A new featurette for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets goes behind-the-scenes of the making of the film. The project is a passion project for writer and director Luc Besson, coming exactly twenty years after the writer and director released his first beloved sci-fi adventure with The Fifth Element. Valerian promises to take the filmmaker back to that familiar, ambitious cosmic space opera tone once again. Considering the similarities between the two titles, the film's marketing campaign hasn't necessarily been shy about teasing some possible connections between Valerian and The Fifth Element.
But unlike The Fifth Element, which was an original creation of Besson's, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is based on a long-running French comic book series of the same name, which Besson was first introduced to at a young age. And for those unaware of the film's basic premise, it follows special agents Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) when they are called to investigate a sudden series of attacks happening on one of the universe's most important planets.
In anticipation of the film's theatrical release date near the end of next month, STX Entertainment has officially unveiled a brand new featurette for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets online this morning. Aside from offering some basic details about the film's premise and Besson's attachment to the source material, the featurette also includes some never-before-seen footage from the filming of Valerian, aka the most expensive film in French history. Check out the featurette for yourself in the space above.
Due to the production budget and the sheer enormity of the project itself, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is one of the riskier films set to hit theaters this summer. Based on a property that's not very well known in the United States, Luc Besson and the studios involved are likely hoping that early positive word of mouth and the film's stunning trailers will be able to drum up enough attention for the film over the next few weeks.
Fortunately, early reactions to Valerian footage have been overwhelmingly positive up until this point, ever since it made its first debut during last year's San Diego Comic-Con. This behind-the-scenes footage only further reinforces and teases what has already made Valerian stand out from the rest of this year's big budget titles. That, in addition to Besson's reputation and the film's awe-inspiring visual effects, have elevated Valerian into being one of this summer's most-anticipated and unique films. So depending on just how much hype it manages to create before the film's opening weekend, Valerian could very well wind up being one of the biggest surprise hits of 2017.
Source: STX Entertainment
