FILM INDUSTRY: LEGEND

Our third case study film is: Legend (2015) dir. B. Helgeland

  • Who produced the film? 

Working Title and Studio Canal

• Who owns this production company and what other films have they produced? 

Working Title is a British film and television production company owned by Universal Pictures. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1984. It produces feature films and several television productions. Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan are now the co-chairmen of the company. 
Financing for Legend was provided by StudioCanal, which also distributed the film throughout the territories of the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Germany in addition to handling international sales, which started at the beginning of the Cannes Film Festival.^[38] On 30 April 2014, Brian Oliver's Cross Creek Pictures acquired the North American distribution rights to Legend from StudioCanal, with a planned 2015 theatrical release through Universal Pictures in its distribution deal with the studio and Oliver also named as a producer on the film.^[39][40]

• Who directed the film? 

Brian Helgeland. He attended the Cannes Film Festival with Working Title's Tim Bevan and Chris Clark to talk to potential buyers of the film and showing test footage of Hardy playing the twins.^[30][31]

• What other films have they directed? 

This is Helgeland's fifth feature film. The American screenwriter, film producer and director is most known for writing the screenplays for L.A. Confidential, Mystic River, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.

• What was the budget? 

• Who stars in it? 

Tom Hardy. From a marketing perspective, the hook of Legend was obvious. “The idea of Tom Hardy playing both roles in the movie was something that made people think this is going to be something very special because he is an amazing actor,” explains Spearing.

“When you get a very unique selling point like that for a movie, it is very hard to resist.

• What other films have they been in?

Hardy made his film debut in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down(2001) and has since appeared in such films as Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), RocknRolla (2008), Bronson(2008), Warrior (2011), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Lawless (2012), Locke (2013), The Drop (2014), and The Revenant (2015), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2015, Hardy portrayed "Mad" Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road and both Kray twins in Legend. He has appeared in three Christopher Nolan films: Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises(2012) as Bane, and Dunkirk (2017) as an RAF fighter-pilot. He starred as Eddie Brock / Venom in the antihero film Venom (2018).

Hardy's television roles include the HBO war drama miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), the BBC historical drama miniseries The Virgin Queen (2005), Bill Sikes in the BBC’s miniseries Oliver Twist (2007), ITV's Wuthering Heights (2008), the Sky 1 drama series The Take (2009), and the BBC historical crime drama series Peaky Blinders (2013–2017). He created, co-produced, and took the lead in the eight-part historical fictionseries Taboo (2017) on BBC One and FX.^[1]

• What technology has been used to make the film? (What cameras did they use? How was the film edited? What CGI was involved?) 

Read How Tom Hardy Plays His Own Twin in ‘Legend’ The film employs tricks both classic (the split screen) and contemporary to show the characters in the same shot. In “Legend,” when the camera needed to follow the characters, it would be motion-controlled, a process in which a computerized camera’s movement is programmed in advance, enabling its path to be repeated exactly. That made the process of adding doubles to the frame much smoother. For actors, playing multiple characters in one film is a particular challenge. In the case of “Legend,” Mr. Hardy had to figure out the best way to act with himself. The double stand-in for Mr. Hardy was Jacob Tomuri, who was also his stunt double in “Mad Max: Fury Road.” But Mr. Tomuri is not an actor, so responsibility for the voice fell to Mr. Hardy.

“I would record both the brothers’ dialogue in the morning, so that we could have a guideline for Jacob to mime to while I spoke as the other brother,” Mr. Hardy said in a phone interview from London. Both performers wore earpieces to hear the side of the conversation that wasn’t being delivered live. Then they would switch positions and record the scene again.

In one charged scene, the twins get into a furious physical fight. Mostly this involved Mr. Hardy performing as each brother, opposite Mr. Tomuri. But in some moments — as when the brothers slap each other in the face multiple times — the choreography was so complicated that Mr. Tomuri, whose body stays in the frame, was given a digital face replacement.

Read: How CGI and old-school trickery created two towering Tom Hardy performances in one film: Cinematographer Dick Pope reveals the mix of new-fangled and classic filmmaking tricks that created Hardy's award-winning dual role in gangster movie "Legend".

• How was the film marketed? Which different marketing tools were used?

On 13 June 2014, the first image of the film was published, featuring Hardy as the Kray twins.^[8][43] A promotional poster attracted publicity because it made a two-star review from The Guardian appear to be a four- or five-star review by placing the two stars between the heads of the Krays.^[44][45]
Benjamin Lee describes the 'movie marketing gold' of the two-star review and his Tweet that went viral.

Double the Hardy meant double the opportunity. As well as the ubiquitous image of back-to-back Hardy on the posters, the creative for the campaign also included TV spots that specifically focused on Ron or Reggie and an innovative cascade advert in the Metro that revealed the two Kray twins. It was a campaign aimed to be “unmissable”, especially during its opening weekend.

 • What examples of synergy with other products/merchandise can you find? n/a

 • What examples of cross media convergence can you find? n/a

• What examples of technological convergence can you find? n/a

• Where and when was LEGEND released (nationwide, worldwide) and in what cinemas?

Financing for Legend was provided by StudioCanal, which also distributed the film throughout the territories of the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Germany in addition to handling international sales, which started at the beginning of the Cannes Film Festival.^[38] On 30 April 2014, Brian Oliver's Cross Creek Pictures acquired the North American distribution rights to Legend from StudioCanal, with a planned 2015 theatrical release through Universal Pictures in its distribution deal with the studio and Oliver also named as a producer on the film.^[39][40]

• What formats was it available in (digital / 3D etc…)? 

Legend was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 25 January 2016 and in the United States on 1 March 2016.^[46]

• Who is the target audience?

Having posted StudioCanal’s biggest-ever opening, Legend hit the £10m ($15.2m) mark at the UK box office this week. While it has surpassed all expectations for the distributor, the signs were there early on that it had strong potential.

“From when we started working on the film, we wanted to put the film in the period so we used period music in the first trailer in the UK to create that distinctive feel,” outlines Hugh Spearing, head of UK marketing at StudioCanal.

“At the time it was our biggest trailer launch to date and that gave us a good indication that people were interested in the movie and the concept.” Source: ScreenDaily Marketing A Legend

Hugh Spearing, head of marketing at Studiocanal, presented Legend, which stars Tom Hardy as the East End’s notorious gangster twins Ronald and Reggie Kray.

The film opened to £5.1m over 5-days and went on to take £18.2m in the UK, the company’s second highest-grossing film behind Paddington.

When approaching Legend, Hugh Spearing and Studiocanal believed from the start that they had the concept for a hit.
“The reason we got involved in the film was the central idea of Tom Hardy, who was becoming an iconic British actor, playing both of the Kray twins, iconic figures themselves,” said Spearing.

The company took the project to Cannes, showing rehearsal footage of Tom Hardy in character at the festival, an approach Spearing described as highly successful: “It sold incredibly well before it even started shooting.”
In the first week of production, the company released a still of Tom Hardy in character as both Ronald and Reggie Kray; even though the image wasn’t a part of the actual film, it proved very popular, particularly online, and is still used to promote the film today.

The next step was releasing an initial teaser trailer for the film, which quickly became Studiocanal’s biggest trailer ever in terms of online interest. “That meant we knew there was interest” recalled Spearing.
As a result of the buzz generated, he said the company felt confident utilising “a big budget across all types of media”.

In particular, the social media campaign for Legend proved highly successful. “It was our most successful and engaged campaign to date,” recalled Spearing.
The company also managed to make use of the burgeoning stardom of Tom Hardy, who Spearing notes is often reluctant to do much press or social media but in the case of Legend was very engaged.
The resulting hype saw the film open strongly and go on to be one of 2015’s top 20 releases in the UK.  “It didn’t just work in London,” noted Spearing, referencing the film’s success in locations such as Portsmouth, Norwich and Sheffield.

"Now arrives Legend, which lands with a stunning £3.70m plus £1.49m in Wednesday/Thursday previews, for a five-day total of £5.19m. Brian Helgeland’s film certainly benefits from the UK audience’s existing awareness of, and interest in, the film’s subject – the Kray brothers remain the most notorious London gangsters. However, Hardy is also a key selling point: given his reputation as a highly committed actor, his performance in the dual roles of Ronnie and Reggie Kray exerted a powerful curiosity factor.

The success of Legend shows once again how a film can achieve more than the sum of its parts – as happened last autumn when Benedict Cumberbatch took on Alan Turing with The Imitation Game (£16.4m at the UK box office). Hardy may have picked up fresh fans with Mad Max: Fury Road (£17.4m UK lifetime), further stoking interest in his Legend performances." Source: The Guardian

Bolstered by some of the highest exit polls StudioCanal has had for a film, Legend might have lost the top spot to Everest but Spearing was particularly heartened by the audience the film seemed to be attracting:

“It’s an 18-rated period movie about characters some of the audience might not know, but it seems like it was a really mainstream audience that embraced the film,” says Spearing.

Embrace it they have, and Legend has already “comfortably” surpassed the distributor’s expectations, which have since been revised upwards. As of Sept 21, the film had grossed $15.8m (£10.31m). Source: Screen Daily :Marketing A Legend

The next target, which could well happen by the end of this coming weekend, is to become the biggest British 18-rated film of all time, currently Trainspotting’s $19.1m (£12.43m) result.

Spearing believes the success of the film, following so closely on from similar 18-rated hits like Gone Girl and Fifty Shades of Grey, shows that a clear audience appetite for adult-orientated films.

“The adult audience is there for the right film and they’ll definitely respond to it. It’s very encouraging as there are stories like the Krays that you couldn’t tell unless it was an 18 because you wouldn’t do it justice.”