Luc Besson To Direct Massive Sci-Fi Film To Be Released In 2013-14, Described As 'The Fifth Element' To The Power Of 10

Is Luc Besson deigning to come down from conceptualist impresario mountain and get his hands dirty once more?

As a director, Besson helms films fairly infrequently these days, choosing instead to conceive them and hand them off to others; he's created a veritable cottage industry of action films both in France and in the U.S. Between 1999 and 2010, he's made only four pictures and arguably "Arthur and the Invisibles" doesn't count since no adults saw it.

We're being harsh and flip, but as a producer/writer Besson has been incredibly busy. In the same time period, he's had a hand in twenty two screenplays, and as a producer he's been involved in 42 films, many of them born from his original idea -- "The Transporter" series with Jason Statham is his original concept, as is the "District 13" series and the "Taken" revenge film with Liam Neeson that became a huge surprise hit in the winter of 2008. The recently announced sci-fi film, "Lockout" with Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace is another of his creations, as is "Columbiana" with Zoe Saldana which appears to be his workaround for a "The Professional" sequel.

But what Besson generally does is come up with these concepts, co-write them and then hand them off to some talented young director -- he's made people like Pierre Morel, Louis Leterrier, Patrick Alessandrin, and Olivier Megaton into relative house-hold names for the action set or at least those in Hollywood looking for directors for hire.

It's been reported that his next directing gig would be a untitled love story, but according to an interview with Europe 1 (via Coming Soon) he's working on a new sci-fi film that would be " 'The Fifth Element' [to the] Power 10. "

It appears he's been inspired by "Avatar" and James Cameron's 3D work as well. "When I did 'The Fifth Element,' I already had the technological tools that were a little outdated, "he said. "With the advent of digital technology, it is amazing what you can do. The technique has caught the imagination. One can imagine anything, there will always technicians to follow you in your delusion. " Evidently pre-production will begin in 2011 and according to the director production could start in 2012 and 2013, "because it will be very, very big."

Besson's next picture is "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec" which still hasn't been scheduled for a U.S. release yet.