Production of Neon (1993 film)

Neon is a 1993 science fiction film directed by Stuart Shertick. It was distributed by Gramercy Pictures, a joint venture between PolyGram and Universal Pictures. The world inside the film is influenced by steampunk, art deco and cyberpunk aesthetics, while the film's narrative style is filled with mystery, crime, thriller, noir, drama and action elements. It takes place in 22nd century in a fictional metropolis called Neo Paris.

It was one of the few pre-2000s films, if not one of the first, to not show any credits until after the ending. The background music is "La Javanaise" by Serge Gainsbourg.

During the production, Neon was switching distributors, like "they were playing hot potato with pieces of lava", as described by Stuart Shertick. After a big marketing campaign, the film was praised by critics for the amount of dedication put into the movie, but bombed at the box office. The film gained a cult following outside of UK and United States over the years, and there have been multiple attempts at creating a sequel, the infamous of which is Neon 2.0, by Universal Pictures, StudioCanal, GK Films and Constantin Film.

Early stages of production (1974-1978)
Stuart Shertick started production on Neon when he was only 17 years old, with $750,000 he got from his dad and his previous job combined. He hired his high school friend Brad Evans to gather around some ideas for his then-uncompleted script. Stuart soon came up with an "almost human" protagonist Ash and its androgynous, smug and sarcastic sidekick Laureline.

Brad Evans discovered then-recently released Yamaha CS-80 (now famous for being used by the Greek electronic composer Vangelis for the score of Blade Runner), and decided to play around.

In 1976, Stuart Shertick and Brad Evans decided to pitch their idea to Stuart's new neighbor Mario Kassar, who just founded Carolco Pictures with his partner Andrew G Vajna. EMI Films soon heard about the pitch and optioned to become the distributor for non-UK markets outside of North America. Shertick and Evans accepted in trade for the permission to use their parent company EMI's music catalog for their film.

During the time of the pitch, the original script was deemed to be too gory and sexual, and Mario Kassar became more concerned how greenlighting the film straight away would affect their reputation as a new studio. Shertick commented on it years later: "Looking back on it, I see it as sort of ironic. This was Carolco Pictures, the studio who went on to make The Terminator, Basic Instinct, Total Recall and Rambo, who told us to get out and make the script more friendly. We did accept the situation though and we re-did the script. It was, indeed, a new studio at the time."

- Stuart Shertick, the director of Neon, in Cyber Dreams

In 1979, EMI Films announced that Associated Film Distribution, its joint venture with ITC Entertainment, was going to release the film in the United States and Canada. The company went bankrupt in early 1980s and the distribution rights temporarily went into limbo.

Mid-production and limbo (1979-1987)
In 1980, Filmways optioned to distribute the film domestically. Run Run Shaw also came along, produced and partially financed the film, in exchange for use of his Shaw Brothers studios in Hong Kong. According to the book about the production of Neon, Cyber Dreams, by 1984, Run Run and Stuart became close friends. Run Run even had influence on the style and writing of Neon, citing Blade Runner as an example.

Then, Filmways had lost nearly $20 million during the nine months ending in November 1981. However, it partially exited bankruptcy by selling few of its previously acquired assets. In 1982, Filmways was acquired by Orion Pictures, which resulted in Orion becoming the new distributor.

In 1983, while filming with the assistance of Mirisch Company's production services department, their set exploded and 4 crew members were killed. The production was investigated for a couple of months before ruling the deaths as accidental. In 1984, Stuart Shertick became more stressed and depressed, possibly due to the accidents, as the production continued on. He became an alcoholic and often couldn't show up to filmings. Because of that, Brad Evans stepped in to direct scenes outside of the UK and USA.

In 1987, he and Brad Evans co-wrote a prequel comic to Neon, centered around the origin story of Ash, and sent it to Darguard. It was set back for a release alongside the film, and it was indeed released in 1993.

Final stages of production (1987-1992)
In 1987, Stuart formed Rabbit Productions, a limited partnership between him, the film's crew, producers, the marketing & merchandising partners and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. It was established as a copyright holder and a licensor of Neon-related media and merchandise.

In 1989, German film production companies Senator Film and Constantin Film invested a total of €450,000 into the production, in exchange of the West German distribution and home entertainment rights. Les Films du Loup, and later Les Films du Dauphin, both founded by Luc Besson, were brought in to help finish filming and help in post-production in France for the 1992 cut.

In 1990, Buena Vista International, 20th Century Fox, Pioneer Corporation, Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Nordisk Film, Egmont Entertainment, United International Pictures, BBC, Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera, Filmauro, Entertainment Film Distributors, Majestic Films, Svensk Filmindustri and Cannon Films formed a partnership with Rabbit Productions to start a joint venture called Neon Distributors Pool. They then acquired the rights to the movie in South Africa, Australia & New Zealand, Latin America, Soviet Union's satellite states and the Caribbean. The distribution rights in Soviet Union was held by state-owned distributor Sovexportfilm, while distribution rights in Ecuador, Colombia and Puerto Rico were held by United International Pictures for a short while.

In 1992, the international film distribution and marketing rights were sold individually to: Shortly afterwards, Neon Distributors Pool renamed itself to Rabbit International LP, with whom Good Machine will co-distribute the film in the international markets.
 * Buena Vista International in Uruguay, Thailand and Cuba
 * Warner Bros. Pictures in Venezuela, Malaysia, China, Turkey, Hong Kong, India and Indonesia
 * Neon Distributors Pool in Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Ecuador, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Japan, West Germany, UK, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Norway, Canada, UK and Soviet Union
 * Constantin Film and Senator Film in West Germany
 * In this auction, Constantin Film also purchased the Austrian distribution rights, while NFP Marketing & Distribution became the third German publisher to release and market Neon. They soon formed a consortium called Neon Deutschland Filmverleih GmbH and work with fans on an unknown enhanced version of Neon.
 * Gaumont and Buena Vista International (later under the Gaumont/Buena Vista joint banner) & Canal+ Droits Audiovisuels in France
 * M6 Droits Audiovisuels acquired the seperate home entertainment rights in France
 * Guild Film Distribution and Rank Film Distributors in UK
 * Metro Tartan Distribution purchased the home entertainment rights.
 * Roadshow Film Distributors in Australia
 * Later, Icon Productions purchased the Australian distribution rights in 2000
 * Sovexportfilm in Soviet Union
 * Good Machine International in Europe.
 * Buena Vista International will co-distribute in the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, and Spain.
 * Compagnia Distribuzione Internazionale (CDI) and Penta Distribuzione in Italy
 * Warner Bros. Pictures in Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia

That same year, Rabbit Productions finished filming and post-production of the scenes in India, just in time to get included in the 1992 cut, with Indian production companies such as Baldeviju Productions and Film Field Productions, both credited under special thanks.

Video game
In 1982, Atari Inc. approached Stuart Shertick to develop a game based around the world and characters of Neon. However, in the middle of development of the Neon video game, Atari, Inc. was closed and its assets split in 1984 as a direct result of the North American video game crash of 1983.

Advertising
In 1986, new sponsors for the movie arrived: General Motors, McDonald's, Kenner Products, Bristol-Myers, American Telephone & Telegraph Company, Western Electric, Bellcomm, Nabisco Inc, Pillsbury Company, Pepsi, General Mills, Quaker Oats Company, Whirlpool Corporation, Westinghouse, Revlon, SC Johnson & Son, Johnson & Johnson, United Airlines, Unilever, Best Foods, General Foods, Ben & Jerry's, LiquiMoly, Gemmy Industries, Canada Cycle & motor, Coleco, Pan American World Airlines, General Electric/RCA, Tsingtao Beer, Cuisinart, Kraft Foods, Kellogg's, Gap, British Telecom, Barris Industries, Lorimar-Telepictures, Texas Instruments, IBM, Procter & Gamble and Cadbury Schweppes.

They provided help in creating props and in-film advertising. Stuart Shertick told them that they could advertise their products very subtly, due to concerns over possible reception from audience, even going out of the way to make couple of future automobile vehicles into GM vehicles.

Visual effects
The practical visual effects were actually done in house by Stuart Shertick, Brad Evans, their engineer friend Roger Rizkey and his companions, all credited under Rabbit Practical Effects.

The visual effects were done outside of the US, per Stuart Shertick's interest, by BUF Compagnie (in France), Filmfex, Computer Film Company and Framestore (in the UK), Centro Digital Pictures (in Hong Kong) and RoadRunner (in the Philippines).

The additional work was provided by Stan Winston Studio, Dream Quest Images and Industrial Light & Magic.

Early concept pitch

 * Also known as: Fake leak cut, prank cut, home movie cut, "sweded" cut (2009)

Workprint #1

 * Also known as: Prototype version

Studio cut

 * Note: This cut resulted in major controversy after outrage from Stuart Shertick and Brad Evans.

US theatrical release

 * Also known as: Domestic cut, Happy ending cut, Final cut

Unrated Cut

 * Also known as: Full Version

Untitled German Cut

 * Also known as: NFP/Constantin/Senator Cut, Fan-Made Cut, Special Edition

Carolco Pictures

 * Main article: Carolco Pictures

Though Carolco made several successful films through the 1990s, including Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (T2), and Basic Instinct, the studio was gradually losing money as the years went on. Carolco mixed blockbusters with small-budget arthouse films which were not profitable. In addition, the studio was criticized for overspending on films through reliance on star power and far-fetched deals (Schwarzenegger received then-unheard-of $10–14 million for his work on Recall and T2; Stallone also had similar treatment). Losses of partnerships also threatened the studio's stability and sent it teetering towards bankruptcy.

In 1992, Carolco went under a corporate restructuring invested by a partnership of Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera of Italy, Le Studio Canal+ of France, Pioneer Electric Corporation of Japan, and MGM. Each partner helped infuse up to $60 million into the studio's stock and another $50 million for co-financing deals. MGM also agreed to distribute Carolco product domestically after a previous deal with TriStar expired. In 1993, Carolco was forced to sell its shares in LIVE Entertainment to a group of investors led by Pioneer; it was later renamed Artisan Entertainment, which was bought by Lions Gate Entertainment.

The Sherticks
In 1998, Stuart Shertick past away after directing his second and last film. The assets and rights (excluding distribution rights, currently owned by Universal Pictures) related to Neon and even the video game were, among other things, passed onto his son Jamie Shertick.

In 2007 re-release of Neon on Blu-Ray, Jamie Shertick added in some short films his father Stuart did with his friend Brad and, later on, the production crew behind Neon between 1975 and 1990.

Jamie soon released the ROM of the video game on his Tumblr blog in 2016 as a Christmas gift to his followers.