Are You Talkin’ To Me?
A Film column by Jamie Hill
There was a time in the Eighties and Nineties where Luc Besson could do no wrong.
The French director, producer and screenwriter had been the visionary behind glorious French language films like The Big Blue, Subway and La Femme Nikita.
And then, Hollywood came a’courting and he managed to translate this critical success into a remake of Nikita called The Assassin and the sublime Leon.
In 1997, we then had Besson’s sci-fi opus The Fifth Element, one of the maddest forays into the genre that we have ever seen. It was great (although if they could have cut Chris Tucker out of the movie, it would have been a whole lot better.)
In recent years Besson has settled into an action movie formula with The Transporter, Taken and Lucy.
But a couple of months ago, something weird and wonderful happened when he dropped the latest trailer to his newest film Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets.
The movie world was a bit gob-smacked as this looked like a film that was so creatively mad and high sci-fi that it was like The Fifth Element on acid.
And there was no Chris Tucker in sight.
It’s released on August 2 and is already getting a bit of a buzz.
The film is based on the French science fiction comics series Valérian and Laureline, written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières.
Here’s a plot synopsis - In the 28th century, Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are a team of special operatives charged with maintaining order throughout the human territories.
Under assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two embark on a mission to the astonishing city of Alpha-an ever-expanding metropolis where species from all over the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence and cultures with each other.
There is a mystery at the center of Alpha, a dark force which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.
And it looks completely mad with aliens that boggle the mind and landscapes straight out of the comic book.
As you can probably tell I’m a bit excited about this one as I’m a tad in love with sci-fi, especially sci-fi which looks as good as this.
With Luc Besson at the helm I’ve got a feeling this will be in safe hands and will be a story told with humour and panache with a whole load of style thrown in just for good measure.
It could be another Jupiter Ascending, a film that looked great but lacked the heart to really make us swoon. But with Besson we’ve got a pair of safe hands that might just give us the madness but leave in the heart. Just as long as there’s no Chris Tucker doing a Jar Jar Binks routine.