Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Luc Besson’s sci-fi spectacular war in the stars, set in a galaxy far, far away.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is released in cinemas on 21st July. Directed by Luc Besson and based on a classic French graphic novel series, this is a movie that Besson always wanted to make, as he’s long been a fan. And so was George Lucas. Star Wars and Valerian share a lot more that you’d think.

Besson has long been a fan of the source graphic novel series by acclaimed French writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières, but finally realises his dream this month.

The graphic novel series has sold a staggering 10 million copies and been translated into 21 languages. The movie looks to reflect this global success but is by no means a certain bet. The 197 million Euro budget breaks the record for the French film industry, eclipsing previous record makers Asterix at the Olympic Games (78 million Euros) and Besson’s The Fifth Element (75 million Euros) and the sci-fi spectacular could turn into one of the biggest hits of summer 2017 or one of the biggest flops. In a movie world of superheroes Marvel and DC style, can a movie helmed by a genius director featuring relative unknowns in leads Dane DeHaan as Valerian and Cara Delevingne as Laureline, really deliver the goods.

Well, yes. Frankly, Valerian looks amazing, full of the visual inventiveness and brilliance of the original, all brought to the screen in truly epic style by Besson. Working without the benefit of a major Hollywood studio, Besson has successfully delivered something very special in this modern age of movie franchises; something utterly new and exciting, transferring all the genius of the graphic novel to the screen.

Valerian is set in the 28th century, where the Terran Empire rules in peace and tranquility, exploring time and space and policing the galaxy through the agents of the Spatio-Temporal Agents Service. Valerian and his partner in the agency, the spirited and clever Laureline are two of the service’s greatest agents, dispatched to the melting pot culture of Alpha, where every manner of alien species come together to share knowledge. They swiftly identify a dangerous force at the heart of this City of a Thousand Planets and spend the rest of the movie saving the universe.

Of course, there has been a version of Valerian released before. It just had a different name. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Star Wars?

Oh yes. To say George Lucas was a fan of Valerian and borrowed certain elements of the cast, plot, situations, and well, pretty much everything from the graphic novel series has never been in doubt. Sure, Lucas’ idea of setting a classic western in space was one thing, very generic, but it’s the (ahem) borrowing of certain visual elements from the comic that had French comic fans calling foul. To their credit, Christin and Mézières have never made too much of it, claiming at various points that they were wonderfully understanding of the way Sci-Fi continually reworks existing ideas to create new works.

Mézières went as far as drawing an illustration for French comic magazine Pilote, with Valerian and Laureline meeting up with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.

(Princess Leia: “Fancy Meeting you here.”

Laureline: “Oh, we’ve been hanging around here for a long time!”)