For many, it’s firmly established among the cult classics of modern cinema, Luc Besson’s wild and colorful space opera The Fifth Element will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year.
Set in the year 2263 and starring Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, and Chris Tucker, the film was a huge hit with its insane plot in which a former special forces major named Corben Dallas teams up with a strange red-haired woman named Leeloo to defeat a great evil that appears every 5,000 years. After opening at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, it grossed over $260 million on a $90 budget (at the time, it was the most expensive production in European history).
Ahead of the film’s big birthday, Titan Books has given The Fifth Element a coffee-table book treatment with The Fifth Element: A Visual Retrospective.
The book, which will be published this September, will feature never-before-seen concept art and new photos of props, costumes, models, and vehicles. A total of over 500 illustrations are included. According to the publisher, “This book is like having a gallery exhibition of The Fifth Element in your hands.”
In addition to the images, the book will also feature the complete screenplay by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. The script, which will be released for the first time, will include annotations filled with deleted scenes and anecdotes that provide insight into the making of the film.
“The Fifth Element: A Visual Retrospective” is by authors Patrice Giraud and Arnaud Grunberg. Girod worked with Lucasfilm for 25 years and curated several major exhibitions at the Starfix Museum.
Grunberg is a writer, film producer, and founder of the Starfix Museum. The Starfix Museum will open in France in 2027 to display an extensive archive of film artefacts collected over the past 40 years.
