Production of Xenon and Argon

Xenon and Argon are American action-comedy films based on the Neon franchise created by Stuart Shertick and Brad Evans. They are the sequels to the 1993 film Neon, and serve as the second and third films in the franchise, respectively. Both films are shot back-to-back in various locations. Production of Xenon began during the production of the first film. The active production on Argon began on March 2019. Both films were said to last around 3 hours each.

After a big marketing campaign and a 1993 release, Neon was praised by critics for the amount of dedication put into the movie, the depth and philosophy of the world and dialogue, and visual effects, but bombed at the box office. The film gained a cult following outside of UK and United States over the years, especially in Germany.

Shortly after the release, the first attempts at sequels started production, and ever since then, the sequels were in development hell, and went through numerous revisions. Since the death of Brad Evans (in 2001) and Stuart Shertick (in 1998), the creators of the franchise, the production of the films were first overseen by their estates and starting from 2005, Stuart's son Jamie Shertick and Brad's son-and-daughter duo Ross and Brenda Evans. The most infamous project out of these attempts is Neon 2.0.

The two films are set to be executive produced by Brittany Kurosaka of Legacy Pictures, Mario Kassar of the former Carolco Pictures studio, Anders Jansson and Johan Wester of Anagram Produktion, Lene Børglum of Space Rocket Nation, Alexander Rodnyansky of AR Films, Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment, Norah Keaton of JoNo Productions, Dan Mintz of DMG Entertainment, Tom Rosenberg of Lakeshore Entertainment, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg of Point Grey Pictures, and Edgar Wright. Marianne Slot of Slot Machine Productions will serve as a co-producer.

As part of the original Neon trilogy (1981-1985)
In 1981, Odyssey Film Partnership, consisting of the Greenberg brothers, Dino DeLaurentiis, Jerry Perenchio, Four Star International and Norman Lear, announced that Stuart Shertick and Brad Evans would be penning two sequels to the film.

The film was set to be produced in collaboration between Carolco Pictures and The Cannon Group.

Around 1985, the sequels halted production.

Under Don Simpson / Lightmotive-Allied Filmmakers (1989-1996)
In 1989, Don Simpson was announced to have been signed to direct a sequel to Neon, scheduled for release in 1991, with Lightmotive-Allied Filmmakers and Largo Entertainment as the main production companies. In 1990, the release was announced to be delayed until 1993, then 1995, and finally 1997.

In 1991, Capella International acquired the international sales rights to the film. In 1992, Savoy Pictures acquired the domestic distribution rights. Around December 1995, Savoy was announced to be acquired by InterActive Corporation. With some negotiations, Savoy and Capella sold the distribution rights to Warner Bros. Entertainment.

After Neon's release in 1993, despite its box office failure, numerous people were interested in helping out in the production of the sequel.

On January 19, 1996, Simpson was found dead in the bathroom of his Bel Air, Los Angeles home. The project was put temporarily on hold and passed by numerous directors (such as Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott), until it was finally picked up by Joel Schumacher, who then-recently directed Batman Forever.

Don Simpson's version of the sequel, had it been completed, would've been the first ever case of de-aging in film, and also would've been one of the early adopters of the virtual actor concept.

Under Joel Schumacher's direction (1996-2003)
The writers room included Akiva Goldsman, Hampton Fancher, Dan O'Bannon and David Koepp.

As Neon 2.0 (2003-2008)
In 2003, it was announced that Universal Pictures, the new distributor, rebooted production, with the release scheduled for 2006, soon delayed to 2010 due to undisclosed reasons.

As Neon Ultimate (2009-2015)
In 2009, Neill Blomkamp announced to direct Neon Ultimate under Exclusive Media Group.

As Neon Zero / Untitled Neon sequel / Xenon (2016-2018)
Revolution Studios, Big Talk Productions and its parent company ITV Studios, Good Universe and Ross & Brenda Evans (through Evans Limited) gathered around and planned to start production on the sequel in 2016. They received financing from Wanda Group and signed a distribution deal with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions and MGM. Due to partnerships with Sony Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures and LStar Capital were announced as new co-financiers.

As the production done in France, United Kingdom, China and Germany got wrapped, Rabbit Productions II LLC and Xenon Films NV were established. In early January 2017, principal photography began in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, as well as in Pinewood Studios and Village Roadshow Studios. In May 2017, Jamie Shertick and his sister Samantha Shertick announced to co-produce and co-finance the film, now called Neon Zero. In October, Ross & Brenda stepped down as directors and Jake Liam became the successor. The name of the movie was soon changed back to the "unnamed Neon sequel" in November 2017. However, in December, the name was changed to "Xenon", a reference to a material, Xenon, similar when compared to Neon. At around the same time, the co-producers Michigan Picture Company and Evans Limited were merged into DB/Clearwater Productions.

In February 2018, Jamie Shertick and his team left the production due to stress and other mental health related issues. However, his sister Samantha is set to stay in the project.

The release date was announced to be moved from August 10, 2018 to November 17, 2018, that same month. Around the same month, the total budget of the production (including the lawsuit and previous attempts) was revealed to be around USD$450 million, making it one of the highest costing films to be ever made. Jake Liam was revealed to be let go, as Dan Wicker, Jo Keaton and Max Xavier of the Loner Campfire fame were set to continue directing the film.

Development, financing and pre-production
In August 2018, Xenon Films NV seeked more funding from Asian, Middle Eastern, European, African and Australian countries, due to the film's recent production reboot. Aside from a few previous investors, new financers and co-producers joined the project and supported the project until completion. AI Film also provided significant funding and production support in the project.

There was also a group called "The Film Fund Pool" ; Eurimages and CNC; Ancine and Globo Filmes; and BBC Studios; contributing to the first funding round.

In addition, a post-production facility in Los Angeles and London was established: Rabbit Post-Production.

Executive producer Jamie Shertick commented on the status of the film at Cannes Film Festival, "So far it's been in development hell once, then in production hell and back. Now we are starting over and I'm still in." They're re-shooting a few scenes at first, as part of a "troubleshooting" phase and then restart principal photography in Spain, Belgium, Australia, China, Canada and South Africa. For the second iteration of the production, there were two companies founded:
 * Neo Paris Producciones AIE was founded in Barcelona, Spain.
 * Neon 2 DCP ULC was founded with three offices in Quebec City, Halifax and Toronto, Canada, with the funding from Ontario Film & Television Tax Credit, SODEC, Film Nova Scotia, Telefilm Canada and Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit.

In October 2018, Qualis Entertainment was launched "underground" in an effort to save the production of Xenon and find minimal-budget solutions, after it's investment division acquired some companies who helped the film earlier, as well as the film's dedicated production companies Neo Paris Producciones AIE, Neon 2 DCP ULC and Rabbit Productions II LLC. They also acquired the copyrights of the film from Jamie Shertick Productions, DB/Clearwater Productions and Legacy Pictures. It's set to also deal with the debt caused by the film and pay salary from throughout the production to all people who worked on the film on a production break from January 2019 to March 2019.

At the same time, Amazon Studios announced to drop out as a main co-producer for good; and JoNo Productions was announced to merge into DB/Clearwater Productions.

In March 2019, investors Bliss Media, Beijing Enlight Pictures, China Film Group, Cross Creek Pictures, Shanghai Media Group and The Culture China-Image Nation Abu Dhabi Content Fund announced to finance the production of Xenon and Argon in China. The same month, Potemkino Productions and Sigma Films announced to provide production services and financing.

Development, financing and pre-production
In March 2019, it was announced that Xenon and its planned sequel Argon would be filmed back-to-back.

For the production of Argon, Jamie Shertick Productions formed a strategic alliance with Legion M, which allows fans to take part in the production, either through cameoing, contribution to the score, visual effects and/or numerous other production tasks, or by funding.

Filming
Argon's principal photography will be in Shepperton Studios, Village Roadshow Studios and Studio Babelsberg around June 2019.

Rights
The rights of the franchise varied by every attempt at the Neon sequel, but always remained as confusing and were usually passed from distributor to distributor for usually undisclosed reasons.

In 2004, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and StudioCanal announced to give up their share of the ownership of the "Neon" franchise to whoever wanted to co-distribute and co-finance a Neon sequel which ended up being released. It was planned to be 20th Century Fox first, then Universal Pictures (owner of the Focus Features label, the successor of Gramercy Pictures) during the production of Neon 2.0, after that Exclusive Media/Spitfire Pictures during an attempt at a reboot with J.J. Abrams, but finally ended up being given to Jamie's production company Jamie Shertick Productions, despite the promise of the rights going to a distributor.

During the production as Neon Zero, Sony announced that the sequel was to be set to revive their Destination Films and Triumph Films labels, once meant for niche & low-budget indie films and direct-to-video films respectively. However, in January 2017, Sony Pictures then settled to use its Stage 6 Films banner, with StudioCanal handling distribution in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Benelux, and international sales elsewhere. Constantin Film and StudioCanal announced that they were switching to the distribution after the pre-production was finished and the principal photography began a while ago.

In 2017, Annapurna and MGM formed a distribution agreement and as result, Annapurna became a co-distributor under MGM.

In January 2018, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group announced to give the international distribution rights to Annapurna International, however they will still be producing through Stage 6 Films. The distribution rights were shortly after put on sale by Annapurna/MGM due to not having enough faith in the sequel and due to the Disney-Fox deal at the time, which applied more pressure to the companies. The bidders included Relativity, Aviron Pictures, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures and Netflix. Warner Bros. Pictures, in partnership of Old Dominion Pictures, were the successful bidders.

In May 2018, it was announced that international distribution will be handled by Revolution Studios and Universal Studios jointly, and then later Focus Features. The worldwide box office gross after the first week of worldwide release will go to DB/Clearwater Productions and Legacy Pictures, formerly to Old Dominion Media. In June 2018, around the release of the last international trailer, Warner Bros gave their US distribution rights to Focus Features.

On September 2018, Focus Features sold distribution rights to Summit Entertainment (Lionsgate, its parent company, was a former candidate). Amazon Studios and STX Entertainment were other early candidates, but announced in early September 2018 to drop out. Summit Entertainment sold the rights to A24 on December 21st, 2018.

The international distribution rights for Neon Zero/Xenon are currently shared between an ad hoc joint venture Neon Europe NV and the companies Buena Vista International, Downtown Filmes and European Film Promotion, all of whom run the Rabbit World Sales umbrella to streamline the distribution.

Jamie Shertick Productions is set out to acquire the Neon/Xenon IP after the film's release, making the Neon/Xenon IP the only one to be owned by Jamie Shertick Productions after 2018.

Lawsuits
During the production of Neon Zero, there was a previously-undisclosed lawsuit between "The YPA Caffeine Alumni Group (the former investors in Clearwater Partners II LLC) and the ex-producers of Xenon" The plantiffs, in detail, are listed as following: New Line Cinema, American Zoetrope, Reliance Entertainment, Hyper Park Entertainment Group, Mario Kassar, Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, Dwayne Johnson, Neill Blomkamp, Joel Silver, Joel Schumacher, around 180 companies, around 175 other individuals (with their families and estates) and their affiliates, asset management companies, retailers, marketing agencies, pension funds, public float, people in administrative registration and insurance companies and Old Dominion Pictures, Clearwater Partners II LLC, Rabbit Productions II LLC, Xenon Films NV & Jamie Shertick Productions. The latter side won the battle, and thus resulted in the former side's involvement reduced to financing, production & marketing support, specific rights and related activities, in Old Dominion and Clearwater's projects.

During the production as Xenon and Argon, another lawsuit regarding the film was filed by Old Dominion Pictures Group's management against Brittany Kurosaka, Karin Wilson and Will Apple, eventually ending up in settling out of court and Legacy Pictures replacing Old Dominion Pictures as a new main partner.

In May 2019, Legacy Pictures and Xenon Films NV filed a lawsuit against Fred and Richard Greenberg, one of the original financers of the film, for numerous occasions of fraud, scam, tax evasion and inappropriate sexual behavior, most prominent in the 1980s during the production of the original film and the planned trilogy.

Reliance on independence
Due to request of Stuart Shertick, the sequels were to be produced independently, just like the first film.

Aside from distribution done by a few major film studios at some points, everything else related to production was done independently, which cost a lot to the crew and the Shertick family. This so-called golden rule also set some limitations, like for example, in the only instance with a major non-distribution company, Industrial Light & Magic were not to be involved in the special effects at all, due to the contract.

Xenon and Argon
The visual & partical effects and post-production for Xenon and Argon were done by Rabbit Special Effects, Method Studios, BUF, Troll VFX, Ghost VFX A/S, Rise, Virtuos, Sparx Animation Studios, Clear Angle Studios, Electric Visual Effects, Umedia VFX, Digic Pictures, RVX and Trickshot, Ulysses Filmproduktion, Base FX, BlackGinger, Mac Guff, Animal Logic, Fonco Studios, Legacy Effects, Gilderfluke & Co, Pixomondo, Cinesite, Trixter Film, Weta Workshop, Capital T, Deluxe Spain, Deluxe Toronto, Technicolor and Weta Digital. The additional sound post-production work will be provided by Piste Rogue Studios. Cubic Motion provided assistance with developing the first-party technology used during the production. Speedtree was used in scenes taking place outside Neo Paris.

Sequences from the films for the visual effects vendors were given to them beginning in July 2019.

Comic book series
Around the time of starting the production on Xenon, all the remaining funds, staff, footage and even scripts possible made for the earlier attempts were gathered and Jamie Shertick with Ross Evans started throwing around ideas, recommending that no ideas will go unused.

The secret project then soon was merged with the anthology series project and the prequel film project, and soon was turned into the Argon comic book series, set to be published by Dark Horse Comics.

Radon: Neon+76
In March 2019, alongside Xenon and Argon, an anime based on the Neon franchise was announced to begin active production. The anime will be produced by Jamie Shertick Productions and Legacy Pictures, animated by Studio Sitrus and distributed by Crunchyroll.

NPPD - Neo Paris Police Department (2010s)
In 2012, Dwayne Johnson, Christopher Nolan and Mark Gordon pitched a spin-off taking place within the Neon universe.

Production art book
The book is an official movie tie-in for the two films and features most of the concept artwork used in the production of the films, under various attempts. The main authors are Jake Liam and Dan Wicker. It also contains illustrations from and interviews with the movie's artists. The book contains over 2000 full-color images including sketches, matte paintings, drawings, and film stills.

The book details the production phase of set designs, costumes and creatures featured in the films, among others. Throughout the book are different interviews with the various art directors, visual effects designers, animators, costume designers, and creature designers about their roles in the production and insight as to how the pre-production artwork process worked for the film.

It's set to release between Xenon and Argon.

Directors
The following people were approached to direct the sequel, but were either turned down, or the production on their versions had to be halted quickly:
 * Stanley Kubrick - Before his death in 1999, he was approached to co-write and direct a film, but turned down due to scheduling issues and his illness. The directing work was passed to Joel Schumacher.
 * Richard Linklater - N/A

Producers

 * Jerry Perenchio - producer (from 1980s until his death 2017) - addressed in the "In Memory of" credit
 * Richard D. Zanuck - producer through his The Zanuck Company banner (from 2002 until his death in 2012) - addressed in the "In Memory of" credit
 * Simon Kinberg (early to mid-2010s(?)) - producer of the Neo Paris Police Department spin-off and then Neon Ultimate, left production of the films at an unknown time, around mid-2010s, since mentions of him in the press material disappeared around that time. Produced through his Genre Films banner.

Personell

 * Jean Giraud (Moebius) - He has contributed to the concept designs and storyboarding of all films within the original Neon trilogy around the 1980s.
 * Syd Mead - N/A

Companies

 * Crystal Sky Pictures (unknown) - the company mentioned working on "a Neon sequel", though it is unknown whether or not this was true, nor which attempt was addressed
 * Franchise Pictures (2000-2001) - one of the production companies working on Don Simpson/Joel Schumacher's Neon sequel
 * RadicalMedia and Decibel Films (2010s) - they worked on the Neo Paris Police Department film
 * DNA Films, Pathé, Ingenious Media and Davis Films & Impact Pictures all worked on Neon 2.0.

Special effects companies

 * Apogee, Inc. - N/A
 * R/GA (1980s-1994) - N/A
 * Amblin Imaging/Digital Muse (1993-2000) - N/A
 * Buena Vista Visual Effects (1991-1996) and Buena Vista Imaging/Buena Vista Opticals (1992-1996) - N/A
 * Van Der Veer Photo Effects (????-1992) - N/A
 * Warner Digital Studios (1996-1997) - they were one of the visual effects vendors in Don Simpson/Joel Schumacher's Neon sequel project early on, until they were shut down in summer 1997
 * Centropolis Effects (1998-2002) - they worked on the visual effects for the Joel Schumacher's attempt, until their closure on Christmas 2002
 * ESC Entertainment (2001-2005) - they worked on the visual effects for Neon 2.0
 * III Motion Pictures Products Group (1981-1982) - they worked on special effects tests featuring Neo Paris, the city where the franchise takes place, with concept vehicles designed by Stuart Shertick and Brad Evans. Their tests also used actual advertising footage from Pepsi and United Airlines.
 * Blue Sky/VIFX (1997-2001) - N/A

Alliance Atlantis
Atlantis Communications were set to acquire the rights to the franchise, had the original trilogy materialized, and ever since the cancellation due to box office failure of the first film, they co-produced every attempt until the merger with Alliance Communications in 1998. As the company was acquired in 2006 by GS Capital Partners, they quietly pulled out of the project. The company was closed in 2007, with the film-related operations spun off to Alliance Films, which then ended up co-producing Neill Blomkamp's Neon squel and Neon Ultimate, before being merged into Entertainment One in 2013.

Mario Kassar & Andrew G Vajna
In 1989, their partnership fell apart and as of result, among other reasons, their Carolco Pictures was sold to Canal+, whose film production unit was involved with Neon sequels ever since. They re-united in 1998, and in 2002, they founded the production company C2 Pictures, however, its purpose was to revive the Terminator franchise only.

Since its founding in 2002, Vajna's VFX company Digic Pictures was signed to do visual effects from Neon 2.0 until Neon Ultimate, and finally Xenon and Argon.

On January 20, 2019, Andrew G. Vajna passed away. He will receive a posthomunous acknowledgement in the end credits.

Golan-Globus
Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus have been involved with the franchise ever since opting in to collaborate with Kassar-Vajna on the two later films in the original trilogy, through their production company The Cannon Group, which they acquired in 1979.

Around 1989, Menahem Golan left Cannon and became the head of 21st Century Film Corporation, which merged into MGM (where Cannon was merged a few years prior) in 1996.

On August 8, 2014, Golan passed away. There is currently no information about Globus's involvement.