Imagine you’re ten years old. It’s 1969 and you’ve discovered a love of comics. One of the recent ones is a series calledValérian and Laurelinthat was created by writerPierre Christinand artistJean-Claude Mézières. Unlike a lot of comics during that period, this one took place in a far off future where people could travel through space and time and it focused on a dark-haired spatio-temporal agent (Valerian) and his colleague (Laureline) as they traveled across the universe. For an impressionable ten year old, it was magic. The only issue was unlike most comics, you’d only get two pages every Wednesday, and then you’d have to wait for more.
Perhaps that’s the very reason the series made such an impression on a youngLuc Besson. When I spoke to the famed director recently in the editing room, where he’s putting together his visually audacious adaptation ofValérian and Laurelin,Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, he revealed his long-term love for the characters. Here’s what he had to say:
“The first woman I fell in love with was probably Laureline. She was totally free and badass and it was a very modern heroine at the time and I was totally in love with her. The guy was also very cool. He’s a little bit pretentious. He always thinks he’s the best in all this. She’s here to say, “Eh, chill.” So I love the relationship since the beginning and that’s what drives me more than spaceship monsters and all this. It was the relationship of the two. It’s reallyMr. and Mrs. Smithin space, you know they’re joking, fighting. So that’s what drive me since I’m young is that I love this team. Because they’re cops, super cops, they travel in the space and time but they’re fighting all the time, they’re so human.”
While most of you haven’t yet seen any footage fromValerian– the teaser trailer arrives on Thursday, November 10th– the extensive footage I’ve seen signals that this is going to be something special. What I’ve seen thus far makes the wait for the film’s release in July 2017 borderline unbearable. Loaded with astonishing aliens, epic action set-pieces, vast and teeming planets, and the type of scale and scope rarely seen on movie screens, Luc Besson looks like he crafted a film his ten year old self would have stood in line all day to see. If you think thatThe Fifth Elementwas the end-all-be-all of visionary sci-fi epics, you’re about to have the wind knocked out of you.
After seeing the teaser trailer and a scene from the film, I had a lengthy conversation with Besson. He talked about where he’s at in the editing process, how they’ve got 200 VFX shots done out of 2,700, his lifelong love of the material, whyCara Delevingnewas the right actor for Laureline, how students helped design portions of the world, how he’s already written the outline for the second and third movies, and so much more. The cherry on top? We even got to talk about the status of sequels toThe ProfessionalandLucy. If you’re a fan of this master filmmaker, I think you’ll enjoy.
The Valerian trailer drops on Thursday; in the meantime, here’s a sneak peek:
COLLIDER: So where are you in the editing process now?
LUC BESSON: Editing is finished.
So you are just finishing VFX shots.
BESSON: Yeah.
Where are you in that process?
BESSON: We basically finished ten percent of it. So it’s 2,700 shots and I approved 200.
Are you on track for everything going the way it’s supposed to be going?
BESSON: Totally on track.
Oh that’s great. When is the date that you actually aim to have everything done?
BESSON: End of March, for my birthday.
Is this coming out in IMAX?
BESSON: It will be in IMAX in most of the country and we don’t know yet. We were IMAX first on the 21st of July and then there’s this film calledDunkirkwho comes on the 21st of July and because of the relationship they have for so long of course he will be on IMAX. So if they keep this date then we won’t be on IMAX in U.S. but in the rest of the world.
Is there a chance in the U.S. you might move away from Dunkirk or you..
BESSON: No, no.
So it’s coming out July 21st?
BESSON: It’s coming July 21st no matter what. We chose the date two years ago. Put the dates everybody’s ready because it’s not only U.S. it’s China, it’s Europe it’s everywhere.
You’re going that date around the world?
BESSON: Almost, yeah. you may’t move just because one director comes here. So we will go 21st of July no matter what. But we are in 3D so we have a 3D version and RealD and IMAX everywhere.
What do you envision the best way to watch this movie? Do you have a preferred format that you would like people to see this film in?
BESSON: Honestly, my concern 99% is about the storytelling, the emotion and all this. I never think about the format of anything until way far in the process and when we arrive to the fabrication of the thing then we start to say, “Okay right, what is the best thing we can do.” I choose the car before to choose the color.
I completely get it. We’ve talked before but there’s are going to be people who read this interview who might not realize you have been passionate about this material for an extremely long time. So talk a little bit about when you first got involved, you know falling in love with this material and what is it about this material that really speaks to you.
BESSON: First I’m 10 years old when I read the first comic book and at 10 years old it’s in the comic every week on Wednesday and they have only two pages every Wednesday. So I have to wait six days to have the new episode. I mean the young people today they click on the Internet they have all the information in the world. I have to wait for a week to have two more pages and I think it’s part of the love also. Because for six days you just dream about it. The first woman I fell in love with was probably Laureline. She was totally free and badass and it was a very modern heroine at the time and I was totally in love with her. The guy was also very cool. He’s a little bit pretentious. He always thinks he’s the best in all this. She’s here to say, “Eh, chill.” So I love the relationship since the beginning and that’s what drives me more than spaceship monsters and all this. It was the relationship of the two. It’s reallyMr. and Mrs. Smithin space, you know they’re joking, fighting. So that’s what drive me since I’m young is that I love this team. Because they’re cops, super cops, they travel in the space and time but they’re fighting all the time, they’re so human.
I have to ask you about the casting, you mentioned that this is character you fell in love with when you were ten. So what is it like casting this dream girl that you have had a crush on almost your entire life?
BESSON: I’m glad I’m 50-years-old now because if I made the film at 25 I would be totally in love with Cara, [Delevingne] but I’m 50 and she’s very young so it’s much more friendly and professional. I just need to find an actress this little glimpse, this little humor, craziness that she has. Cara has all this naturally. She’s a little Laureline in our world today.
One of the things…you basically run a studio and you get to make really big decisions but now a day’s everyone is examining what star will bring international dollars and who’s good for what marketplace and so on and so forth. How much did those kind of financial decisions play a factor in the casting process? And maybe you how made the movie?
BESSON: Have you seen recently how many flop they got with this kind of patern. Like, “Oh this market and the thing and we should take this girl and the thing,” you see the result? I mean I watch box office mojo once in awhile and then you watch the thing and there’s no rule, it’s wrong. I mean loving a film is like falling in love with a woman or with a man like you never expect it. It it’s not the one you think you will be in love with, you know. You think always that he will be with a beard, and black, and big and finally he’s Chinese and you know it’s the same thing. There’s something very organic about the film and if you forgot it, if you don’t have this seed in it…this organic flavor in it the film doesn’t work it’s wrong. I’m not trying to excuse myself for my lack of confidence in numbers and all this…but I attempt to follow my instinct as a moviegoer and I do the thing I would love to see it at a movie. I’m like everyone, almost, I go to a movie once a week.
That’s not everyone, that’s you and me.
BESSON: But you know what I mean, right? I like every kind of film if it’s well made. I’m fine. I’m not a specialist fighting for a genre of film. You just have to follow your instinct. I’ve known Laureline for 40 years and I met Cara and I know it’s her, that’s it. And you can tell me whatever you want like, “Oh she never played before” or “She’s a model,” or whatever. I didn’t say yes right away I test her very deeply…very hardly it was very hard. But my guess was like if she’s going through the process and if she’s good at the end she can get the part and then she got the part.
How long was your first cut of the film vs the cut you have right now?
BESSON: I finished the editing ten days after the last day of shooting.
So you were already pulling stuff out that you didn’t think was…
BESSON: The editor was on the soundstages near the camera with me all the time.
How long is the movie?
BESSON: Two hours and nine minutes.
Oh, that’s a good length.
BESSON: Not too long.
No, yeah I like that, that’s a really good length.
BESSON: We put like probably three or four minutes in the garbage, that’ all.
Right, that’s what I was wondering. I would imagine with a film like this you made an animatic of the entire thing.
BESSON: Not everything but the biggest part yes. Even the first scene which is almost 20 minutes long it’s a really big scene that ILM is doing it’s in two different worlds parallel. I shot the entire 20 minutes with…I have a school in Paris with students. I took the 60 students we shot the entire 600 shots. We shot them and then we went to the editing with all the students…we did the entire thing put some music and noise and things and that’s the reference we have on the set. When it’s world number one it’s kind of blue and when it’s the world number two it’s kind of red so every technician they know when they watch the editing they know what we’re doing. Then after when we shoot, the editor was replacing the shot from the temp shooting by the reel we just did and replace it.
That’s crazy.
BESSON: But very useful in fact it much more practical.
Is there any technology that you are able to use in your movie that’s absolutely revolutionary to right now?
BESSON: No, only Jim [James Cameron] do that.
Yeah, he’s talking about some crazy stuff right now.
BESSON: He’s the master. He tests everything and then we take what’s left.
I just saw Ang Lee’sBilly Lynnat that high frame rate.
BESSON: You know for me Jim Cameron is like after on the mountain when it snows for three days there’s always the first few guys from the station, the pro, who goes to open the thing first to see if everything is okay, that’s Jim.
Is there technology that Jim has shown you or things that you’ve seen that you can’t wait to use that like on the cutting edge right now?
BESSON: No, not so much. He was kind enough to invite me on the set ofAvatar.
The first one?
BESSON: Yeah, and then he showed me his camera where he sees through and you see the other world in the camera but you wanna…
Oh theSimulcamthing?
BESSON: Yeah, and so I use it with him for the first time I was like totally lost with the thing. But for me I’m always like the reverse. I’m on the storytelling and the emotion and how I can get it. If I can get this emotion by a new technology great but I’m not interested enough by all that. I’m trying to stay on the characters all the time.
One of the things that really impresses me in the teaser trailer are some of those really wide shots with so much going on in the background. It’s like you’re showing off this completely different world that I want to spend more time in. So talk a little bit about the design of that and what you want people to see or notice?
BESSON: The process was a little different from other films because we sent like 2,000 letters to all the schools around the world, the graphic schools, drawing schools, artist schools, and we basically said if you’re interested, they didn’t know it was me, we’re gonna do a sci fi film. If you’re interested send one spaceship, one alien, one world. We received like 600 and we selected ten and then I worked with five for a year. They were not allowed to talk to anyone else than me, they didn’t know each other at all, they don’t know their names at all. It’s like a in the Tarantino films Mr. Red, Mr. Blue, and the only contact was once a week through Skype. So the guys see me I see him and that’s it.
Were they allowed to tell anyone else what they were doing?
BESSON: They’re not allowed to show anything and no they didn’t say anything.
So in the final film…
BESSON: But what I mean is this process one that for example on the teaser you see the first three guys coming the very colored blue. I tell the guy how they are, if they’re big, if they’re pacifist…like what is their function in the film but I don’t give any visual. So they are like totally free and they don’t have a date, they can like come back in a month if they want it doesn’t matter. So when they come back with the thing they come back with like crazy things because they were free. They have no pressure, they had no prediction, they are at home, they’re not even in an office and they just talk with a friend and say, “Oh so what’s up what do you have today, oh you work on the alien. Oh my god that’s good. I love the face, maybe the body you do that.” We have this kind of discussion for a year and a half but at the end we have 5,000 drawings. So when we start to do the storyboard and we start to talk with Weta or ILM I came in and say here that’s the front, that’s the left side, that’s the right side, that’s from the back, that’s his weapon, that’s his suitcase, that’s his daughter. They said, “Oh,okay” and they just have to give to the artist to do the computer graphics of it and the modifications sometimes because it’s not so easy to go from one to the other but they don’t have to search for that we bring them everything.
That also is a huge savings of money in terms with Weta and these other companies.
BESSON: Yeah, probably but it was not made for that. I was trying to see from what I’ve hear from other films you know the U.S. system because the green light comes very, very, very, late all the time because of the financing and suddenly here is the green light here is openning day. So they hire like 30 designers and they have six weeks so you need a method.
You’re method makes way more sense and on the screen you can see the difference in creatures as they all look different.
BESSON: But it’s just a matter of time and taking these artists. The funny thing is in the ten artists…at the end half of them have already worked on big Marvel films or like big sci-fi or DC comics or somethings but they were unknown. They were like one guy somewhere and they say, “Okay Tuesday you have time finish this one and this one.” We talk and they never see that the guy was first shy but the guy can make so much more but they never ask. So they guy say okay and he just make the thing. But what I try to do is it’s more like a method with an actor.
You’re taking away all limitations and it’s just complete imagination.
BESSON: They came with some few things like you want to pick up your phone and call 911 and say there’s this guy who’s definitely crazy I’m gonna give you his address. Cause they come with stuff sometimes..when I see them on the Skype I was just loving it. I say, “that’s a little bit too much, okay” and they say, “Yeah, I knew it would be too much.”
Lucywas this monstrous hit and made like half a billion dollars worldwide, which I know no one expected. There’s always been talk, I know Universals talked about it, about doing more in that universe or a sequel. Is that something that could happen or is that like one and done?
BESSON: It was not made to do more for sure. I like the concept in fact a lot and we can go even farther than that…but I’m always careful. I’m not coming from the business I come from films. So it’s like 10, 15, 20 years I’m thinking about Léon for example. I would love to see Mathilda. To know what happens to her. As long as I don’t find something good I won’t do it, even if it takes 15 years or maybe we will never do it .
For many peopleThe Professional that’s like their favorite, like people love that movie. So even the talk of doing more some people would be so excited and some people would be so scared.
BESSON: I know but at the same time…sorry for everyone that’s my character and I’m gonna do whatever I want.
I don’t think anyones gonna tell you no but is that something….
BESSON: I would love to know what happened to this 12 year old girl that’s for sure. I’m not saying we should know. I’m not saying we should make a film about it. What I’m saying is sometimes when I think about her…because for me it’s a live girl I say, “What happened to her at 18 years old.” How did she get out of this mess? How did she forget Léon or not. Yeah, this I would love to know. Lucy the same. You know like whether you reach 100 percent of your capacity it could be a beginning.
Have you actually put pen to paper on either of those films?
BESSON: Yeah, all of them.
So you’ve actually written down ideas for sequels?
BESSON: Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the time I’m writing all the time. I’m writingValerian 2and3already.
Well that’s my next question but finishing theLucyandProfessionaldo you think there’s anything that you’ve written down that you feel strong enough that you really want to make it? Or these are just ideas and let’s see what happens?
BESSON: No, it’s good but it’s not just that. It’s just not that you have to….it’s almost like organizing your holidays. Who’s coming with you, how long do you have, the winter was very cold I want to go to the sun, you have lots of parameters. It’s not because you have good ideas that it’s gonna become a film…it’s not just that you know? It’s lot’s of different do I want to do it? Do I give it to someone else? LikeLucyif we do something do I want to do the sequel probably not. Because the first one I did it and I would love to write it but maybe not to direct it for example. WhenValerianif we do a second one I want to do it, for example. I can’t even explain why really.
Well it’s because you fell in love with these characters at 10 years old.
BESSON: Yeah, probably you’re right. I love them so I want to be with them again.
No, totally I get it. There’s stuff that I fell in love with when I was 10 that I still love. It’s that emotional attachment that you form at such a young age that’s it’s unbreakable.
BESSON: No, you’re right you put the finger on it, that’s true.
When I spoke to you last time if the audiences demand it you would love to do more. Where are you in the writing process of moreValerian?
BESSON: I have the entire second episode already.
You have the script or the outline?
BESSON: No, not the the script but the entire structure which is the most important thing cause the dialogue is way quicker. I have the structure of the second one. I have the structure of the third if you want already. If the film doesn’t work it’s okay. I’d rather be a little ahead than late and it’s my pleasure to write it anyway even if I don’t have to do it, it’s fine. I write basically five scripts per year.
You’re also an anomaly especially with how hard you work with directing and running a company.
BESSON: No, I’m not running a company. The CEO is running the company. I mean the CEO is running the company. He is a great guy and you know he’s the CEO I’m the president which is different. I’m the queen of England.
If you were to make another one would you take on two and three together back to back the way Peter Jackson did it or do you feel like there’s an element where you really want to do it one at a time?
BESSON: No, it doesn’t matter I would say probably one by one. I think it’s good also that the actors like Dane between the feels is gonna make more films Cara also. So they come back with new experiences and maybe I do something else first also and then you have even more pleasure to see each other again. So two in a row will be very long.
How long was the shoot on this?
BESSON: 100 days.
That’s a healthy shoot.
BESSON: So I don’t feel for 200 days in a row.
Well a lot of people also talk about the law of diminishing returns that making a movie is devoting everything and doing it for 100 days is daunting, let alone 200 days.
BESSON: So economically it’s probably better to do together but you’re losing energy you’re losing things I think.
I mean look at what happened with Peter Jackson onLord of the Rings. I think he reshot a lot of the third movie because they learned what the audiences liked in the first one and it was such a huge hit that things…
BESSON: So that’s one more reason to do it this way.
What’s coming up for you besidesValerian?I knowMiss Sloaneis coming out through Europa but what other things have you written or are producing that you’re excited about?
BESSON: Very excited aboutMiss Sloanebecause I didn’t do anything. As a producer they show the film to me at the end and it was perfect. It was great. So that’s the way I like to produce. You trust the guy you know you help, you hear, you give the money, and then come back and the film is perfect so this was just a pleasure. There is theRenegadescoming, it’s a little action film, which I love because all the protagonist aren’t so well known they’re not big stars or big names so it’s gives a freshness to it to see new faces so I like it and I like the story of it.
Is there anything that you’ve written recently?
BESSON: No, there are a couple of films in prep but from the one I wrote I think no that’s it nothing coming to my mind.
Here’s the official synopsis forValerian and the City of a Thousand Planets:
Rooted in the classic graphic novel series, Valerian and Laureline- visionary writer/director Luc Besson advances this iconic source material into a contemporary, unique and epic science fiction saga. Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are special operatives for the government of the human territories charged with maintaining order throughout the universe. Valerian has more in mind than a professional relationship with his partner- blatantly chasing after her with propositions of romance. But his extensive history with women, and her traditional values, drive Laureline to continuously rebuff him. Under directive from their Commander (Clive Owen), Valerian and Laureline embark on a mission to the breathtaking intergalactic city of Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis comprised of thousands of different species from all four corners of the universe. Alpha’s seventeen million inhabitants have converged over time- uniting their talents, technology and resources for the betterment of all. Unfortunately, not everyone on Alpha shares in these same objectives; in fact, unseen forces are at work, placing our race in great danger.
