Director Luc Besson on designing his wild space opera Valerian, and why he’s tired of superhero movies
Luc Besson is in a hotel room in Beverly Hills, looking at pictures of frogs, and he can’t stop giggling.
The French filmmaker behind movies like The Professional and The Fifth Element is explaining the creative process behind his new film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. It’s a visually stunning space opera that brings the classic French graphic novel Valérian and Laureline to life with Besson’s usual stylistic flair. And when it comes to some of the movie’s dozens of creatures and alien races, the inspiration lies in the photos he’s scrolling through on his iPhone, including a bird with a rainbow spray of plumage, and a frog with eerie translucent skin.
Besson explains that while brainstorming, he collects these images as…
