‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ Trailer: The Whole Universe Is After Us

This movie looks far, far, far too wild to succeed domestically. It also looks far, far, far too wild to pass up.

Variety:

Some of the wonders of Alpha are revealed in a new trailer for Luc Besson’s space opera, “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.”

“Welcome to Alpha — the city of a thousand planets,” a voiceover says in the trailer, released Wednesday morning, “where for hundred of years, every species has shared their knowledge, their intelligence. It’s paradise.”

But all that is about to change. Dane DeHaan, as the title character and his partner played by Cara Delevingne are tasked to save the land from an unknown force. The new footage also shows a split-second glimpse of Rihanna’s character, Bubble, a shapeshifting entertainer.

Clive Owen, Kris Wu, John Goodman and Ethan Hawke round out the film’s core cast. Besson has been developing the project — which carries a $180 million price tag — for decades. It’s based on the Valerian and Laureline comics published by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres in 1967.

Besson has said in the past that he scrapped an early draft of the script for “Valerian” after seeing “Avatar.” “[James Cameron] set the bar so high, I had to rethink,” he said. “It was not big enough, it was not good enough.”

The movie was touted as a blockbuster during STX’s second-ever presentation at CinemaCon on Tuesday.