Valerian

It’s time to dust off your MultiPasses, Luc Besson fans: his wild sci-fi adventure The Fifth Element is coming back to theaters for a special anniversary re-release, and in 4K, no less. The 1997 movie is just about as weird as you can get with sci-fi, and it’s become something of a classic. But that’s not all — those of us who are excited for Besson’s new movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which hits theaters this summer, will get to see a sneak preview of it attached to The Fifth Element’s re-release.

When you sit down for a new Luc Besson space opera, what do you expect? Tons of glowing aliens? Flying cars racing through futuristic cityscapes? Heroes jumping between moving vehicles while being chased by monstrous creatures? If so, then make sure Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is on your most anticipated list.

Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets looks like The Fifth Element with the voltage cranked up 5 notches. The new movie has more aliens, more special effects, and looks even wackier than the 1997 sci-fi classic. The second trailer for the film debuts online tomorrow, but we got a sneak peek at the footage and caught up with Besson and his star Dane Dehaan earlier this week.

Gather around, children, and let me tell you the story of Film Twitter and Jupiter Ascending. While the most recent movie by the Wachowski Sisters was a flop with audiences and critic alike  —  it barely made back its budget internationally and holds down a whopping 26% at RottenTomatoes  —  there are those who found the film’s endearingly choppy characters and bright special effects to be part of one of the best science-fiction films of the decade. For you see, children, not every futuristic film needs to be about space marines and monsters. There are plenty of science-fiction fans who love them some goofy mumbo-jumbo as well.

After his roles in Chronicle and A Place Beyond the Pines, Dane DeHaan is now transitioning into leading roles in big budget sci-fi movies. In Gore Verbinski‘s A Cure for Wellness, DeHaan plays Mr. Lockhart, an arrogant stock broker who visits a demented spa in the Swiss Alps. After a brutal car accident, Lockhart is stuck at the eerie aquatic facility with a broken leg, and with the help of Mia Goth‘s Hannah, he begins to uncover the dark secrets of the institute’s past.

Luc Besson is finally returning to his space opera tendencies for his new film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. For those of us who love The Fifth Element, news of his new film was an exciting surprise. And the world of Valerian looks as rich and imaginative as Besson’s worlds usually are, all the way down to the literal thousands of different alien species we’ll meet in the movie. A new photo introduces us to a character who looks intriguingly like one very important pop singer from Besson’s previous film.

If you loved The Fifth Element (and honestly, who doesn’t?) then you’ll be excited for the latest sci-fi visual creation to pop out of the mind of Luc Besson. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets looks even more wacky than that 1997 sci-fi adventure based on the first trailer.

If you know Luc Besson, you know he never shies away from being as nutso with his movies as possible. 1997’s The Fifth Element proved he wasn’t at all averse to making adventurous sci-fi as strange and wonderful as possible, which gives us plenty of reasons to be excited for his upcoming Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Another one of those reasons is Rihanna, who is going to have a small role in the movie, and whose look has been revealed in preparation for the first Valerian teaser to drop tomorrow.

2017 is already shaping up to be a much more promising year for big studio blockbusters than 2016. In addition to the newly-titled Blade Runner 2049, we’re getting the Wolverine sequel (titled Logan), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man: Homecoming. For less conventional blockbuster fare, there’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Luc Besson’s long-developing sci-fi epic, which now has an official poster (along with a few new images).

When the news broke a few days ago that Michael Giacchino was replacing Alexandre Desplat as the composer of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, one mystery remained: where would Desplat go next? Today, director Luc Besson revealed that the composer has moved on to his own film, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.