French filmmaker Luc Besson has dabbled in action movies in recent years (Taken, Lucy, to name but two high-concept disyllabic franchises), but he’s now headed back to the colourful science-fiction territory of his 1997 cult favourite The Fifth Element. Carrying the tongue-twisterly title of Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets, Besson’s latest now has its first trailer, which you can watch below.
Based on the French graphic novel series Valérian and Laureline, this idiosyncratic space opera will see the titular Valerian (Dane DeHann) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) as a couple of ‘special operatives’ charged with looking after the human territories of the universe. Guardians of the galaxy, if you will.
Their adventures take them to the intergalactic city of Alpha, a metropolis of seventeen million residents of multiple species, where they must protect the citizens from dark forces, while also dealing with the inevitable cloud of sexual tension that hangs above the two.
Also starring Clive Owen, John Goodman, Ethan Hawke, and Rihanna, Valerian And The Film Title Of A Thousand Words, as we are nicknaming it, arrives in cinemas in July 2017.
• Listen to an Empire Podcast interview with Cara Delevingne.