Luc Besson Announces New Comic-Book Sci-fi

Add another director to the list of those embracing social media to help personalise their promotional duties: Luc Besson. He’s taken to twitter to announce his new project, sci-fi adaptation Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets, which has Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan on board to star.

The Hollywood Reporter offers a few more details about the movie, which is drawn from the Valérian And Laureline comic book series created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières. Besson is writing and directing the film, which will see DeHaan playing the agent who travels in time and space (think Dan Dare meets Doctor Who), with Delevingne co-starring as his fellow agent Laureline, as they defend a utopian 28th century Earth and neighbouring planets from threats. First published in 1967, the series’ ideas and designs concepts went on to influence the likes of **Star Wars **and, tellingly, The Fifth Element, so this feels like Besson bringing things full circle.

That subtitle suggests Besson is dipping into the second collected tome, The Empire Of A Thousand Planets, and with nine collections on shelves so far (a tenth hits UK shops in September), there is plenty of scope for a franchise, whether Besson stays at the helm or starts farming the task out to protégés. Either way, it’s encouraging to see him get back to big-scale sci-fi, no doubt driven by the success of Lucy. The plan is to start shooting at the end of this year for release in summer 2017.

Delevingne is on our screens a lot this summer, with Pan out July 17 and Paper Towns due August 21. She’s also part of Warner Bros./DC's Suicide Squad, which is shooting now for an August 5, 2016 release. DeHaan will be seen as James Dean in Life, out September 25 and Tulip Fever, which has yet to secure a UK date.