Besson began writing ““Element’’ when he was 16. Once he’d become the darling of French cinema - and had captivated U.S. audiences with 1991’s ““La Femme Nikita’’ - he managed to persuade Gaumont and Sony to give him nearly free rein in bringing his teenage vision to the screen. Besson let the studios read his original, 400-page script but insisted they fund the movie without approval over the 200-page version he planned to film. He didn’t have to let the moneymen on the set or screen even a minute of footage for them - even as he went over budget by tens of millions of dollars. Says one former Sony executive, ““He had all sorts of protections - he didn’t have to show the studio anything. But he did eventually show us some stuff, and we did go to the set a couple of times.''
Sony’s former chairman, Mark Canton, paid $25 million for the U.S. rights to ““Element’’ in 1995. (The new chairman, John Calley, has accepted the kudos for inherited successes like ““Jerry Maguire’’; watch him distance himself from ““The Fifth Element’’ when all the reviews are in.) With two weeks before ““The Lost World’’ opens, Sony could conceivably make its money back. Market research suggests that teenage boys, at least, will be hooked on Besson’s visuals - Milla Jovovich, who plays a supreme being, does for bandages what Nastassja Kinski once did for boa constrictors. As for Gaumont, ““The Fifth Element’’ was meant to catapult it into the majors, but instead it’s made it a butt of jokes around Hollywood. It’s unlikely it will recoup its investment. And it had better think twice before going back to the future.
