'Avatar' inspired Luc Besson to make Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets

Luc Besson, the master mind behind popular sci-fi movies 'The Fifth Element' and 'Lucy', does not shy away from stating that he fell in love French comic series Valerian and Laureline, right from the moment he read the first comic book as a kid

Luc Besson. Pic/AFP

Luc Besson, the master mind behind popular sci-fi movies 'The Fifth Element' and 'Lucy', does not shy away from stating that he fell in love French comic series Valerian and Laureline, right from the moment he read the first comic book as a kid. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had been wanting to transport the world of Valerian from the pages of a book to the silver screen.

But was not able to fulfil his dream because he was constrained by the relatively primitive visual effects technology available in the 1990s. At that time he knew that it would be some time before he was able to create the wondrous universe of Valerian and Laureline on screen.

"When I went back to read the comic books again, I decided it was impossible to make the films. The technology at the time was not good enough to re-create all the worlds and aliens", says Luc.

According to Luc, the time came when James Cameron invited him on the sets of his space epic Avatar. That's when Besson made up his mind. He goes on to add, "When Avatar arrived, it made everything seem possible. I remember thinking, 'One day I will come back to sci-fi with these new tools, where the only limit is your imagination. That's when I decided to make Valerian'."

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