Luc Besson wows Comic-Con with early ‘Valerian’ footage

SAN DIEGO – Comic-Con audiences got a sneak peek at seven minutes of heart-racing action Thursday afternoon in footage from the upcoming sci-fi epic “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.”

Director Luc Besson, best known for frenetic and colorful sci-fi spectacles like “The Fifth Element” and “Lucy,” said that he’s been infatuated with “Valerian,” based on the long-running comic series “Valérian and Laureline” since he was 10 years old.

The film, an expensive extravaganza from EuropaCorp, stars Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevigne as Laureline as time-travelling agents investigating galactic landscapes.

DeHaan described his character as a “space bro.”

The footage shown was still very raw, as the film is still in the works and doesn’t hit theatres until next summer. But it received rapturous applause from the estimated 6,000-person audience.