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Praise be! Rihanna is acting again

In a world where Rihanna can do no wrong, I for one embrace her acting career. It was announced earlier today via director Luc Besson’s Instagram account, that Ri-ri will be joining the star studded cast of film project Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. If you haven’t heard of Valerian, don’t worry, I’m quite sure you’re not the only one.

The French comic series adaptation is set to star Dane DeHaan, Clive Owen and Cara Delevingne and is slated for a 2017 release. The movie centres around a time-travelling space agent charged with protecting his empire from “paradoxes in the time stream”. Besson, best know for his hit film “Lucy” posted the news on his Instagram account earlier today:

RIHANNA is in VALERIAN!!!!! ….and she has a big part!! I’m Sooo excited!!!😊

A photo posted by @lucbesson on

The superstar has forayed into acting before, with her small role in the action flop Battleship. But with her album ANTI seemingly delayed in perpetuity, Rihanna must be looking for something else to do. That, or more likely, she anticipates the album will be finished and released before filming begins in January 2016 (please god).

We’ll have to forgive Besson’s liberal use of exclamation points, because Rihanna tends to have that effect on people – but one wonders what piqued Rihanna’s interest to make the film. Cynics out there will probably point to money, or the fact that it films in France which equates to a free holiday, but I like to think Rihanna respects Besson’s ability to illicit great performances out of musicians, look at what he did for Scarlett Johansson! Okay, maybe I’m joking about the great performances part, but I’ll defend that Scar-Jo Tom Waits cover record to my death [editors note: Howl & Echoes does not condone this. The editor believe this to be a fucking awful album that destroys some of the most beautiful songs ever crafted.]

While Rihanna’s part in the film is unclear, it just gives us another thing to speculate and obsess over while we wonder what the badass Barbadian decides to do next. Let’s just hope it’s more music, even if she’s capable of delivering masterfully crafted acting scenes like the one below.