from an original idea by Luc Besson

On the Web, at last....

THE SCRIPT OF THE MOVIE WE'LL NEVER SEE...

THE LOVE SOCIETY CAN'T AFFORD

In 1992, Luc Besson's first attempt to produce his adolescential dream, The Fifth Element, suffered an abrupt end because of budget problems: a strong blow to the French director, who had been working for one year on this project.

In the following 30 days, "burning with an inner fire", Besson wrote Léon, a story Jean Reno asked him to develop from the character of Victor, NIKITA's "cleaner".

It took two days to fund Léon.

The Version 1 Script object of this site is the one approved by Columbia, Gaumont and JVC, but also by Jean Reno, other actors and behind-the-camera key people. Then why is this version so different from the movie we can actually see?

Firstly, Natalie Portman's parents said a categorical "no" to this version, and it was just upon Natalie's own insistence that they accepted to discuss an edited, softer version 2.

The revised script resulted in an approximately 150-minute-long movie which was first shown to US test audiences: the very first audience reacted by shouting words like "beast" and "bitch", quite far from Besson's hopes.

Therefore, US marketing needs made necessary to remove the perceived, but controversially motivated, "Lolita factor". The result is the 106-minute-long movie presented during 1994, which allowed just to scent the power of the whole, but which was still able to achieve worldwide fame.

During 1996, the 128-minute-long "Version Integrale" was released in France and, subsequently, in several European markets and in Japan.

Whenever will we see the WHOLE movie? Maybe never. But Luc Besson has published (in French) the Version 1 Script, satisfying the fans of the movie many consider his masterpiece.

While waiting for an official English translation, this site aims at making the story accessible to non-French-speaking fans out there.

I suggest to download the ZIPPED (441K) html Version 1 Script

(A few pictures included in the package)

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Else, you can view the Version 1 Script

by clicking on the following pages

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