Hollywood digs into French sci-fi comic for ideas

BEVERLY HILLS, California - "I'm Valerian and she's Laureline," Luc Besson says with a smile, and gesturing to his producer and wife, Virginie Besson-Silla. "She's the clever one."

Valerian and Laureline are the lead characters of Besson's sci-fi epic, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets that hits US theaters on Friday. They're names that most American audiences don't know, even though the French comic about two 28th century intergalactic cops that it's based on, Valerian and Laureline, has been in existence for 60 years and influenced Star Wars.

The filmmakers are seated in their shared office inside the Beverly Hills outpost of Besson's company EuropaCorp about a month before the Valerian's stateside debut. He's behind a massive rectangular wooden desk and she's across the table from him. Besson-Silla has a desk, too. It's off to the side, round, and much, much smaller.