemas on August 22.