Production
As the film went into development in the early 1990s, Besson went on to create Léon: The Professional, starring Jean Reno, and Gary Oldman, who also starred in The Fifth Element, while comic book artist Jean-Claude Mézières, who had been hired as a conceptual designer for The Fifth Element, returned to illustrating The Circles of Power, the fifteenth volume in the Valérian and Laureline series. This particular volume featured a character named S'Traks who drives a flying taxicab through the congested air traffic of the vast metropolis on the planet Rubanis. Besson read the book and was inspired to change the character of Dallas to a taxicab driver who flies through a futuristic New York City. Zorg owns the taxi company that employs and subsequently fires Dallas as part of a one-million person layoff designed to slow economic growth at the request of the government.
Largely set in a futuristic New York City, the film was a French production, with most of the principal photography filmed at Pinewood Studios in England. Some scenes were also shot on location in Mauritania. The concert scenes were filmed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, except for the special effect shots that show the Planet Fhloston through the ship's portholes. The Fifth Element was shot in Super 35 mm film format. Many scenes contain visual effects, and nearly all of the visual effects scenes are hard-matted with aid of Computer-generated imagery. The production design for the film was developed by French comics creators Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Jean-Claude Mézières. The costume design was created by French fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, who produced 954 costumes for use in the film.
The original name of the character Ruby Rhod was Loc Rhod. This name also appears in the novelization of the film.
The "Divine Language" spoken in the film is a fictional language with only 400 words, invented by director Luc Besson and Milla Jovovich. Jovovich stated that she and Besson wrote letters to each other in the Divine Language as practice.
Rumors after the film's release reported a sequel, tentatively titled Mr. Shadow, in development. Besson has since stated such a project was never planned.
Read more about this topic: The Fifth Element
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