Helmer Luc Besson gushes over Rihanna's performance in "Valerian"

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" director Luc Besson is really grateful for having Rihanna as a part of his cast members. The French filmmaker took to Twitter on Sunday, January 17 to gush over the Barbadian beauty's performance.

".@rihanna blows me away. She is a natural born actress....," Luc wrote alongside a snap of him striking a pose with the "B***h Better Have My Money" singer. "Thank you RiRi for this wonderful week! #Valerian."

Rihanna who previously lent her voice to DreamWorks' animation "Home (2015)" joined the cast members which included Cara Delevingne, Dane DeHaan, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, John Goodman, Clive Owen and Rutger Hauer.

The movie began shooting earlier this month. On Saturday, Cara posted on her Instagram page a behind-the-scenes video of the film. It appeared that the British model-turned-actress enjoyed the filming process. "Watch this space#Valerian @valerianmovie," so Cara captioned it. The director, similarly, shared with his followers on Instagram a time-lapse video showing the movie set.

The film is based on the 1967 graphic novel by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres. The director previously wrote on Facebook, "It's a huge sci-fi film called Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. It's based from a comic book, maybe the most famous one in Europe. I'm a big fan of it since I'm 12 years old. Valerian and Laureline are two agents traveling through space and time." The movie is set for a July 21, 2017 release in the U.S.