With the surge in number of comic book adapted movies cashing in money, directors are now tapping into not just big comic publishers stories but are also experimenting and exploring with other countries and publishers comics. The french director who has given us some visually captivating movies like Lucy, The Transporter, The Fifth Element; Luc Besson is now coming up with a french comic Valérian and Laureline based movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and has recently announced on Instagram account that Rihanna has joined the cast.
The 8 time Grammy Awards winner has given us some of the most hit songs like Pon De Replay, Umbrella, Love The Way You Lie, The Monster. This isn’t the first time she will be seen on the big screen. Earlier she was seen in movies like Battleship, This is the End, Annie and has lent her voice to the hit animated movie Home. Though Rihanna’s role in the movie is yet to be specified but Besson on his Instagram post teased by saying, “RIHANNA is in VALERIAN!!!!!….and she has a big part!!”
Based on the 1967 french comic book by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézičres, focuses on the adventures of the dark-haired Valérian, a spatio-temporal agent, and his redheaded female colleague, Laureline, as they travel the universe through space and time. To give this futuristic based movie an aesthetic and real look, the big-budget project has tapped three elite visual effects firms Weta Digital, Industrial Light and Magic and Rodeo FX.
The film is being produced by Besson’s EuropaCorp and the shooting will take place in France, at Besson’s mega-studio housed at the Cite du Cinema in Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris.
Rihanna would be seen sharing the screen with Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) who will be playing Valerian, Cara Delevingne (Anna Karenina) as Laureline and Clive Owen (Sin City) as Commander Arün Filitt.
The filming begins in France next January and the movie is expected to hit theaters on 21 July, 2017.