Luc Besson talks about a new sci-fi project

French director Luc Besson is working on a new sci-fi project that will take place in a thousand years. The director has not yet revealed the details of the plot, but warned that viewers may need "a ticket and an aspirin at the same time." He told about this during a master class at the 83rd Venice Film Festival.

A Return to Science Fiction

The title of the film, its cast and the expected release date are still unknown. It is also not specified at what stage the project is located: it follows from Besson's words that he is currently developing a story. At the same time, during the master class, the director outlined the time frame of the action - the events should unfold in a thousand years.

According to the 67-year-old director, he is now trying to explore new ideas and not limit himself to the usual formats. Besson did not explain whether he was going to direct the future painting himself, but called the work on it an opportunity to try something new.

Turning to science fiction for Besson is a return to the genre from which his feature-length career began. His directorial debut was the black-and-white post-apocalyptic film The Last Battle, released in 1983. The film was set in a post-disaster world where people had almost lost the ability to talk.

14 years later, Besson directed The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm and Chris Tucker. The film combines a space opera, an action movie, a comedy and a story about saving humanity. The film became one of the director's most recognizable works and largely shaped his idea of science fiction as a space in which you can simultaneously work with a large-scale world, vivid characters and visual experiments.

During the master class, Besson compared the technical complexity of the "Fifth Element" with his later painting "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", released in 2017. According to the director, 182 visual effects were used in the creation of the first film, whereas in the movie "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" there were about 4 thousand of them.

This difference shows how much filmmaking has changed in 20 years. The "Fifth Element" was created on the border of practical decorations, costumes, makeup, miniatures and still developing computer graphics. In Valerian, a significant part of the worlds, creatures, and large-scale scenes have already been built using digital technology.

Another notable work by Besson in the genre was "Lucy" in 2014 with Scarlett Johansson. The main character of the film gets unusual intellectual and physical abilities after ingestion of an experimental substance. Despite the scientific conventionality of the idea, the picture continued the director's characteristic conversation about a man who suddenly goes beyond his own capabilities.

It is not yet known whether the new project will be related to the previous paintings of Besson or will become a completely independent story. The director himself did not mention either the continuation of "The Fifth Element" or the return of the heroes of other films. Therefore, there is no reason to talk about a sequel or a shared universe.

Besson compared AI to a tiger

A separate topic of the master class was the impact of new technologies on cinema. Besson stated that he is not afraid of technological changes, including the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

According to the director, the director needs to perceive new tools as part of the profession: to study them, understand the possibilities and then decide whether a particular picture needs them. He compared AI to a tiger, which a human can control with a whip.

This approach is consistent with the director's entire career. Besson repeatedly used new production methods for his time: from large-scale underwater filming in the Blue Abyss and a complex combination of scenery with digital effects in The Fifth Element to almost completely computer-generated spaces in Valerian.

At the same time, the director did not specify whether he plans to use artificial intelligence when working on a future science fiction project. His statement referred to technology in general, so it is premature to consider it as confirmation of the use of AI in the new picture.

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Why Besson didn't shoot "Father Joe"

Besson came to the Venice Film Festival in connection with the screening of the action movie "Father Joe". He wrote the script of the film and acted as its producer, but Barthelemy Grossman took the director's chair.

The film takes place in Manhattan in the 1990s. In the center of the plot is a priest who begins to fight the criminal world of the city. An influential mafia boss becomes his opponent.

The main roles were played by Kiefer Sutherland, Al Pacino and Ever Anderson. According to official information, the duration of the painting is 106 minutes. The film was presented in an out-of-competition program. Al Pacino did not attend the press conference, but sent a video message to the participants in which he spoke positively about Insomnia.

The screenwriter himself explained that during the filming he tried not to interfere with Grossman's work. According to Besson, he is well aware of how important it is for a director to maintain creative independence, since he himself does not like it when producers unnecessarily interfere in his decisions.

Besson noted that he undertakes the production of the picture only when he feels that he is the best suited for this story. As an example, the director cited the "Blue Abyss", a significant part of which had to be filmed underwater. At that time, he believed that he should direct the film on his own. At the same time, Besson handed over the scripts for "Hostage" and "Father Joe" to other directors, believing that they would handle the material better.

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"I'm going to shoot or I'm going to die"

At the end of the meeting, Besson spoke primarily about creative independence. According to him, the success of a painting should not be the main criterion for an artist: recognition may come immediately, decades later, or not at all.

The director urged aspiring filmmakers not to work in films without real passion. In his opinion, a large number of films turn out to be uninteresting precisely because their authors are not sufficiently involved in their own stories.

Besson also admitted that the refusal to compromise had repeatedly created problems for him. Modern filmmaking is associated with pressure from studios, investors, and numerous project participants, so it can be difficult for a director to understand when to agree to other people's demands and when to defend his own decision.

At the same time, the director's career was accompanied not only by professional successes, but also by a high-profile trial. In 2018, actress Sand Van Roy accused Besson of rape. He consistently denied the accusations. The French prosecutor's office stopped the initial investigation due to lack of evidence, and in 2023, the French Court of Cassation refused to review the decisions of lower authorities, ending the proceedings in the case.

Despite periods of professional and personal crises, Besson continued to work as a director, screenwriter and producer. For him, a new sci-fi idea could be a return to the genre from which his full-length career began.