VALERIAN Director Luc Besson Says France's Most Expensive Movie is Not a Risk for the Studio

It has been a solid summer when it comes to movies. In a few weeks Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated Dunkirk is going to have some competition from space spectacle: Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets. Luc Besson (The 5th Element) is no stranger to sci-fi movies but Valerian is easily his biggest yet. The sci-fi adventure is the most expensive to have ever been made in France, with a final budget of about $210 million. That’s not cheap, but you would think that the studio EuropaCorp might demand the film to be a monster hit, but the director explains they’re pretty well covered:

In an interview with Screen Daily, Besson said that Valerian has pretty much already paid for itself:

“Like every film company, we will only greenlight a project if at least 80% of its budget is covered. With ‘Valerian,’ we’ve covered 96% of the budget with pre-sales,” he said. “….The risk to EuropaCorpis 4% of the budget so there’s no actual financial risk. The risk for the company is more one of notoriety. If the film is a big flop, we’ll lose credibility for making these sorts of films. The risk is not financial, but rather human.”

It looks like EuropaCorp covered their bases, and have an attainable goal to reach in terms of calling the picture a success.

Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets arrives in theaters on July 21st.