Development As a teenager, Besson envisioned the world of
The Fifth Element in an attempt to alleviate boredom. He began writing the script when he was 16, originally envisioning the story as a novel, though the film was not released in cinemas until he was 38. The original story was set in the year 2300 and was about a "nobody" named Zaltman Bleros (later renamed Korben Dallas), who wins a trip to the
Club Med resort on the planet Fhloston Paradise in the Angel constellation. There, he meets Leeloo, a "sand-girl" who has the "beauty of youth" despite being over 2,000 years old. The name of the character Diva Plavalaguna was likely derived from the
Plava Laguna resort in
Poreč,
Croatia, where Besson had vacationed several times. Besson continued to work on the story for years. By 1991, when his documentary film
Atlantis was released, he had a 400-page script. Nicolas Seydoux and
Patrice Ledoux from
Gaumont were the first people to take on the project. In November 1991, while seeking actors for the film, Besson met
French comic creators
Jean Giraud and
Jean-Claude Mézières and recruited them for the film's production design. Giraud and Mézières's comics inspired the look that Besson wanted for his futuristic New York City.
Designs Mézières had designed
The Circles of Power (1994), which contains a character named S'Traks, who drives a flying taxicab through the congested air of the vast metropolis on the planet Rubanis. Mézières showed images of the flying taxi to Besson, who was inspired to change Korben Dallas' background from a worker in a rocket-ship factory to a taxi driver who flies his cab around a Rubanis-inspired futuristic New York City. Besson's production also hired five other artists for the project. In addition, noted fashion designer
Jean Paul Gaultier was hired to create the costumes. The team spent a year creating more than 8,000 drawings.
Casting During this time, Besson approached both
Bruce Willis and
Mel Gibson for the lead role, and also considered
Julia Roberts for Leeloo. Willis expressed interest, though he was reluctant to take on the role as the film was considered risky after his previous two films,
Hudson Hawk and
Billy Bathgate, had been poorly received. Gibson eventually turned down the role. For the character Leeloo, Besson chose
Milla Jovovich from the 200–300 applicants he met in person, While the production team impressed film companies with their designs, they struggled to find one willing to take on a budget approaching nearly $100million. In December 1992, production stopped without any prior warning, and the team disbanded. (top), which was inspired by the comic album
The Circles of Power (bottom), drawn by artist
Jean-Claude Mézières. Besson wrote and directed the commercially successful
Léon: The Professional (1994). During that period, he continued to work on the script for
The Fifth Element, shortening it. He reduced the film's budget to $90million before again attempting to find a studio willing to produce it.
Columbia Pictures, which had a partnership in
Leon, agreed to finance the film. By this time, Besson had decided to go with a lesser-known lead actor to save on production costs. Besson happened to be in
Barry Josephson's office when Willis called regarding a different film. Besson asked to speak to Willis "just to say hello" and told him that
The Fifth Element was finally going ahead, explaining his decision to go with a less-expensive actor. After a short silence, Willis said, "If I like the film, we can always come to an arrangement." After reading the script, Willis agreed to take on the role.
Filming Production began in early August 1995. Besson travelled to various places for casting, including Paris, London, and Rome. He hired
Gary Oldman (who had starred in
Léon) for the role of Zorg, describing Oldman as "one of the top-five actors in the world". Besson was then married to
Maïwenn Le Besco, who played the role of the Diva Plavalaguna when filming began. He left her to take up with Jovovich during filming. Jovovich and Besson later married but divorced two years later in 1999. Although he wanted to shoot in France, Besson was unable to find suitable facilities, so he filmed in London. It was primarily filmed at
Pinewood Studios on seven soundstages including the
007 Stage. Construction of sets began in October 1995. The opera scene was filmed at the
Royal Opera House. Scenes depicted as being in Egypt were filmed in
Mauritania; the first shoot, a background shot of the desert, occurred there on 5 January 1996. Filming with actors began in late January, and was completed 21 weeks later. Willis finished filming on 16 May, while Oldman only commenced filming the following week; the protagonist (Korben) and antagonist (Zorg) never actually share any screen time. Despite being filmed in London,
The Fifth Element was a French production, the costliest European film ever made at the time. The New York designs were derived from both
metabolist-inspired masses of modular apartments from the 1960s and the futuristic designs of architect
Antonio Sant'Elia in the 1910s. Besson demanded that most of the action shots take place in broad daylight, as he was reportedly tired of the dark spaceship corridors and dimly lit planets common in science-fiction films, and wanted a brighter, "cheerfully crazy" look as opposed to a gloomy, realistic one. Gaultier designed each of the 900 costumes worn by extras in the Fhloston Paradise scenes and checked each costume every morning. His designs, described as "intellectually
transgressive", were said to challenge sexuality and gender norms. A single jacket he designed cost $5,000. Jovovich's costume worn from when her character was first revived was inspired by typical hospital dressing and bandages that provided minimal modesty. The original name of the character Ruby Rhod was Loc Rhod, which appears both in the original script and in the novel adapted from the film. Hayward speculated that the name change was a play on data in the periodic table.
Rubidium is the first of the
period 5 elements, and exactly halfway along that row is the element
rhodium. Using the first half of each element yields "Rubi Rhod". Others have speculated this name is a play on the character's
gender-bending persona, with a feminine first name and phallic surname. Chris Tucker and
Jamie Foxx were each considered for the role; Besson liked Foxx, but felt that Tucker's smaller body suited the character better.
Effects car in the film Three different teams handled the three different types of special effects used.
Nick Allder directed mechanical and pyrotechnical effects,
Nick Dudman was placed in charge of 'creature' effects, and
Mark Stetson headed the visual-effects team. Visual effects company
Digital Domain was hired, and
Karen Goulekas was given the role of digital-effects supervisor.
Alias, did not appear on the film soundtrack but is available on Khaled's album ''
N'ssi N'ssi''. The Diva Dance opera performance used music from
Gaetano Donizetti's
Lucia di Lammermoor: "
Il dolce suono", the
mad scene of Act III, Scene 2. It is one of the few pieces of music in the film that is
diegetic. It was sung by Albanian
soprano Inva Mula. The role of Plavalaguna was played by French actress
Maïwenn Le Besco.
Soundtrack Released as an album under
Virgin Records, the soundtrack peaked at number 99 on the
Billboard 200 and number 44 in
Canada. More than 200,000 copies of the lengthy soundtrack were sold in France alone. Rodney Batdorf of
AllMusic gave the album three out of five stars, stating it was "diverse and accomplished, and it is just as effective outside of the film as it is within it." ==Release and reception==