Director Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a career-spanning passion project, has received its second official trailer, and it looks stunning. Based off the 20-plus volume French science-fiction comic, “Valerian and Laureline,” from Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières, the movie combines space opera and time travel with Besson’s signature visual flair. But with a pedigree like his (The Fifth Element, The Professional, Lucy), there’s no telling what to expect besides a feast for the eyes.
The two leads, Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne, don’t inspire much hope for charismatic leads, and it looks like a ridiculous CGI-fest with your standard YA sci-fi cliches, but there’s no doubt it’s going to be a dazzling display of technical wizardry that prides itself in having fun. Whether or not the film captures the tone of the original comics remains to be seen, but as per usual with big budget adaptations – this looks to be a far more boisterous affair.
Today on Reddit, Luc Besson did an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything), where you will find a lot of interesting tidbits about the production. Among them, I found the following to be notable: Besson did in fact consult with the original creators of “Valerian and Laureline,” Christin and Mézières, saying that they were happy with the script and offered up some useful adjustments. The main volume that inspired the story of the film was ‘Ambassador of Shadows,’ but the sheer size of the project allowed Besson to pull influences from other volumes as well, in addition to adding his own ideas. Finally, the cast and crew had so much fun on set that they are hoping to create a sequel.
You can also currently download the first volume of “Valerian and Laureline” for free at Amazon and Comixology.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets opens July 21 and stars Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne as the titular characters, with Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, John Goodman, Herbie Hancock and Kris Wu also starring.
