The Bourne Supremacy and Hot Fuzz

The two films I am analysing are The Bourne Supremacy and Hot Fuzz. TBS is a pure action based film. It had an enormous budget and therefore had a high standard of special effects, Hollywood actors and filming locations. Although Hot Fuzz is also an action film, it has a kick to it. It has mixed the genres of action and comedy into one, in order to create a funny laid-back spoof of a traditionally serious action film. Unlike TBS, Hot Fuzz was a low budget film. This meant that everything was on a much smaller scale. The actors weren’t international famous stars, the effects weren’t as intense and it was set in a small village in Wales.

Production

There were three key production companies involved with the film Hot Fuzz, who were all fairly independent: Big Talk Productions, Studio Canal and Working Title Films. Hot Fuzz’s director, Edgar Wright and lead actors, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, own big Talk Productions. Studio Canal and Working Title Films have also made an appearance supporting Edgar Wright’s previous spoof of the horror genre, Shaun of the Dead. They also teamed up to produce a 9/11 interpretation in United 93. Therefore it is not a great surprise that these three companies joined together to produce Hot Fuzz.

The Bourne Supremacy was primarily produced by one of the biggest names in film, Universal Pictures. Universal have produced many high-budget blockbusters in a wide variety of genres. Some of their films include King Kong, 2 Fast 2 Furious, American Pie and Shrek. However, a further four companies assisted Universal in the production of TBS. The Kennedy/Marshall Company: a relatively small company who participated in all 3 of the Jason Bourne series. Ludlum Entertainment: a company belonging to the author of the Bourne series. Hypnotic: primarily a film distributor but played a part in producing the first two Bourne films and most recently the action thriller Mr and Mrs Smith. As well as Motion Picture THETA Produktionsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG: a company, which was set up in order to produce The Bourne Supremacy as a one off. Four of the five production companies are experienced in producing action films and have also appeared in two or more of the Bourne series. Similarly to Hot Fuzz, the majority of these companies have accompanied eachother in film production on numerous occasions, which have evidently been successful, thus joining together again to produce another high-budget film.

The most important similarity between the two production companies is that both ‘teams’ have joined up together in previous films. Therefore, they most probably have a strong relationship, which would create a positive impact on the film they are producing. Production companies in each of the films have also got previous experience in the genre of action. A high knowledge of the industry is always key to success.

One of the differences between the companies involved is that The Bourne Supremacy has a BIG company producing it, whereas Hot Fuzz has much smaller companies. This affects the budget of the films, which is clearly represented in the extent of things such as effects and actors. However, The three companies that produced Hot Fuzz were already fully established companies, which were familiar with the film industry. However, two of the four producers in TBS were newly formed groups, created especially for the production of this film.

The similarities and differences weigh themselves out, but the most important point is that The Bourne Supremacy’s producers put in a significantly larger sum of money into the film compared to the figure that was used to produce Hot Fuzz. This benefited the profit it gained. However, Hot Fuzz was also a success despite having a substantially smaller budget.

Directors

The director is the man in charge. He or she controls everything that will be seen on the screen. This ranges from the props to the actors standing positions to the way they project their lines.

The multi-talented Edgar Wright is the director of Hot Fuzz. He also wrote the film, as well as working in the supermarket in several of the scenes. His directing roots originated in television with Asylum, Is It Bill Bailey? and the well known series Spaced. Throughout the years he had developed a friendship with actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He directed his first movie spoof in the shape of Shaun of the Dead, a highly successful horror parody which featured this acting combination. The team of three re-united to bring us Hot Fuzz. This suggests that his main interest is in creating parodies to deliberately manipulate traditional genres, which is evidently his strongest area of film.

The director of The Bourne Supremacy is Paul Greengrass. Similar to Edgar Wright, he originated in directing television. He racked up a list of successful action programmes including Open Fire, The One That Got Away, The Murder of Stephen Lawrence and Bloody Sunday. This creates no surprise that he was brought in to direct The Bourne Supremacy, an action-packed thriller. He later went on to direct United 93: the 9/11 plane interpretation and the third of the Bourne series: Bourne Ultimatum. Paul Greengrass was given a chance to direct a big-budget blockbuster, and he definitely fulfilled his potential with the great success of The Bourne Supremacy, nominated for 18 various awards and winning 5. Therefore, he thoroughly deserved to be offered the director’s position of the next film the franchise.

Actors

When searching actors on the Internet, we can find huge amounts of information about them. Not only do you find out about their acting careers, but also their personal lives. On the Internet Movie Database website, you can find endless information about the film’s which Matt Damon has played in: when they were released, who they were directed by etc. However, you can also find out personal things about his parents, “His father, Kent Damon, a tax preparer, and his mother, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a college professor, are now divorced.” As well as obscure facts such as “When his baby nephew cries, he sings “Afternoon Delight” for him.” And “Quit smoking after visiting a hypnotist in L.A.” This information is often found out by a group of people called Paparazzi. These are normally independent journalists/photographers that near enough stalk celebrities to milk information out of them in order to sell it to websites and magazines, such as Heat. Stars often get extremely irritated by the Paparazzi, but who blames then when endless information is retrieved from their personal lives.

However, Matt Damon has labels put on him due to the movies he acts in more than his personal life. Movies such as Saving Private Ryan and Oceans Eleven build up Matt Damon’s public appearance of being quite a cool character and we therefore expect him to pop up in endless action and thriller-type films. This encourages audiences to come and see movies that he is in because they assume its going to be a fun action-packed movie.

There is also film-irrelevant information available for Simon Pegg. However, not as much as Matt Damon, due to his celebrity status. Personal information includes, “Was the drummer in a band called “God’s Third Leg” when he was 16.”, “Is a huge Star Wars fan and his work often includes references to the Star Wars saga.” and “Is a huge Star Wars fan and his work often includes references to the Star Wars saga.” Like Matt Damon, the easy to get hold of information is still there, including what films he has appeared in, when they were released etc. Some of the in depth information informs us of his comic personality, specifically, “He was part of the same comedy troupe as David Walliams, Matt Lucas and Dominik Diamond.” This is backed up by his lead appearances in Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and most recently, Run Fat Boy Run.

If we were given Matt Damon and Simon Pegg’s names as well as the genres of action thriller and action comedy spoof, we could easily put the actor to the film. This is due to the character portfolios they build up to create an image for themselves.