50 Fun Facts About The Fifth Element

Luc Besson co-wrote The Fifth Element with which screenwriter, who also wrote The Karate Kid?

Kamen later co-wrote the Taken and Transporter films with Besson.

How old was Luc Besson when he began writing the story that became The Fifth Element?

Besson was 16 when he began the story as a novel to relieve school boredom; he was 38 when the film reached cinemas in 1997.

Which actor plays cab driver Korben Dallas?

Bruce Willis plays Korben Dallas; he took the part after the 1991 flops Hudson Hawk and Billy Bathgate, and wrapped his scenes in May 1996.

Which A-list actress was considered for Leeloo before Milla Jovovich was cast?

Besson considered Julia Roberts for Leeloo but her fee was too high; Milla Jovovich was picked from the 200 to 300 candidates he met in person.

What was Korben Dallas's job before he became a taxi driver?

Korben Dallas was a special forces major before driving a flying cab in 23rd-century New York; General Munro pulls him back in for the Fhloston mission.

What was Korben Dallas's name in Besson's original story?

In Besson's original story the hero was Zaltman Bleros, a nobody from a rocket-ship factory who won a trip to Fhloston Paradise and met Leeloo there.

How often does the great evil appear, according to the film's prologue?

The prologue says the Great Evil returns every 5,000 years, and only the four elemental stones combined with the fifth element can stop it.

What are the aliens who guard the weapon called?

The Mondoshawans are the armoured aliens who guard the stones and the fifth element; Mangalore mercenaries hired by Zorg shoot down their ship.

How is Leeloo recreated by scientists in the 23rd century?

Scientists rebuild Leeloo from a severed hand in metal armour, the only remains recovered after the Mangalores ambush the Mondoshawan ship.

How does Leeloo first meet Korben?

Fleeing the lab, Leeloo leaps from a ledge and crashes through the roof of Korben's flying taxi, landing in his back seat.

What are the first names of the industrialist villain, surname Zorg?

Gary Oldman's villain is Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, an arms dealer and industrialist who hires the Mangalores to steal the stones on behalf of the great evil.

Which planet hosts the flying luxury hotel where the Diva performs?

The Diva performs aboard the flying luxury hotel over the planet Fhloston Paradise; Korben gets there by 'winning' a rigged radio contest, with Ruby Rhod as host.

Where are the four elemental stones hidden?

The Diva Plavalaguna hid the four stones inside her own body; Korben pulls them out after she is fatally wounded in the Mangalore attack, while Zorg flees with an empty case.

How does Zorg die?

He had gone back for the empty case and deactivated his own bomb, only to be caught by someone else's.

What finally makes Leeloo willing to unleash the weapon at the end?

She had given up after learning humanity's history of war. Besson wanted audiences to agree with her question about what life is worth saving for.

How many words are in the 'Divine Language' Besson invented for Leeloo?

The Divine Language had about 400 words; Besson and Jovovich practised it by writing each other letters and holding conversations, and married after the film.

Which musician was originally cast as Ruby Rhod but had to drop out because of a world tour?

Prince was the original choice for Ruby Rhod but pulled out over touring commitments; Jamie Foxx was also considered for the part.

What was Ruby Rhod's first name in the original script?

In the original script the character was Loc Rhod; he became Ruby Rhod, a name some read as a splice of the elements rubidium and rhodium.

Which fashion designer created the film's costumes?

Jean Paul Gaultier designed all the film's costumes, from Zorg's suits to the Fhloston extras, and personally checked each extra's outfit every morning on set.

Which two French comic artists were hired for the film's production design?

Besson hired Moebius (Jean Giraud) and Jean-Claude Mézières, whose comics inspired the futuristic New York; their drawings shaped the flying taxis and towering cityscape.

A flying-taxi character in which Mézières comic persuaded Besson to make Korben a cab driver?

In Mézières' 1994 Valérian album The Circles of Power, the cabbie S'Traks drives a flying taxi through the skies of Rubanis; Besson then made Korben a cab driver.

Roughly how many drawings did the design team produce in a year of pre-production?

Over a year of pre-production the team around Moebius and Mézières produced some 8,000 drawings; studios then baulked at a budget near $100 million.

Which Besson film, made while The Fifth Element was stalled, helped get it financed by Columbia?

Production had shut down without warning in December 1992. Besson cut the budget to $90 million and Columbia, his partner on Léon, said yes.

Where was The Fifth Element mainly filmed, after Besson failed to find facilities in France?

Shooting moved to Pinewood Studios outside London, where the film occupied seven soundstages including the giant 007 Stage.

In which African country were the 'Egyptian' desert scenes shot?

The first shot of the whole production was a desert background there on 5 January 1996.

What is unusual about the scenes featuring hero Korben and villain Zorg?

Willis wrapped on 16 May and Oldman started the following week.

Why did Besson insist most action scenes happen in broad daylight?

He wanted a 'cheerfully crazy' look rather than a gloomy, realistic one.

At what scale were the New York skyscraper models built for the effects shots?

The New York miniatures were built at 1/24 scale: eighty workers spent five months on 25 skyscrapers, some 20 feet tall, with furniture behind the windows.

Who composed the film's score?

Éric Serra, Besson's regular composer, mixed a Stalinist-style fanfare, reggae and hula music into a score that plays for about 90 per cent of the film.

The Diva Dance opera scene uses the mad-scene aria 'Il dolce suono' from which opera?

The Diva opens with 'Il dolce suono', Lucia's mad-scene aria from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, before sliding into Serra's techno 'Diva Dance'.

Which soprano actually sang the Diva's aria?

The Diva's voice belongs to Albanian soprano Inva Mula, who recorded the aria for the film; the actress on screen only mimed to her track.

Who plays Diva Plavalaguna on screen?

Maïwenn Le Besco, then Besson's partner and the mother of his daughter, plays the blue-skinned Diva Plavalaguna under heavy prosthetic makeup.

The music in the taxi chase, 'Alech Taadi', is by which Algerian singer?

'Alech Taadi' is by the Algerian raï star Khaled; it appears on his 1993 album N'ssi N'ssi but was left off the film's soundtrack release.

The Fifth Element premiered as the opening film of which festival in May 1997?

The film opened the 1997 Cannes Film Festival on 7 May, with Gaumont spending up to $3 million on the launch party.

Roughly how much did The Fifth Element gross worldwide on its $90M budget?

About three-quarters came from outside the US. It was the ninth-biggest film of 1997 worldwide.

Which 2011 film beat The Fifth Element's record as the highest-grossing French film internationally?

The Intouchables overtook it in 2011; The Fifth Element had held the record for 14 years and was the costliest European film made at its 1997 release.

Which comic did Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean Giraud claim the film plagiarised in their lawsuit?

Jodorowsky and Giraud claimed the film copied their comic The Incal; a Paris court dismissed the case in 2004, finding only 'tiny fragments' were borrowed.

What was the tentative title of the rumoured sequel that Besson says he never planned?

The rumoured sequel was called Mr. Shadow, after the film's great evil; Besson said in 2011 he had never wanted a follow-up, though Terry Bisson's novelisation appeared in 1997.

The Fifth Element won three Césars: Director plus which two categories?

Besson won Best Director, Thierry Arbogast Best Cinematography and Dan Weil Best Production Design at the 1998 Césars; the film also won the BAFTA for special visual effects.

Which cast member said in 2014 of the film, 'Oh no. I can't bear it'?

He explained he had been 'singing for my supper' because Besson had part-financed his directorial debut Nil by Mouth.

Besides the actor finally cast, which star did Besson approach to play Korben Dallas?

Besson approached Mel Gibson for Korben, but Gibson turned it down; the production then stalled in December 1992 before Columbia revived it.

Which actor plays Vito Cornelius, the priest who knows the secret of the fifth element?

Ian Holm plays Father Vito Cornelius, who stows away aboard the Fhloston liner and flees the hotel with Korben, Leeloo and the stones.

Which comedian plays the flamboyant radio host Ruby Rhod?

Chris Tucker plays the shrill, leopard-print-wearing host Ruby Rhod; the role came two years after Friday (1995) and a year before Rush Hour (1998).

In which year is the film's prologue at the Egyptian temple set?

The prologue is set in Egypt in 1914; the Mondoshawans collect the stones on the eve of the First World War and promise to return before the great evil.

The Diva's concert scene was filmed at which real London venue?

The Diva's concert was shot in the auditorium of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, one of the few locations used outside Pinewood's soundstages.

At the film's 1997 festival premiere, what did guests use as their ticket to get in?

Guests at the Cannes premiere used a specially made Fifth Element Swatch watch as their ticket; Gaumont's party, with fireworks, cost up to $3 million.

The film's only Oscar nomination, for Best Sound Effects Editing, lost to which movie?

Titanic took the Oscar for Sound Effects Editing over The Fifth Element and Face/Off; The Fifth Element's consolation was the BAFTA for special visual effects.

Leeloo's skimpy outfit when she is first revived was inspired by what?

Gaultier based Leeloo's first outfit on hospital bandages: strips of white thermal tape wrapped around her body after the scientists rebuild her.

How many costumes did the designer create for extras in the flying-hotel scenes?

Gaultier made 900 costumes for the extras in the Fhloston hotel scenes and inspected each one every morning; a single jacket cost $5,000.

Which actor plays the president of the Federated Territories?

Tiny Lister, the towering ex-wrestler who played Deebo in Friday, is President Lindberg of the Federated Territories.