Interviews with the Filmmakers and Stars of Valerian And The City of a Thousand Planets

 

Valerian and The City of A Thousand Planets is out in theaters this Friday July 21st and I can’t wait to hear what you think about it! This visually spectacular new adventure film from Luc Besson, the legendary director of The Professional, The Fifth Element and Lucy, is based on the ground-breaking comic book series which inspired a generation of artists, writers and filmmakers. The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies of all time so when I heard I would have a chance to meet my favorite director of all time, Luc Besson, courtesy of STX Entertainment,  I do believe you might have heard my yelps of joy!  Before the press junket, I went out and bought a fun (and a tad funky) outfit and dyed my hair pink in his honor!  Yes, I know, I got VERY excited about meeting my favorite director but I have so enjoyed his work over the years and I know he loves quirky as we know from watching his movies.

 

He is such an incredibly creative person and you will not be disappointed in this incredible movie!  From the creatures to worlds created, at times you do want to pause the film just so you can take it all in.  I guess we can all do that when it comes out on Blu-ray and DVD the next couple months but in the meantime you don’t want to miss seeing this up on the big screen.

 

The Story:

In the 28th century, Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are a team of special operatives charged with maintaining order throughout the human territories. Under assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two embark on a mission to the astonishing city of Alpha—an ever-expanding metropolis where species from all over the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence and cultures with each other.

There is a mystery at the center of Alpha, a dark force which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

 

 

I fell in love with the two stars, Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne and think they have wonderful chemistry together.  And the outfits they pull off are awesome!  That is one of my favorite aspects of The Fifth Element, the costumes were amazing and every time I would re-watch the movie I’d notice something new.  That is how this movie is, you will be able to see it again and again and experience new things because it is so rich visually.  It has a Fifth Element vibe mixed with Mad Max, Blade Runner, and Star Wars.  Throughout the movie you catch hints of Luc Besson’s humor and you’ll find yourself not only mesmerized by the scenes but also laughing out loud throughout the movie.  If you know his work you know his humor is a bit on the quirky side – just the way his fans like it!

 

 

 

Throughout the movie you are drawn in by the gorgeous worlds and creatures in Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets.

 

 

Some of our favorites were the three duck-billed creatures who finish one another’s sentences and are a cross between an anteater and a duck. Listening to Luc Besson speak about his creative process I was completely smitten.  He is just so creative and you can just see the wheels turning while speaking with him.   And he shares with us about the steps he took with his artists to get their best work out of them.  From what we gathered at the interview with Mr. Besson, Kara and Dane, he is a very hands-on director but he trusts his actors to do their jobs, which they did really well.  He put his trust in their abilities and would even ask their opinions throughout the movie about certain scenes and what their characters would do in certain situations.

 

 

Interview with Luc Besson, Director of Valerian and The City of a Thousands Planets:

Read more about what Luc Besson said about his creative process and who (and what) inspires him.  It truly was such an honor meeting him and it is a day I will always remember!  It isn’t everyday we get a chance to meet one of our inspirations!

Q: Fantastic movie. It was incredible.

Mr. Luc Besson:  It feels good to hear it.  You know, when you finish, you’re almost naked.  You don’t like anything.

It’s funny.  You write a joke.  It makes you laugh, and then you shoot it.

And then, you go to the editing, and, at the end of the process, you quit laughing at all at the joke.  And you almost–sometimes you think, “Okay, it will never work–this joke.  We should take it out.”

And you have to remember that it made you laugh at the beginning.  

 

The Creative Process:

Q:  It was fantastic.  The visual effects of this movie are just stunning.  Can you talk a little bit about the process you worked with the production design, everybody to create Alpha and to create those worlds, especially the virtual reality world?

Mr. Luc Besson:  First, when you start with this kind of film, you have to be very modest because there’s a lot of big huge sci-fi films around called Marvel, DC Comics.  So, you have to be humble and say, “Okay, how I can get in?”

So, one big factor is time.  The second one is take the time to talk with people, how they did that.  How is this happen?

And I talk with a lot of designers, creative people of their experience to big studios and other films and one thing that I learned is the frustration because the way the big studio works most of the time is, by the moment they greenlight the film and the moment they have to release the film, it’s very short.  So, they prefer to hire creators for eight weeks, but 60 of them.  And then, you do this, you do this, you do this.

The method is very good and makes good films.  And I tried to say, “Okay, I’m going to use this frustration because these guys sometimes–they ask to do this thing, and that’s it.”

And if they say, “What about if he just”–no, no, no.  Don’t think.  Do the thing.  “Okay.”  And they continue.

And I feel that, in a couple of people I met, all these guys are nerds.  You know, they don’t talk so much.  To make them talk, I have to make them drink.

And, at the end, you feel that they want to participate more.  They have ideas.  They have things.

So, what I did is I sent a letter to all the schools around the world, schools, creative schools, like design schools and things.  And I said, “We’re going to make a film–a sci-fi.”  They don’t know which one.

“If you want to participate, send a space ship, a world, and an alien.”  So, we received 2,000 submissions.  And I picked up 15.

And I hired five for an entire year.  They don’t have the script.  They don’t know each other, and the only person they have contact with is me by Skype once a week because one was in China.

The other one was in Brazil.  And the only person they have seen for a year is just my face here like this.  And we have this little private conversation every week where I try to protect them because I want the full creativity of these people.

They are not here to think, “What will be in the film?”  I just want them to go 360.  “Go.”

“You don’t need to give a certain numbers of drawings per week.  I don’t care.  Just talk.  Let’s go.”

And, for example, an alien–I was talking about where he lives, what is his function, what are the qualities of the guy, what is his purpose in the film.  But, I never describe it.  I just say who he is.

And I let them come back with any shape they want.  Sometimes they come with so much crazy shit that I want to call the hospital and say, “You should check on this guy.”  But–so, and I was the one to say, “Okay, that’s too much.  That’s–that’s great.”

And then, it took me almost two years to make the puzzle of which alien.  At the beginning, for example, there’s only six where they shake hands.  I have 200.

And I have to choose the six, and I have to choose the  order.  Which one goes there?  You know, to make it kind of like a progression.

We go organic.  Then, we go very technological, and then, we come back.  And so, I work with these five guys for a year.

Then, they get a little burned.  So, I bring six more new for eight months.  They get a little burned.  And then, I take the 12, and I put them in the same room for six months.

 

What Keeps Him Grounded:

Blogger:  As a writer, I admire the sincerity and humor that has been a consistent in all of your work. How do you go about keeping true to that spirit in your writing when you’re building all these big worlds around it?

Mr. Luc Besson:  I have five kids who bring me back to earth every day.

And one of my kids a long time ago had a problem with the heart when she was born.  And so, I’m very familiar with hospitals, and she got three operations in–they take the heart out, they work on it.  I mean, it was very painful.

And I met this guy.  He was saving her, in fact.  And at the end of the operation, he explained to me with a drawing, you know, like almost like a plumber.

“I did this.  I take the tube.  I did this.  Okay, you got it?  It’s fine?  We’re fine?”

And I said, “No, I’m sorry. You have to rest.” He said, “No, no, no.  I have another operation.  But, this one is much more complicated.”

And I said, “Just how many per day are you doing?”  He said, “Oh, that’s my fifth today.”  They are heroes for me.

And since this day, I am on earth, believe me, I’m on earth.  And no one knows them.  They’re never on TV.  They’re never on the cover of magazines.

And they save five families per day.  I’m doing aspirin.  That’s all my doing when I do films.  I know that sometimes it’s important to get an aspirin.

So, I don’t know why I’m telling this story.  But–no, it’s to–.

Blogger:  –You stay grounded–.

Mr. Luc Besson:  –Yes. So, I’m going to fast food with my kids.

 

What Inspires Him:

Q:  You’ve inspired so many film makers.  Who has inspired you over the years?

Mr. Luc Besson:  Inspiration always comes out from movies for me.  My mom, my tree–I have a tree that I love–inspired me a lot.

Q:  What kind of tree?

Mr. Luc Besson:  I don’t know in English.  Let’s see

–[Speaking in French].  I don’t know how to say it.

Q:  Weeping willow.

Mr. Luc Besson:  But, it’s not a willow.  It’s weeping.  But, it’s not a willow.  It’s an [speaking in French], H-E-T-R-E, hetre.  It’s 300 years old.

Q:  Oh, wow.  And that’s at your house?

Mr. Luc Besson:  In a family house in Normandy.  It’s amazing.

 

 

Interview with Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan:

 

Q: What was one of the favorite things you guys enjoyed most about working with him (Luc Besson)?

Ms. Cara Delevingne:  I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is just, honestly, his energy and spirit.  I think that’s when I first fell in love with the film is just listening to him talk about it.  I’ve never heard anyone talk about something with so much love apart from their own children, honestly.

But, really, from that moment, the way he spoke about all the characters and how much this had been a passion project for him–I knew from that moment.  I was like, “I need to be in this film.  I need to work with you.”

I mean, not only because he’s Luc Besson and he’s one of my favorite directors, because the amount of passion he had for it.  I knew it was going to be great.

Blogger:  Yes.  He’s amazing.

Ms. Cara Delevingne:  I mean, yes.  Exactly.  It’s hard to get that.

Mr. Dane DeHaan:  And you can tell every day on set, you know, that he was making the movie he’s wanted to make his entire life.  And it’s the only movie I’ve made for this long period of time where like, you know, four months into it people are still really happy to be there.

They’re not like just over tired and over worked and can’t wait for it to be over.  You know, he’s such a pleasure to work for, and he was so happy every day because his dreams were coming true.

 

Blogger:  Laureline was such a great character.  She’s so smart and tough and–.

Ms. Cara Delevingne:  –Yes, she’s badass–.

Blogger:  –Into fashion.  She talked about shopping.  How do you identify or look up to her?

Ms. Cara Delevingne:  I mean, Laureline is the kind of woman that I want to be just in terms of her strength, determination, hardworking, following her heart as well, the amount of compassion and time that she has for love and also for doing the right thing and also getting the job done.  I mean, she really does kick ass.  So, yes.

 

How they prepared physically for the roles:

Blogger:  Speaking of kicking ass, what kind of physical preparation did you guys do as far as–did you learn a certain type of martial art or fighting style in order to prepare for action scenes?

Mr. Dane DeHaan:  I think–well, mostly it was just about physical training.  I would get to the set two hours early every day and just to the gym.  We had to be in incredible physical shape just to do some of the shots and not pass out.

But, the sword fighting–in the movie, I was actually pretty stoked because I went to theater school, and we did an insane amount of sword fighting.  And I didn’t think it was anything I was going to actually ever get to use in the real world.  So, when I found out there was a sword fight–yes–I remember them being like, “You know, you have like two months to learn it.”

And I was like, “Oh no, guys.  I got this.”  And they totally didn’t believe me, and within like three sessions, I totally got the fight.

And they were like, “Oh wow.  You can fight with swords.”  And I was like, “Yes, I told you I could fight with swords.”

Ms. Cara Delevingne:  So, you think you learned geometry or something.  “I’m never going to use this.”  It’s like sword fighting.  That’s so, so cool.  That’s really cool.

I think–yes–just in terms of the physical stuff, Dane really set the bar really high with just how much he was up every single morning six AM.  And I was just like, “Wow, Dane.  I’ve really got to catch up with you.”

 

Fun Facts:

Luc Besson loves the comic book series (there are there’s 29 albums of Valerian), and he started reading it when he was ten and has been trying to adapt it for the screen for a long time now.

Luc Besson called Dane DeHaan and asked him if he’d meet him for coffee to talk about a film he was making.

Mr. Besson said that he knew within 10 minutes of speaking with Dane that he was his Valerian.

Mr. Besson did the same thing with Cara.

Both Cara and Dane thought they had the job but since it wasn’t done through their agents they weren’t sure.  Eventually all the paperwork and contracts got figured out but there was no casting calls for these two.

They used a tiny bunny to film the main creature (no spoilers here) so Cara said it was easy to do these scenes since it was an adorable little bunny to hold and cuddle.

There are eight thousand species in the film.

The movie was filmed in twenty weeks.  And he finished three days earlier, which is unheard of on this kind of film.

 

History is on the march. Watch the trailer for Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – the groundbreaking cinematic event a lifetime in the making. See it in 3D and RealD 3D July 21.

 

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS – In Theaters July 21

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Starring: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, John Goodman, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu

Directed By: Luc Besson

Screenplay By: Luc Besson

Produced By: Virginie Besson-Silla

 

Rated PG-13

 

Our host was STX Entertainment.

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