Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Post-release)

V

Vivek

Master Member
Despite some third act issues, I quite enjoyed Luc Besson's Lucy. It wasn't anything groundbreaking but still very entertaining and somewhat refreshing.

So I am definitely looking forward to his next movie Valerian, which is based on the French comic series from the 60s. I haven't read them, but apparently according to wiki some traces of concepts, storylines and designs from the comics have been found in Star Wars, The Fifth Element and Avatar.

lucbesson: My first tweet ever! Let’s share a real news! My next film is a big sci-fi: #Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

lucbesson: Starring @ danedehaan & @ Caradelevingne. Shooting in December. In theaters 2017.

lucbesson: First logo #Valerian

 
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Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

pGNC1-6954666dt.jpg





just kidding.



Besson has a great track record for me in the 80's and 90's. His latest stuff feels dated and unwieldy. Lucy is an example of a kind of film whose premise is so misinformed I couldn't suspend disbelief long enough to get into the story. I want to see Besson just do action films again. I think La Femme Nikita is the best thing he's ever done. The visuals and editing were kinetic and felt inspired and energized like good graphic novels. I'll sill watch it but IMO he gets in trouble when he tries to do science-fiction. (Fifth Element was good but I consider it more fantasy than sci-fi).
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Everyone, read Valerian if you do not know it. Seriously! Especially if you like Star Wars. Valerian was there before Lucas' space opera and quite frankly, big George owes a lot to the French comic.

The best stuff is in the early 1970's albums, Empire of a Thousand Planets (Besson's upcoming movie, apparently) , World Without Stars, Welcome to Alflolol and Ambassador of the Shadows, these are essential of the ones translated to English. If you read these and more you'll recognize a lot of familiar scenes and designs.

I read Valerian way before I saw Star Wars in 1977 and I am very much looking forward to seeing Luc Besson's take on the quintessential Spatio-Temporal Agent.

valerian02theempireofat.jpg
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Avanaut said:
Everyone, read Valerian if you do not know it. Seriously! Especially if you like Star Wars. Valerian was there before Lucas' space opera and quite frankly, big George owes a lot to the French comic.
...
Click to expand...

Quoted for truth!!! I can´t remember that I have read anywhere that Mezieres was officially named as an influence, but seeing the body of his work is like seeing (a more livid and at times vibrant and diverse) version of the Star Wars universe. Reading that Doug Chiang kept comics and books by Mezieres in his library is no surprise, but I´d love to see GL name Mezieres as an influence. However, I can see Norman Reynolds probably lift some designs off those pages or become influenced by the designs, since he and Mezieres are of the same generation. And the other art department folks always seemed like people who may read comics or other "alternative" art forms.

I read Valerian way before I saw Star Wars in 1977 and I am very much looking forward to seeing Luc Besson's take on the quintessential Spatio-Temporal Agent.

View attachment 476544
Click to expand...

How old are you? I discovered Valerian in the 1980ies when they were published as large format comic albums over here in Germany. And I consider myself old, since I just turned 44 :p

EDIT: I hope that Mezieres will have a huge part in bringing his origina designs up to date and to life on the big screen !!!
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Mezieres heavily influenced the look of the fifth element with many key sequences of New York skyline and Corbin Dallas being a flying cab driver which came from a comic book story he wrote, also when luc benson contacted him, up front he said I will use your art but this time I'll pay you for it, alluding to the amount of designs used by Hollywood that used Mezieres ideas .
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Vacformedhero said:
Mezieres heavily influenced the look of the fifth element with many key sequences of New York skyline and Corbin Dallas being a flying cab driver which came from a comic book story he wrote, also when luc benson contacted him, up front he said I will use your art but this time I'll pay you for it, alluding to the amount of designs used by Hollywood that used Mezieres ideas .
Click to expand...

I always saw the 5th Element as a rehearsal for Valerian, I was very happy to see Mezieres' visions on the silver screen. Jean Giraud's involvement did not hurt either.

DaddyfromNaboo said:
Quoted for truth!!! I can´t remember that I have read anywhere that Mezieres was officially named as an influence, but seeing the body of his work is like seeing (a more livid and at times vibrant and diverse) version of the Star Wars universe. Reading that Doug Chiang kept comics and books by Mezieres in his library is no surprise, but I´d love to see GL name Mezieres as an influence. However, I can see Norman Reynolds probably lift some designs off those pages or become influenced by the designs, since he and Mezieres are of the same generation. And the other art department folks always seemed like people who may read comics or other "alternative" art forms.

How old are you? I discovered Valerian in the 1980ies when they were published as large format comic albums over here in Germany. And I consider myself old, since I just turned 44 :p

EDIT: I hope that Mezieres will have a huge part in bringing his origina designs up to date and to life on the big screen !!!
Click to expand...

The Star Wars connection has been up a few times, I do not know the truth behind it all. The influence seems pretty obvious, though. Just think, building Valerian's ship with studioscale standards in 1/24th scale and putting it next to the 5 foot Millennium Falcon... Now, that would look great! :D

I'm a bit older than you, took on to reading these comics when some of them were published here in Finland, starting with The Empire of Thousand Planets (the story that is to be adaptated by Besson) in 1973.
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Never heard of any if this, but you have intrigued me.
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Read Valerian and Mezières in Belgium in the late '60s. Big influence on a lot of graphic artists of the time: Giraud (aka Gir, Moebius) is one that pops to mind. Btw, I'm 57;)
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Valerian or Ravian as it was translated into Dutch is a great series ... I've got all the albums and love them to bits ... now whereas Lucas knew of Mézières and Christin's body of work ... it's quite possible since he wrote the forword for a comic album by Moebius - Giraud and having seen the huge library in Skywalker Ranch it would not suprise me at all if he did know about their stories and adventures. Certainly there are many similarities ... except one ... Valerian is an Earthbound storyline ... with time/space-travel whereas STAR WARS is taking place in a galaxy far, far away and a long time ago without any means of time-travel ... now there's another huge franchise that crept right inbetween at least with some episodes of their sequel and next generation series ... yes it's STAR TREK ... coincidence ... most likely ... or is it?

I for one am going to be thrilled at watching Valerian come to life on the silver screen ... and hope it's going to be a huge success with many more stories following ... and some great merchandise in their wake :)

Chaim
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

The "actress" is not a red head by nature, but a blonde. Laureline aka Veronique as she was called in Germany was one of my first fanboy crushes (I think that term did not exist in the 1980ies) so I really hope for a cute redhead :love

And I found this starwars1.jpg
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Costumes are good, hopefully, their very particular space ship will be reproduced closely to the original design.
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

DeHaan is good...is the main character a whiny kid? Would hate for him to get typecast...
 
Re: Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Hm. Broody teens? Not the Valerian and Laureline/Veronique I got to know and currently re-explore via the comics. The actress really lacks the cheerful and adventurous sparkle that Laureline was painted in as the lead character. IMO they both are at least five years too young.

EDIT: AAAAND my worst fear has come true ...
Laureline is not a red-head :cry
 
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