Creating a new Valerian adventure isn’t a walk in the park—especially when it’s destined for the big screen. In turning the famed comics series into an epic film, director Luc Besson has had to transform into a kind of general, leading an army of nearly a thousand skilled men and women. He recounts the experience below, alongside legendary Valerian creators Jean-Claude Mézières and Pierre Christin, in extracts from an exclusive interview granted to publisher Dargaud.

Luc Besson, how do you attract a new audience unfamiliar with Valerian, and draw them into the series?

LUC BESSON: If you want to attract an audience, don’t try to please them. That’s the best way to fail. If there were a magic formula, everyone would use it and all films would be successful. The most important thing is to be honest and authentic, and go for it all the way. You have to knock on wood and hope that there will be other people who think the same way. You always wonder why a film didn’t work, but you also have to look at how a film finds its audience. With Valerian, I’m working the same way: my aim is to offer something different.

PIERRE CHRISTIN: This approach is exactly how we see the series. We’ve often been asked if it’s a comics series for children or adults, but that’s not something we’ve ever thought about! You can read Valerian when you’re a teenager and re-read it five years later with a completely new perspective. Success can also be a question of circumstance. Sometimes a comics series can capture the zeitgeist of its time, without a special search on the authors’ part. What we as the creators of Valerian have always done, however, is to avoid stereotypes.