How Luc Besson made his sci-fi epic Valerian as an indie

When it comes to financing epic, sci-fi blockbusters, Hollywood is the normal road to take. However, with the ambitious film by director/producer, Luc Besson, Valerian side-stepped the normal Hollywood studio system, as if it was an independently financed film.

New epic film is 3-D sci-fi blockbuster

Luc Besson’s new sci-fi epic, ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’, was an ambitious project of immense proportions. The 3-D blockbuster, which saw its first release date on July 17 in China and July 21 in the U.S., is STX Entertainment’s response to cult blockbuster movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy. The film is packed with special effects that integrate the desert world of Mad Max with the underwater scenes from Avatar, and includes colossal galactic backdrops that make Star Wars look small.

The film follows the actions of two “special operatives”, played by Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevigne, in the galactic metropolis of Alpha. Home to a multitude of species from a thousand different planets, Alpha is being attacked by a dark force that threatens their very existence, and the entire future of the universe.

Valerian set to be a huge success after CinemaCon

The film was presented at this year’s CinemaCon annual show, where excerpts and show reels were seen for the new film. And while STX showed off several of their fledgling movie projects, it left audiences in no doubt that Valerian was the film that would win the company the major awards. Competition at CinemaCon was heavy, and teasers for popular titles such as ‘Spiderman: Homecoming’, ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’, and ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’. However, the sizzle reel for Valerian showed that the film had all the stunning visual effects that audiences had come to expect from Besson, especially after the hit film, ‘The Fifth Element’.

No Hollywood studio was used

The film itself took Besson over seven years to conceive, cost over 180 million dollars in the making, and spent two years in the editing studios. However, the film has one even more remarkable point of interest to it: there are no major Hollywood studios involved in its making at any point. So it begs the question, without the backing of the major Hollywood studios, how did the film become such a huge production?

Besson has his own film studio

One of the common factors in Hollywood that decides whether a studio will back a film is the established intellectual property and the potential for success using the already built-in audiences, such as films like X-Men and Transformers. Valerian is based on a French comic book series, entitled ‘Valerian and Laureline’, which has never been heard of by most U.S. moviegoers. Without the required intellectual property that Hollywood looks for, Besson had to have his own film studio, something only Tyler Perry has done so far. After his hit movie, ‘The Fifth Element’, along with a string of other hugely successful projects, Besson started his own film company, EuropaCorp, which is responsible for distributing his movies in France. The company also made a nice deal with STX for distribution of Valerian.

h/t: Indiewire

Also available on Zyne.ca