The Story of The Fifth Element is part production journal and part art book. The production side is written by Luc Besson, the director of the movie.
Luc Besson looks back at the struggles he had to content with, way back in 1975, when the idea for the movie was conceived, and the first 200 pages of the script thrown away because it was too verbose, self-indulgent. The book highlights all sorts of challenges of producing a film and makes for a great read. There are many interesting stories from casting to the creation of sets. There are interviews with fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, production designer Dan Weili, artists Jean-Claude Mezieres and even Moebius.
The latter part of the book collects the concept art for the characters, costumes and the spaceships. All pretty cool to look at.
The book's a great read but will probably appeal more to fans of the movie.
(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)