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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: The Art of the Film
The official art book of the blockbuster movie, written and directed by visionary Luc Besson (Lucy, The Fifth Element).
Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are special operatives for the government of the human territories charged with maintaining order throughout the universe. Under directive from their Commander (Clive Owen), Valerian and Laureline embark on a mission to the breathtaking intergalactic city of Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis comprised of thousands of different species from all four corners of the universe.
Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are special operatives for the government of the human territories charged with maintaining order throughout the universe. Under directive from their Commander (Clive Owen), Valerian and Laureline embark on a mission to the breathtaking intergalactic city of Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis comprised of thousands of different species from all four corners of the universe.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published July 18, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 28, 2018
Now I know this film was not the box office smash that it was expected to me - in fact if you believe the stories it almost brought about the down fall of Luc Bessons studio. However you cannot deny that it was a stunning visual tour de force of a future often written about but rarely presented in such a form (I think Fifth Element one of my all time favourite films opened the way).
So now after all the collected reprints of the comic strips that first inspired Luc Besson to dream of the worlds of Valerian and Laureline we have the book which captures the imagery that was used to create the film.
And it is just as grandiose and spectacular as I was hoping.
The book itself takes you on a guided tour of the worlds, creatures and races, and rather than focusing on how the film was made it instead directs your attention to the work that went in to taking the ideas from the comic strip to the big screen. Now this was for me an interesting choice - as it did not dismiss the film making process nor did it tell you all the details on how a scene was created or what was used to make a certain alien work. Rather it celebrated the freedom these creative fellows were given and boy did the make the most of it.
this is a book that cries out to be studied and studied the pages are filled with such chaotic scenes you almost need to take a break to fully appreciate what has been captured. this book took its time joining my collection but boy was it worth it.
So now after all the collected reprints of the comic strips that first inspired Luc Besson to dream of the worlds of Valerian and Laureline we have the book which captures the imagery that was used to create the film.
And it is just as grandiose and spectacular as I was hoping.
The book itself takes you on a guided tour of the worlds, creatures and races, and rather than focusing on how the film was made it instead directs your attention to the work that went in to taking the ideas from the comic strip to the big screen. Now this was for me an interesting choice - as it did not dismiss the film making process nor did it tell you all the details on how a scene was created or what was used to make a certain alien work. Rather it celebrated the freedom these creative fellows were given and boy did the make the most of it.
this is a book that cries out to be studied and studied the pages are filled with such chaotic scenes you almost need to take a break to fully appreciate what has been captured. this book took its time joining my collection but boy was it worth it.
October 17, 2017
Wonder what it’s like in the mind of an artist? Ever wonder how characters in film are designed and created? Well, The Art of the Film: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a great book that answers all those questions in detail. A ‘how-to Sci-fi’ book written by Mark Salisbury, this colorful book is bursting with designs and imagination from numerous different artists and is filled with information about how the film was developed and created.
The film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is an on-screen adaption of the french comic book series Valerian et’ Laureline. This book talks about the challenges that come with adapting an entire comic book series into a 2-hour film, and how they developed characters from the comic into photo-realistic characters for a live action film. The director, Luc Besson, talks about his love for the comic series throughout the book in numerous ways and how he was determined to create a great live action film adaption. I love how this book shows you the artist’s perspective on what it was like working on the film; not many concept art books do that and it was interesting to hear their opinions and what inspired them to create the characters.
I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I really love how the book genuinely shows the audience how much time and effort went into creating the film. The amount of color and designs is just mind blowing. Though, my biggest issue with this book is the amount of art. I feel like there wasn’t enough discussion about how each character was visually developed rather than how their roles changed from comic to film. For a film with so much color and creatures and inspiration, I just feel that the book was missing a tiny bit more pictures and concept ideas. Except those small flaws, I really enjoyed this book and I’ll definitely be re-reading it for inspiration in the near future!
The film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is an on-screen adaption of the french comic book series Valerian et’ Laureline. This book talks about the challenges that come with adapting an entire comic book series into a 2-hour film, and how they developed characters from the comic into photo-realistic characters for a live action film. The director, Luc Besson, talks about his love for the comic series throughout the book in numerous ways and how he was determined to create a great live action film adaption. I love how this book shows you the artist’s perspective on what it was like working on the film; not many concept art books do that and it was interesting to hear their opinions and what inspired them to create the characters.
I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I really love how the book genuinely shows the audience how much time and effort went into creating the film. The amount of color and designs is just mind blowing. Though, my biggest issue with this book is the amount of art. I feel like there wasn’t enough discussion about how each character was visually developed rather than how their roles changed from comic to film. For a film with so much color and creatures and inspiration, I just feel that the book was missing a tiny bit more pictures and concept ideas. Except those small flaws, I really enjoyed this book and I’ll definitely be re-reading it for inspiration in the near future!
September 4, 2019
Originally published online at BORG.com.
The appeal for fans of this summer’s big-budget science fiction adventure Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets has been the greatest for its spectacular visuals. The film was a labor of love for director Luc Besson, whose science fiction classic The Fifth Element stands alone in the sci-fi genre for its elaborate designs and completely new look at the future. Besson fell in love with the French comic book source material by Jean-Claude Mézières that featured space pilots Valerian and Laureline. Besson says he counts Laureline as his first love, “She was totally free and badass, and a very modern heroine.” For years Besson did not think an adaptation could be done, until he watched James Cameron’s Avatar, and that film was the impetus for him to begin to look at the idea anew. The result became Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
A film that pushes the possibilities of a future that is not so bleak and dystopian–as so many science fiction films paint the future–deserves a proper account to detail its creation. That book is Mark Salisbury’s The Art of the Film: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a full-color, wall-to-wall visual, hardcover chronology of the concept art and photographs of the film’s characters, planets, spaceships, and costumes. Well-known for his behind the scenes looks at Crimson Peak, Prometheus, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Elysium, and Alice in Wonderland, and his landmark series on creating comic books from the viewpoint of the industry’s best, including Artists on Comic Art and Writers on Comics Scriptwriting, Salisbury provides more here than an edited accumulation of imagery. He tells both the development of the film scene-by-scene from beginning to end, and interweaves the framework for the story on the screen.
Salisbury’s primary source in the book is Besson himself, who cites the creations he used in the film when he adhered to Mézières’s original vision from the source material, and when–and why–he didn’t. It’s a testament to his adaptation that Mézières approved of his many creations and adaptations, including Valerian and Laureline’s famous ship, the Intruder.
No expense was spared by Besson in creating Valerian with complete artistic freedom. His development of a creative team was unprecedented. Instead of taking the traditional route in developing the team–such as hiring thirty designers working very fast–as used for traditional films, his requirements for his effects-laden film were far greater than normal, requiring more outsourcing to multiple teams, including Industrial Light and Magic. But instead of hiring a core team of thirty key creators for three months, he hired five creators for a year. “We sent a message to more than 1,000 design schools saying, ‘We are going to make a design film and if you want to participate, submit an alien, a spaceship, and a world,'” he said. He received 3,000 entries. The lucky five chosen were Patrice Garcia, who had worked with Besson on The Fifth Element and Arthur and the Invisibles, Ben Mauro (Elysium, The Hobbit), book designer Marc Simonetti, illustrator Alain Brion, and artist Feng Shu. Veteran storyboard/concept artist Sylvain Despretz (Alien Resurrection) joined the team, and it is their artwork and ideas that readers primarily will find throughout the book–and in the film.
The book also includes the winning artists, and their designs and the final filmed costumes, of Besson’s separate worldwide costume design contest, which we reported on here at borg.com back in October 2015. These designs are proof positive that Besson’s brand of outside-the-universe thinking can result in creations that truly look out of this world. To Besson’s credit he also provides imaginative names for his alien species that feel appropriate to the visual creations. So often in science fiction one of the biggest faults of writers is strange and unpronounceable groupings of letters. Not so with Besson.
Highlights include a thorough discussion of the procession of aliens in the movie’s prologue, an explanation of the densely populated mall town referred to as Big Market, and the concept artwork that began with today’s current International Space Station, and culminated, after a few hundred years of add-on stations, in the “Alpha” city in the film–the title’s City of a Thousand Planets.
Fans of the film will not want to miss Mark Salisbury’s The Art of the Film: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, available now.
The appeal for fans of this summer’s big-budget science fiction adventure Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets has been the greatest for its spectacular visuals. The film was a labor of love for director Luc Besson, whose science fiction classic The Fifth Element stands alone in the sci-fi genre for its elaborate designs and completely new look at the future. Besson fell in love with the French comic book source material by Jean-Claude Mézières that featured space pilots Valerian and Laureline. Besson says he counts Laureline as his first love, “She was totally free and badass, and a very modern heroine.” For years Besson did not think an adaptation could be done, until he watched James Cameron’s Avatar, and that film was the impetus for him to begin to look at the idea anew. The result became Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
A film that pushes the possibilities of a future that is not so bleak and dystopian–as so many science fiction films paint the future–deserves a proper account to detail its creation. That book is Mark Salisbury’s The Art of the Film: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a full-color, wall-to-wall visual, hardcover chronology of the concept art and photographs of the film’s characters, planets, spaceships, and costumes. Well-known for his behind the scenes looks at Crimson Peak, Prometheus, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Elysium, and Alice in Wonderland, and his landmark series on creating comic books from the viewpoint of the industry’s best, including Artists on Comic Art and Writers on Comics Scriptwriting, Salisbury provides more here than an edited accumulation of imagery. He tells both the development of the film scene-by-scene from beginning to end, and interweaves the framework for the story on the screen.
Salisbury’s primary source in the book is Besson himself, who cites the creations he used in the film when he adhered to Mézières’s original vision from the source material, and when–and why–he didn’t. It’s a testament to his adaptation that Mézières approved of his many creations and adaptations, including Valerian and Laureline’s famous ship, the Intruder.
No expense was spared by Besson in creating Valerian with complete artistic freedom. His development of a creative team was unprecedented. Instead of taking the traditional route in developing the team–such as hiring thirty designers working very fast–as used for traditional films, his requirements for his effects-laden film were far greater than normal, requiring more outsourcing to multiple teams, including Industrial Light and Magic. But instead of hiring a core team of thirty key creators for three months, he hired five creators for a year. “We sent a message to more than 1,000 design schools saying, ‘We are going to make a design film and if you want to participate, submit an alien, a spaceship, and a world,'” he said. He received 3,000 entries. The lucky five chosen were Patrice Garcia, who had worked with Besson on The Fifth Element and Arthur and the Invisibles, Ben Mauro (Elysium, The Hobbit), book designer Marc Simonetti, illustrator Alain Brion, and artist Feng Shu. Veteran storyboard/concept artist Sylvain Despretz (Alien Resurrection) joined the team, and it is their artwork and ideas that readers primarily will find throughout the book–and in the film.
The book also includes the winning artists, and their designs and the final filmed costumes, of Besson’s separate worldwide costume design contest, which we reported on here at borg.com back in October 2015. These designs are proof positive that Besson’s brand of outside-the-universe thinking can result in creations that truly look out of this world. To Besson’s credit he also provides imaginative names for his alien species that feel appropriate to the visual creations. So often in science fiction one of the biggest faults of writers is strange and unpronounceable groupings of letters. Not so with Besson.
Highlights include a thorough discussion of the procession of aliens in the movie’s prologue, an explanation of the densely populated mall town referred to as Big Market, and the concept artwork that began with today’s current International Space Station, and culminated, after a few hundred years of add-on stations, in the “Alpha” city in the film–the title’s City of a Thousand Planets.
Fans of the film will not want to miss Mark Salisbury’s The Art of the Film: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, available now.
July 1, 2022
I just love these “The art of…” and “The making of…” books. This one is no exception. I have been a fan of the Valerian comic books (or rather Ravian, as he is called in Dutch translation) since the early ‘70s. The movie is loosely based on one of the (early) comic books and is actually quite nice: not as bombastic as Star Wars and not as ‘scientific’ as Star Trek. Unfortunately the main actors in the movie lack some chemistry to turn the movie into a huge success. But this is about the book, and if you like the movie and if you’re into SF (and if you are a fan of the original comics) this book is certainly worth getting and enjoying.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews