Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean Giraud sued Besson because they believed he had been too inspired by the comic ‘The Incal’
The fifth element It is one of the most entertaining and fun science fiction films ever made. Even today, it continues to be claimed as a gem of the genre and no one would doubt its impact on the genre. As Alesya Makarov recently reflected in an episode of SensaAnimated Film“what makes The fifth element So special? Why is it such a beloved film, despite having a couple of slightly shady things that I will tell you now…?”
Besson carefully shaped this adventure from a story he had written when he was 16, but it turns out that there are those who want to claim authorship of it. The fifth element. Specific, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean Giraud -also known as Moebius- sued the French director for around 23 million euros, accusing him of having plagiarized their idea.
The fifth element It was released in 1997 and to better understand the accusation you have to go back in time a little. Luc Besson grew up devouring the works of Moebius and Jean-Claude Mézières, and fell in love with their dystopian futuristic worlds. When The fifth element began to be a reality and Warner Bros. gave him the green light to design his own world, the director signed his two teachers: Mézières and Moebius. Together they created a team of 5 more artists who would be responsible for what we would later see on screen.
7 illustrators worked for a year on more than 8,000 drawings to design what would be the imaginary world of the film, but production was stopped when a protagonist was not found and it would still be several years before the machinery began to spin again.
The work of Moebius without Moebius
When The fifth element returned to production, the universe that Moebius and Mézières had created came to life, only they were no longer involved and that was possibly where the misunderstanding came from – well, more or less -. Jean Giraud – the artist’s real name – and Alejandro Jodorowsky decided to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism, claiming that it was based on the comic they had designed together, titled The incal.
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They requested 13.1 million euros for unfair competition, 9 million in damages and interest and between 2 and 5% of the film’s exploitation income. In addition, Jodorowsky also asked for 700,000 euros.
The accusation did not go very far. In 2004 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Luc Besson, considering that the plaintiffs’ claims were based only “in small fragments of the work” drawn. He also took into account that Moebius had worked on the film under the Warner Bros. umbrella and, therefore, it was work he had done for them. Besson, who had requested 100,000 euros in compensation for abusive procedure, was also left with zero but was the author of a key piece of science fiction.
