Notable French filmmaker Luc Besson gives us an exciting view of his new creation of the space opera "Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets." The movie was based on the highly acclaimed French graphic novel "Valerian and Laureline" by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mezieres.
The comic series started in 1967. The comics were released with two pages every Wednesday in a newspaper. Later on, it was compiled into a graphic novel, which has now been translated into dozens of different languages. The comics series is now a feature film titled "Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets." The comic series is so notable that Sci-fi films such as "Star Wars" and "The Fifth Element" have traces of influence from the graphic novel.
During the 1990's, Luc Besson thought about creating "Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets" decades before "The Fifth Element." But since the movie has practically less than a dozen humanoid species and more than 200 alien species, he believed the visual technology was not available to realize his grand vision.
It was when he saw the success in Steven Spielberg's "Avatar," when he concluded that there are ample resources to build his grandiose reality for "Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets." He then casted Dane Dehaan, Cara De Levingne, Ethan Hawke, John Goodman, Clive Owen, Rutger Hauer and Rihanna to fulfill his vision.
Dehaan took a 180 degrees spin from his usual brooding characters in the "Chronicles" and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." In "Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets" he plays the character Valerian, a knuckle-head and blindly obedient soldier who is head over heels crushing on De Levingne's character, Laureline.
Laureline on the other hand is your typical tough chick; rebellious, impulsive and in charge. Fans will also see Rihanna on the "Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets" as a shapeshifting humanoid alien species called Shoufuss.
Fans of the graphic novel are apprehensive of Luc casting De Levingne and Rihanna for "Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets." They just have to trust Luc Besson's creative genius to make the cast members fit the story line. After all, Besson is the one who was able to discover Mila Jovovich. Besson is known for knowing the best actor for a certain character. This is evident when let Jovovich have a breakthrough role in his movie "The Fifth Element."
The film makers are still building the movie but the trailer already looks amazingly impeccable. "Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets" is set to release July 21, 2017 in the US.
