Bruce Willis officially retired from acting after he was diagnosed with aphasia, which impacts his memory. While they could always team up again to confront a new global threat, that seems unlikely. Kamen and Besson were finally able to create a script they were both satisfied with and thus began the journey, which lasted for four more years, to create a movie that many consider a highlight of 90s sci-fi classics up there with The Matrix.ĭallas and Leeloo pretty much wrapped up the story, finding love and saving the planet. Soon after that, Kamen was on a plane to Paris, where a three-day brainstorming session with the director turned into a three-week tour of the studio which was being prepared to bring life to the alien world of The Fifth Element. But to his surprise, Besson called him a week later and asked for his help in writing the script. Kamen naturally concluded that was the last he would ever hear about The Fifth Element. Kamen thought he blew the meeting with Besson as he was a Hollywood screenwriter telling a French auteur everything wrong with his script and could visibly see Besson being upset. Unfortunately, the meeting was far from being a success. Kamen had trouble understanding the script but considered Besson a cinematic genius based on his previous work and agreed to meet the filmmaker. Kamen said:Īccording to Kamen, he was working with Warner Brothers as a script doctor when the producer Bill Gerber, asked him to take a look at a strange new script written by a guy named Luc Besson, who had made the 1990 action thriller La Femme Nikita. While today international markets are important for a movie to be seen as viable, back in 1997, they were less of a priority. Kamen told Uproxx that the original plan had always been to make a sequel to The Fifth Element, but that fell through because of the movie underperforming in the United States. Related: 8 Canceled Sci-Fi Movies That Will Never See the Light of Day The reviews for The Fifth Element in the United States were also mixed as Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote, "A largely misfired European attempt to make an American-style sci-fi spectacular, The Fifth Element consists of a hodgepodge of elements that don't comfortably coalesce." It managed to be the ninth highest-grossing film worldwide of 1997, but in the United States only ranked 26 and was even outgrossed by notable box offices bombs like Batman and Robin that same summer. Yet the film was a box office disappointment in the United States, grossing $63 million against a production budget of $90 million. The Fifth Element was a hit internationally, as reportedly 75% of its box office gross came from markets outside the United States. So why haven't the creators released a sequel yet? The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, became the highest-grossing French film in Europe, and made over $263 million worldwide. It follows the story of a taxicab driver, played by Willis, who takes it upon himself to protect the life of a strange, humanoid creature, portrayed by Jovovich, whose existence is directly linked to the survival of the human race, which is under the threat of a malevolent cosmic entity. The story behind the making of The Fifth Element is as much a clash of cultures as the movie itself, which boasted a strange, captivating European arthouse aesthetic filtered through the prism of raw commercial Hollywood. May 8, 2023: This article has been updated by Mona Bassil with further details about The Fifth Element sequel that never happened. The movie featured an eclectic cast that included Bruce Willis as Korben Dallas, Milla Jovovich as Leeloo, Chris Tucker as Ruby Rhod, and Gary Oldman as Jean-Baptiste Zorg. When it comes to sci-fi cinema, few movies are as bizarrely entertaining as The Fifth Element, the 1997 English-language, French-produced science-fiction action film that was co-written by Robert Mark Kamen ( The Karate Kid) and Luc Besson and directed by the latter.
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