Industrial Light & Magic’s Vancouver studio is leading the charge for the company on Luc Besson’s epic science fiction film, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The film, based on the french graphic novel series “Valerian and Laureline.” This film marks the first to be spearheaded by the Vancouver studio and the crew could not be more excited. ILM Visual Effects Supervisor, Philippe Rebours and ILM Visual Effects Producer David Fox are heading up the effort which consists primarily of two major sequences in the film. This marks the second collaboration between ILM and Luc Besson, the first being the 2014 juggernaut Lucy.
“When I did ‘The Fifth Element’ I hired the designer from ‘Valerian’ and I worked with him for six months and he said, ‘Why are you doing this stupid “Fifth Element” movie? When are you going to do “Valerian”?’ And I said I like it but you can’t do it, it’s impossible.”
Luc Besson, 3/29/2017
With modern visual effects, anything is possible and visionary filmmakers like Besson who started writing a Valerian script 10 years ago, just in case, are now able to bring these unique stories to the screen and audiences everywhere.
Opening on July 21 through STX Entertainment, “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” follows Valerian (played by Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) as they go in search of the evil forces that are trying to destroy Alpha, the peaceful home of species from a thousand planets.
