It looks as if Luc Besson will be filming an adaptation of the French Valerian & Laureline comic books.

His last comix adaptation was the heavily stylized The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec and was filmed in French. While Adele has quite the following back at home, her creator Jacques Tardi is more of an acquired taste in the Anglosphere and hasn't broken through to popularity. Both the subtitles and the heavy makeup of Tardi's grotesques contributed to the Adele film's invisibility in the US.

Hopefully this won't be the case with Valerian. It has been announced that he plans to film this one ( like The Fifth Element ) in English. The comix are based on a series written by Pierre Christin and drawn by Jean-Claude Mezieres ( whose design work on The Fifth Element was responsible for turning its hero into a taxi-hack. ) And many people have pointed to a clear influence of these comix on the original Star Wars films.

Of course many a project disappears into development Hell. The Schwartzenegger version of Sgt. Rock, the Terry Gilliam version of The Watchmen. This is why I always say of these announcements, "I'll believe it when I'm eating popcorn in the theatre watching the closing credits roll."

Dante







• ( http link ) http://www.firstshowing.net/2012/luc-besson-also-writing-directing-the-valerian-sci-fi-adaptation/
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