Rihanna Boards Luc Besson's Sci-Fi Epic 'Valerian'

Luc Besson's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets has scooped up a huge star on its way to outer space. Rihanna is climbing aboard the sci-fi adventure in a "big" role, joining Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, and Clive Owen. See the Rihanna Valerian casting announcement after the jump. 

Besson himself broke the Rihanna Valerian news on Instagram.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets stars DeHaan as the eponymous Valerian, an intrepid spatio-temporal agent for the Galaxity organization. Delevingne is his beautiful, sharp-witted partner Laureline. Owen will play a character named Commander Arün Filitt. Further details on Rihanna's role have not been given. In fact, we don't even know if she's playing a human — the film has only a small handful of human characters (Valerian and Laureline are two of them) and several crazy-looking alien creatures.

The film is based on the long-running comic series Valérian and Laureline by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières. The latter did design work for Besson's The Fifth Element, so it shouldn't come as surprise that Valerian is being described as "Star Wars meets Blade Runner meets Besson's The Fifth Element" in terms of its visuals.

Pop star Rihanna has begun fleshing out her acting resume over the past couple of years. She made her feature film debut with a (very) small role in Battleship, followed by a cameo in This Is the End. This year's animated adventure Home gave her more to do, as she got to voice the lead character Tip. But it still seems too early to pass judgment on her abilities as an actress. Maybe Valerian will give her more of a chance to show off her chops.

One thing's for sure, though: Rihanna is an A+ clothes-wearer, and so is Delevingne. By which I mean both of them have the uncanny ability to rock even the most insane getups, and make it look effortless. We don't yet know what costume designer Olivier Bériot has in store for Valerian, but if his looks aren't at least Fifth Element-level crazy, it'll be a real waste of everyone's talents.

Oh, and speaking of the costumes – if you have thoughts on what the denizens of Besson's epic intergalactic universe should be wearing, consider submitting some designs to the Valerian costume contest. Pitch video below, and details here.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets arrives July 21, 2017.