Lumina (film)

Lumina is a 2024 American science fiction horror film written and directed by Gino J.H. McKoy. The film was released on July 12, 2024.

The film is produced by Gino J.H. McKoy, Lynda McKoy, David Seychell, and Hudson McKoy. The production's editor is Thom Noble.

Plot
Lumina narrates the story of Alex, whose girlfriend Tatiana disappears suddenly in a flash of a blinding light. Completely traumatized by the situation, Alex, along with his friends and a conspiracy theorist, embarks on a journey through a desert, during which they encounter unexpected challenges that compel them to fight for their lives and discover the truth that will change their lives.

Cast

 * Eric Roberts as Thom
 * Ken Lawson as George
 * Emily Hall as Cher
 * Rupert Lazarus as Alex
 * Eleanor Williams as Tatiana
 * Andrea Tivada as Deliah
 * Sidney Nicole Rogers as Patricia

Early development
The process of bringing the film Lumina to life involved significant challenges. After numerous agencies were unable to commit to a director, the film's screenwriter, Gino J.H. McKoy, decided to direct the film himself. Together with his mother, Lynda, they secured a domestic wide release service distribution deal in 2019 with Entertainment Studio Motion Pictures/Freestyle Releasing, which would have covered 2000-2500 screens across the U.S. and Canada, along with output deals with Lionsgate, Netflix, and FilmNation. However, after 18 months of negotiations, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought the film economy to a standstill, resulting in the closure of theaters and the cessation of film production. This made a wide release infeasible. Despite these setbacks, the McKoys continued with pre-production and planned to revisit distribution after post-production.

The financing for the film was secured through Lynda's longtime friend, David Seychell. During a planned trip to discuss the film's financing in July 2020, Seychell was critically injured in a private plane crash in the Colorado mountains. After weeks of treatment in Colorado and Toronto, Seychell began to recover, and his paper contract for Lumina was found intact at the crash site.

Preproduction in Morocco
In Ouarzazate, director McKoy enlisted British DP Larry Smith, who had formerly worked with Stanley Kubrick. However, their journey to Marrakesh was interrupted by a call concerning threats against producer Lynda Mckoy from service producer "M," leading them to return to Ouarzazate. Upon arrival at CLA Studio, they found "M" orchestrating a strike, alleging the producers' non-payment of bills, while Lynda's persistent requests for invoices had been ignored. Proofs of correspondence and partial payments were subsequently presented. It was later revealed that "M's" assistant had been secretly storing the Moroccan crew's financial documents.

On a single day, all cast and crew underwent COVID-19 testing due to producer Lynda McKoy's concerns about inadequate protocol adherence. Lynda and Hudson McKoy, the parents of the director, received falsely positive results. They then traveled to Marrakesh in a privately rented bus for retesting and self-isolated at the Opera Plaza Hotel. Concurrently, Gino rode in the production bus, serving as a decoy, attracting the attention of the authorities searching for the McKoys. Upon discovering McKoy's location, 'M' directed police to their hotel room. The McKoys informed officials that the embassies of the UK, US, and Canada were aware of their situation and kept their predicament confidential from the crew at the Rotana Hotel. Subsequently, the local authorities ordered the closure of the CLA studios for disinfection and quarantine. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this led to the halt of sci-fi set construction in Ouarzazate, and service producer 'M' demanded payroll for the Moroccan team during the studio shutdown.

In Marrakesh's Rotana Hotel, pre-production occurred in a secure environment. However, five actors from the U.S. and U.K. ceased their involvement prematurely, despite ongoing contracts. In an unprecedented event in Hollywood history, director Gino J.H. McKoy identified this as a planned act to undermine Lumina. The actors retained their compensation, representing a unique case of potential project sabotage beyond just financial issues.

In 2020, SAG-AFTRA instructed its members to avoid working on the film Lumina, which allegedly failed to comply with required COVID-19 safety standards as per the union's Global Rule One, making it one of the few movies to proceed without union support.

Filming
Lumina was filmed in Marrakesh, Ouarzazate, Agafay, and the Atlas Mountains areas of Morocco. The sci-fi sets were built at the CLA studios in Ouarzazate. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the production was able to navigate the obstacles and proceed with filming.

Reception
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film zero out of four stars and wrote, "There are bad movies, there are really bad movies, and then there's Lumina, a film so breathtaking in its overall incompetence that one starts to wonder if it's not intentionally so in the hope of being the next The Room or Birdemic. How else to explain some of the laughable shot choices, inconsistent characters, nonsensical plotting, and dialogue that sounds like it was either produced by A.I. or Google Translate of a script written in another language?"

Michael Nordine of Variety also gave the film a negative review, writing, "Its ambitions are lofty, but they're also undermined at nearly every turn by chintzy visual effects that prove more distracting than immersive and uniformly wooden performances. It wants to be a space opera but is closer to a soap opera, albeit one that would air on Syfy rather than CBS."