The box office returns of The Fifth Element scuppered plans for a sequel – but oddly enough, led to The Transporter franchise.
Writer Robert Mark Kamen admits in a new interview over at Uproxx that he’s not actively courted publicity throughout his career, but his list of credits really does speak for himself.
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Still, the interview has thrown up quite a few new stories, not least how The Fifth Element 2 was originally planned by Luc Besson, but ultimately never came to fruition.
The movie starred Bruce Willis of course – who “was very difficult”, Kamen recalled – and Besson’s original script for the film came in at 180 pages. “And then he added a second part to it, which made no sense either”.
Kamen added too that “we were going to do it as a sequel, but it made no sense, and The Fifth Element wasn’t big enough here [in the US]. It was huge in the rest of the world, and it’s a classic … it was way ahead of its time”.
However, due to the box office returns in America, “we never did the sequel, and the sequel would have been taking the other 180-page thing he had and working it into a script”. Instead, after struggling to work with a movie star, Besson said to Kamen “we have to create our own movie stars”. And that’s what started the path to The Transporter films with Jason Statham.
The full interview is here, and well worth a read.
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