The luck and friendship that saved Luc Besson's long-awaited project for ``The Fifth Element''

What was the casting originally envisioned?

The original idea for The Fifth Element was written by Besson when he was 16 years old. When he was still a nobody, he didn't even know how to write a script, so he wrote and threw it away, and then wrote it and threw it away. However, his film work, which he started as a janitor, became extremely busy, and while he was at the mercy of all of this, he apparently ended up neglecting his scripts.

18 years The Day After. When Besson gained confidence from the success of `` Subway '' (1985), `` Granblue '' (1988), and `` Nikita '' (1990), and was about to take the next step, he suddenly thought of a nostalgic project. It reminded me of that. Isn't now the time to move that thing?

He took the grandiose original idea and refined it to a level that could be turned into a movie, while also exploring the feel of a Hollywood film company. Once this has reached a certain stage, it is time to start gathering specialized staff. It was also around this time that he asked Jean-Paul Gaultier, a big name in the fashion world, to design costumes, and he readily agreed.

"The Fifth Element" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

According to Gaultier, at the time, no specific cast had been decided at all, but only a brief image of what they wanted was ``Mel Gibson in the lead role, Julia Roberts in the heroine role, and Prince in the DJ role''. I heard it was. As a result, not all of them were able to obtain it, but when compared with the final version, it can be seen that the image has not changed in the slightest.

However, this casting was the biggest drawback for this work. I can't get a good feeling from any direction. The film company was unable to accept the fact that the crucial lead role had not been decided, and Besson, unable to move, was forced to freeze production. He apologized to Gaultier, and the two had drinks and vowed to work together again soon.

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