Luc Besson’s Valerian trailer provides glimpse of next age of sci-fi movie environments

2001: A Space Odyssey. Star Wars. Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Blade Runner. The Fifth Element. Each one of these movies stretched our imaginations in new directions, providing us with new visions of what the future could look like. Luc Besson, the director who gave us the spectacular worlds of The Fifth Element, is back this summer with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. His latest trailer provides a look at some stunning cityscapes and space views, reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking world in Blade Runner and Besson’s own work on The Fifth Element.

Then there are the alien costumes and make-ups, the real and digitally-created characters. Again, only The Fifth Element had so much diversity in its creativity and vision. The only odd choice is the focus in the trailers on Valerian as “Based on the groundbreaking novel that inspired a generation.” This makes sense for a European trailer, but U.S. audiences will be puzzled seeing this statement learning about the graphic novel even the most diehard of comic book aficionados have never heard of. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is based on Valerian and Laureline, the French science fiction comic book series from the 1960s, created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières. Get an advance look at the original source material before the movie comes out here.

valerian-comics-and-movie — The 1967 comics and the 2017 movie.

In October 2015 we reported here at borg.com that director Luc Besson was looking for a few good outfits to feature in a dinner party scene to take place in a city of millions and a myriad of humanoid alien races. So he hosted a costume design contest. The diverse and futuristic winning designs from the contest can be found here.

Besson, who also directed La Femme Nikita, The Professional, and Lucy, made a long-lasting statement in sci-fi fashion with his characters from The Fifth Element. From Milla Jovovich’s body-taped Leeloo, to Bruce Willis’s orange-clad, understated everyman Korben Dallas, to the over-the-top Chris Tucker’s Ruby Rhod, from the striking opera singer Diva Plavalaguna (Maïwenn), to Gary Oldman’s creepy and villainous Zorg–the movie is a visual spectacle.

We now have the next trailer for Valerian, and it keeps looking better and better:

Here is the earlier trailer in case you missed it:

The cast for Valerian includes leads Cara Delevingne (Pan, Anna Karenina) as Laureline and Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) as Valerian, plus Clive Owen (Children of Men) as Commander Arün Filitt, Ethan Hawke, John Goodman, and Rutger Hauer.

Music is by composer Alexandre Desplat (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Argo, Godzilla, The Imitation Game). Cinematography is by long-time Besson collaborator Thierry Arbogast.