New Sci-fi 'Valerian' In The Works From 'Lucy' Writer Luc Besson
It appears Luc Besson enjoyed his return to sci-fi movies after making Lucy, and perhaps is looking to ride the surge of comic book adaptations hitting theatres at the moment. Either way, his next film, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, sounds interesting to say the least.
The movie is based on a highly successful French comic by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres. You may not have heard of it before, but if you've watched a block buster sci-fi in the past thirty years there's a good chance it's referenced Valerian. Including on of Luc Besson's best known films, The Fifth Element.
The plot of Valerian revolves around to spatio-temporal agents, or space-time cops, called Valerian and Laureline as they seek to protect the Earth and other inhabited planets from whoever happens to want to attack. The setting is the 28th century when Earth has become a Utopia, however it wouldn't be move of a time travel movie if it stuck there.
The comic was renowned for classic literary sci-fi references, humour, humanist political ideas and blending time travel with space opera, so we can expect Besson's film to follow suit.
Currently, Dane Dehaan (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) and Cara Delevigne (Suicide Squad) are set to star as Valerian and Laureline.
Valerian is set to begin filming in December with a scheduled release of Summer 2017.