It may be considered one of the big gambles going into the 2017 blockbuster season, but at least based on early photos, Luc Besson’s starry space opera Valerian is a looker.
Casting Cara Delevingne and Dane DeHaan as the film’s spacefaring leads certainly helps matters, and we’ll get to see both in action as Valerian and Laureline respectively a little earlier than anticipated. Tomorrow, November 10, EuropaCorp plans to unleash the first teaser trailer for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and to whet our collective appetite, we now have our first peek at Rihanna via Entertainment Weekly.
Dressed up to the nines in burlesque-like duds, Luc Besson told the outlet that casting the singer-songstress in his ambitious sci-fi was an easy decision to make.
“Rihanna was my first wish,” says the Lucy and The Fifth Element director. “First, because of her voice and the way she smiles and looks and how she expresses herself. Second, because you know she won’t be intimidated on the set. She plays stadiums with 100,000 people. You know that girl isn’t shy about the camera and the crew and all this.”
Also starring Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, 10 Cloverfield Lane star John Goodman and Rutger Hauer, Valerian follows the interstellar adventures of Delevingne and DeHaan’s co-leads in “a utopian 28th century Earth and its neighboring planets from bad guys, with the pair’s adventures rooted in space opera and time travel themes.”
Tune in tomorrow at 7am PT for a special @LucBesson Live event and teaser debut on https://t.co/z6Nvsk9ozv! pic.twitter.com/LrSUJvk8tb
— Valerian Movie (@ValerianMovie) November 9, 2016
An effects-laden space opera may evoke memories of Jupiter Ascending – and we all know how that one panned out – but the pedigree of Luc Besson coupled with the rising profiles of both Delevingne and DeHaan leaves us holding on to a glimmer of hope. Even if it is just a glimmer.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets will lift off on July 21, 2017. Check back tomorrow when we’ll have full coverage of that teaser for you here on We Got This Covered.