Luc Besson's WWI comic adap

Luc Besson’s “retirement” from the movie world is seems to be shaping up as pure guff.

The Fifth Element director, last seen helming iffy 'toon Arthur And The Invisibles, has turned to French comic book series Adventures Extraordinares d’Adele Blanc-Sec, which Besson’s EuropaCorp company is eyeing as a likely new franchise.

And why not? Jacques Tardi’s series is set in a World War I-shattered Paris, where our heroine, writer Adele Blanc-Sec, deals with stupid police officers, nasty villains and monsters. Sounds like top stuff: Murder She Wrote meets Scooby Doo – and with nine books in the series so far, there’s definite material to keep churning out movies if the first one does well.

Can anyone say paging Audrey Tautou or Marion Cotillard? Variety has all the info .

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.