New film a roll of the dice in China:director

French movie director LucBesson doesn't want to predict box office results for his upcoming Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - backed in part by Shanghai's Fundamental Films - but he sees a continuing appetite in China for Western-style blockbusters and thinks the movie he's adapted from France's top-selling comic book series will find an audience in China.

Bessonsaid he has no idea how Valerian,starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne and due out in the US on July 21, will do at the Chinese box offi ce, but brushed off concerns about the movie's limited cultural cache with Chinese audiences,saying that moviegoers don't need to know the story to enjoy the movie.

"There are a lot of films that say 'Based on the book'that no one has read, or'Based on a true story' from a book," Besson said.

"I watched a film and I never read the book, so I don't think it matters. You don't need to read the entire 30 volumes from Valerian to understand the film. But it's just information - if you'recurious, you can go on the internet and you can fi nd the [series] and be more familiar with it," he said.

Cultural recognition of a science fiction brand was a point of concern for film industry analysts who said that Star Wars' relatively modest performance in China was due in part to the franchise's limited cultural cache with Chinese moviegoers,who had limited knowledge of the cultural signifi cance of Star Wars before the movie's reboot in 2015.

The Valerian series,which was first published in French comics magazine Pilote in 1967, is about spaceagents Valerian and Laureline who take on missions in the 28th century. It is said to have inspired storylines and designs of other sci-fi films like Star Wars and The Fifth Element, the latter of which was also directed by Besson.

Besson said that he's seen a "real, real evolution" of China's youth in the last 15 years and that they are assertive in their movie tastes.

"Like 15 to 20 years ago, you didn't even have the blockbusters, so probably - and I'm saying probably because I'm not sure - there's still an appetite for the youth to [see] these kinds of films, because it's still kind of new," he said.

"When I watch sometimes, the box office, they know. They say, 'I like this one,' or 'I don't like this one'. They know what they want. You just have to offer the film and be humble," he said.

"If they love it, I will be super happy. If they don't like it, I will be sad," Besson joked.

The $180 million movie is the largest European blockbuster ever produced, and received no funding from Hollywood studios. EuropaCorp, Besson's film studio, and Fundamental Films are the largest backers of the project.

Fundamental Films acquired a 28 percent stake in EuropaCorp last September, making them the second-largest shareholder of the French company.

Besson said at the time that the capital investment will enhance the company's ability to produce and distribute English-language films.

"We're delighted to strengthen our strong ties with Fundamental Films and the booming Chinese market," he said.

STX Entertainment, the Burbank-based studio that has deals with Tencent and Huayi Brothers, is the American distributor of the film, which has not yet secured a release date in China.