Let me also say how much I love The 5^th Element. Love. If that movie comes on cable I have to stop what I’m doing and watch. And while I’ve sent the movie dozens of times, each viewing I find something new.

What I’m getting at is while I’ve enjoyed his action flicks… I’ve been waiting for him to get back into the sci-fi arena. So for all of you who are like me get ready to be excited.

During the press day I kept on asking him about sci-fi and the 5^th Element and he replied:

I’m going to try to do it again. I’m going to try and do a trilogy.

Is that something that’s in your brain now?

Yeah. Not before two or three years. I got an idea I think.

He went on to say that the 5^th Element was originally going to be a trilogy but his producer “didn’t have the guts”. He also talks about the huge hurdles he had to overcome to make the film and that if he’d waited about a year to make the movie it would’ve been tremendously easier.

We also talked about what he has coming up and I asked him to do his schedule for the next year and he said:

I’m producing another film called Taken with Liam Neeson with the director of District 13. They are shooting here. I was there last night on the set. That’s good. Liam Neeson’s going to be wonderful in it. It’s an action film, very intense. I have another one, Transporter 3 probably March and April next year. Then another one called From Paris with Love which is an action film also we’re going to shoot next year. Then two other animated films, one called A Monster in Paris which is a great film from the guy who did, it’s a French guy who works on an animator from Dreamworks but I don’t remember which one. And we did another animated film called Ruby Tuesday with the Rolling Stones, 12 songs of the Rolling Stones. It’s an animated film with 12 songs of the Rolling Stones. It’s going to be great too. And a couple of French films.

WOW. A number of those projects sound cool and I’m especially curious about Ruby Tuesday and which songs they’ll use from the Stones.

While the sci-fi trilogy is still a ways off at least it’s coming. I seriously cannot wait.

If you are a fan of Luc Besson this is a must read interview. He is candid about everything and this is one of the best interviews I’ve been apart of.

As always if you’d like to listen to the audio of this interview click here. It’s an MP3 and easily put on a portable player or you can burn it to a CD and listen in your car.

If you’d like to watch the trailer before reading the interview - click here

Angel-A opens in the end of May.

Some spoilers are discussed in this interview – you are warned

Why did you think of her, she doesn’t speak French?

Yeah, she didn’t speak French at all.

Why not a French actress?

There is no one who looks like her in France. No, it’s an alchemy between, it’s not so much about finding her. It’s finding her and him at the same time because you can’t have one and not the other. You have to choose them in the same time almost. I met her as a director first because she wants to do her short film. So I never mentioned the film, I never talked about the film to her. A month later, I met Jaumel. Then it starts to work in my head and say, “Oh, hold on a minute, him and her. That could be cool.”

After taking off so much time from directing was it important to you to make the film in French?

I know it looks like that from outside but I finished Joan of Arc, I rested for a couple of months, like two or three, and then I started to work on Arthur and the Invisibles. Actually, I started to work on the film when I was in the editing of Joan of Arc, some sketches and things. The making of Arthur was five years long. So that’s why. I was not on the beach, believe me.

Then just the question of going back to make a French film as you’ve done a lot of English language films.

Honestly, it depends on the story. Nikkita looks like a kind of action film in a way but it was French for me in my head. It was French. It’s how the French government looks, very polite and buildings and things and how they can hide things. They are the specialists of that. They are worse than the Americans. But when I go to Leon for example, I love the fact Leon is from Italy and is an immigrant in New York and New York is so big and he’s so small that he’s invisible. There’s multi-culture and Mathilda is, you know. I feel the film more in English in New York. I’m really driven by the story in fact. The fact that I’m pretty naked in this film. I’m 45 years old and I talk about this man who lied all his life and decided not to anymore, which is really the story of every man. So because I was so naked, I think the fact to be in French, to be in Paris was closest to me. I would lie a little more if it was in English in another city. It would be another way of hiding myself more.

Was there a place in Paris you couldn’t film?

No.

You were allowed everywhere?

Oh, I didn’t say I was allowed but if there is a place where I can’t shoot, no. There are some shots that were no authorization at all.

Do they look the other way in France?

It’s the good thing about being popular. A few times the cops arrived and I just smiled and said, “Hey, it’s me.” “Oh, Mr. Besson, can we take a picture?” They’re sweet in France, the cops honestly. It’s not tough as here. Here where they ask for my paper, I don’t crack jokes. I’m like okay. You really feel strong which is, in a way which is good.

Did you know you were always going to film this in black and white? Also why did you chose to and how difficult was it to do the film like this?

Black and white because yin and yang, because tall and small, introverted extroverted, blonde brown, the good the bad, the black the white, everything is in opposition in the film. And I need the film to have this little poetry. Is it real? Is it a dream? Is it a fairy tale? So I have the black and white, I have the frame and I have the music to give a mood because I need the people to believe at the end that yeah, of course she’s going to have wings and she’s going to go. To make it believable, I need for an hour to relax you, like almost a massage. You have the music like do do do do. Kind of mood where you can actually just enjoy the scene and believe it. You say, “Oh my God, no, she’s going to leave.” So color is very crude. It’s the news. It’s 8PM, blood, war. It’s like ugh, it’s rough.

Was it shot in color and converted?

It was shot in color but we treat the film at the lab before the shoot first. But the thing about the black and white is as you know, the green, the red, the yellow, they don’t react the same way in black and white so lots of tests, especially on clothes and interiors and clubs and things. We test every type of thing. But the main thing is the light in Paris, because as you know, they built the city at the time where the electricity didn’t exist. So they were very careful with light. Very careful, the angle of buildings, they studied winter, summer, how it’s working so it’s such a pleasure to shoot in this type of city because you just have to wait for the right hour and it’s magical. So I send my assistant, for example on the bridges of Paris, every bridge, every hour, four pictures, north, south, east, west and I have big books of all the bridges at every hour and I knew, you decide which scene you shoot at what time on which bridge. So sometimes there is a scene where we have 40 minutes of the perfect sun. So we rehearse, rehearse, rehearse a few days before, then we arrived and we shoot very fast. Then we get out.

You took advantage of natural light?

Oh, it’s like all the bridges, there is no light on the film. None.

You’ve become quite a prolific producer also. What’s going on with the B13 sequel?

We’re not going to do it.

Why not?

I don’t know, I don’t feel it.

Would you use those guys in a different setting?

I’d rather do District 13 2 with the same guys in France. We’re going to do a sequel in France.

Yeah, that’s what I was asking.

Oh, I thought you were talking about the remake in English.

No I was talking about District 13.

Ah, sorry, sorry, I’m sorry. We’re going to do a sequel. But at the certain moment, there’s a big studio who asked us to remake the film and I said no.

So what’s coming up for those guys in the French sequel?

It’s going to be just a little bit more funny I think, the second one.

As a filmmaker have you thought about shooting on digital cameras?

It depends. I think it’s a tool so if it’s appropriate to the film, yeah, why not? If it’s not appropriate… when Jean Jacques-Anaud made Two Brothers, the film with tigers, he shot in digital and he was right. He has to shoot 15 hours the tiger before the tiger does what he wants. If he wants him to lick himself, he has to wait for two hours. To do that in 35, it will take forever. So at least he has a reel of two hours, he can shoot and it costs a few bucks and that’s it.

Rie said when you were shooting this movie that you only shot four hours a day. Is that true or was she exaggerating?

Sometimes less.

How many weeks did you shot this?

7 weeks.

Wow. Were most scenes done in one take?

Not one take. A few takes but let’s take for example the scene at the end, before she goes in the air, just the scene where they fight on the bridge. And she’s crying and she pushes him and they finally kiss, the entire scene is made in an hour. We rehearse so much, the funniest thing was in fact the day before when we go just Rie, Jaumel and me, the three of us on the bridge, at the real bridge by night, we don’t care, just to rehearse. There is always some Japanese or just tourist, “What are they doing?” Because they’re fighting and I’m just here watching.

How long did rehearsals go before shooting?

Months. When we come, we know exactly- - they get out of the trailer, they go to the thing, camera comes, action. We know. It’s just like putting the stand. And this scene for example, it’s two steadicam at the same time so watching the making of from far,  that was insane. To see them screaming and the two steadicam guys going and all on the bridge going up and down and up and down, it was very funny. And when they arrive to the place where they’re finally going to kiss at the end, I have a third camera waiting so when they arrive to the right setup, with two steadicams, then I take the third one. During the shot, I take a third one on the shoulder to have a close-up of the two.

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