The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Stephen Norrington
Produced by	Trevor Albert Rick Benattar Sean Connery Mark Gordon Don Murphy Michael Nelson
Screenplay by	James Dale Robinson
Based on	The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore Kevin O'Neill
Starring	Sean Connery Naseeruddin Shah Peta Wilson Tony Curran Stuart Townsend Shane West Jason Flemyng Richard Roxburgh
Music by	Trevor Jones
Cinematography	Dan Laustsen
Editing by	Paul Rubell
Studio	20th Century Fox Angry Films International Production Company JD Productions
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 11, 2003
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$78 million
Box office	$179,265,204

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a 2003 superhero film adaptation loosely based on characters from the comic book limited series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, who is also famous for Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell. It was released on July 11, 2003, in the United States, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Stephen Norrington and starred Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shah, Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Stuart Townsend, Shane West, Jason Flemyng, and Richard Roxburgh.

It is an action adventure film set in the late 19th century, featuring an assortment of fictional literary characters appropriate to the period, who act as Victorian Era superheroes. It draws on the works of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, Ian Fleming, Herman Melville, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Gaston Leroux, and Mark Twain, albeit all adapted for the film. The plot and general atmosphere are very far from those of the original comic book.

The film was intended to spawn a film franchise based on further titles in the original comic book series, but it was critically panned, so there was little enthusiasm for a sequel. However, despite negative reviews the film was a box office hit.

Plot

In an alternate version of 1899, the Bank of England in London is attacked by a group of men who appear to be German soldiers using advanced explosives, automatic weapons, and an armored tank. Next is an attack on a Zeppelin factory in Berlin and the kidnapping of several German scientists, by the same men, this time dressed as British soldiers. Because of these events, the British and German Empires are ready to declare war, which many believe will spread throughout Europe. An emissary of the British government, Sanderson Reed (Tom Goodman-Hill), arrives in a gentlemen's club in British East Africa, to recruit the legendary, but now aged and world-weary, hunter and adventurer Allan Quartermain (Sean Connery) to investigate.

Because his past adventures had cost the lives of many friends and lovers, two wives, and (most importantly) his only beloved son (who died in his arms after his last adventure), Quartermain's enthusiasm for the British Empire and European wars has waned and he refuses. The words are hardly out of his mouth when men with automatic rifles burst into the club and attempt to assassinate Quartermain. The automatic rifles cause astonishment, as nobody had yet invented a machinegun which was as small and light as a rifle. Soon the club is blown up, and Sanderson points this out as the threat of war to his beloved Africa. Realizing the point, Quartermain agrees to investigate.

After arriving in London, Quartermain meets the mysterious "M" (Richard Roxburgh), who explains his plan to assemble a modern version of a group of talented individuals known as the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", who have aided the world in times of need. In this case, they will combat the threat of the "Fantom", the true mastermind of the current crisis. M says they can ensure world peace, by stopping the Fantom from destroying Venice, where a peace conference is to take place. During the discussion, Quartermain is introduced to:

• The Indian pirate and technology genius Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), who commands the world's only submarine, the Nautilus, with Ishmael, the narrator in Moby Dick, as his new first mate.
• An invisible thief by the name of Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), who works for the government in the hope of finding an antidote for the invisibility serum he stole and drank from the creator.
• Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), a well-regarded chemist and widow of Jonathan Harker, later revealed to be a vampire with connections to Count Dracula; she is immortal, strong, can fly, and transform into/summon up a swarm of bats.

When the group visits the mysterious immortal Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), the Fantom and his men attack, having heard of their intentions to stop him. The League fend off the Fantom's forces, thanks to the arrival of American Secret Service Agent Tom Sawyer (Shane West), who had followed the League quietly, but the Fantom escapes. Sawyer then reveals that the US Government has sent him to investigate, knowing the possibility that the war in Europe could spread across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Realizing his point, the League allows Sawyer to join in. The League then sets off to Paris to capture Dr. Henry Jekyll (Jason Flemyng); his evil form Edward Hyde, a misshapen giant, is found to be terrorizing the Rue Morgue. He is hunted down and captured by Quartermain and Sawyer before Jekyll offers his services to atone for his crimes as Hyde in London.

With the League complete, they take off on the Nautilus for Venice. They begin to suspect there is a traitor in their midst when flash powder from a camera is found in the wheelhouse and a vial of Jekyll's transformation serum is found to be stolen. Naturally, all think Skinner is the culprit; but, being invisible, Skinner cannot be found anywhere. Around the same time, Jekyll has trouble controlling himself as he is seeing reflections of Hyde, who wants out.

Though the League reaches Venice in time, the bombs planted under the city start to detonate, toppling buildings in a domino effect and making the League believe that Skinner has sold them out. The League decides that knocking one of the buildings out of the sequence is the only way to stop the mass collapse. Nemo has a missile that can be fired from the Nautilus at the building in question, but only if a beacon can be set in place. Since Nemo can track his "automobile," allowing it to serve as the beacon, Sawyer drives the car past the chain of explosions, as Dorian Gray and Mina Harker disembark to fight the Fantom's henchmen ambushing them. Quartermain, meanwhile, sees the Fantom and gives chase on foot. During the chase, the Fantom is unmasked and revealed to be M, who then escapes. At the same time, Sawyer crashes the car into the target building while firing a flare, which signals Nemo to launch his missile. The building is destroyed, the chain of explosions stops, and Venice is saved.

The League regroups at the Nautilus, where Quartermain reveals that M is responsible for the events. Ishamel also reveals that Gray, not Skinner, is the real traitor, as he himself was fatally shot by Gray after the explosion chain has stopped. Gray escapes in an exploration pod (a mini-sub), and Nemo sets the Nautilus in pursuit. A phonograph record made by M and Gray is found, revealing that the mission to Venice and the League itself were merely ruses to enable M to take physical elements from the supernatural members:

• Mina's vampire blood, which Gray got hold after Mina cut herself while having a drink with him;
• Skinner's invisible skin, which Gray got hold by scratching him during the capture of Hyde;
• Jekyll's potion, which Gray got hold by stealing one of the vials;
• Nemo's technological specs, which Gray took pictures of, explaining the flash powder left on the floor.

M then reveals that Quatermain was only used to capture Hyde, before revealing his plan to construct an army of soldiers and weapons based on their powers; M's goal is to amass enormous wealth by starting wars and selling his armaments and weaponry to the combatant countries. As the record plays, it releases an ultrasonic signal caused by crystal sensors that sets off three bombs set by Gray before his departure. Despite Nemo and his men's best efforts, the Nautilus is taking in too much water in the primary engine rooms caused by the explosions and is sinking. Fortunately, Dr. Jekyll transforms into Hyde again, and this time, he finally takes control of himself and prevents the ship from sinking by pulling one of the levers to drain all the water away from the engine room.

Despite the Nautilius having survived the bombings, the League has lost track of Gray due to the damage in the quarters caused by the explosions. Luckily, the League receives a radio singal from Skinner, who had stowed away on the exploration pod when Gray escaped. After fixing the damage and using Skinner's directions, the Nautilus follows the pod to the Asiatic Arctic, where the League finds a cave overlooking an industrial fortress. Skinner appears and tells them that M is making his new armies and weapons in the fortress, his munitions factory. Among the new weapons are samples of invisible skin for spies, synthesized vampiric blood for assassins, doses of the Hyde formula for soldiers, and new submarines based on the Nautlius. Skinner also reveals that M has been forcing the kidnapped German scientists to work on the new weapons, as he's been holding the scientists' families hostage to make sure they do so without protest and hesistation. Splitting up, the League infiltrates the factory: Nemo and Hyde free the scientists and their families; Sawyer and Quartermain go after M; Skinner goes off to plant explosives; and Mina searches for her former lover, Gray.

While Nemo's men lead the scientists and their families to safety, Nemo and Hyde run into M's second-in-command, Dante (Max Ryan), who drinks a very large dose of the Hyde formula and transforms into a gigantic monster to fight back, much to Nemo and Hyde's shock. Mina fights to a stalemate with Gray, as they are both immortal, until she confronts him with his enchanted portrait, which happens to be rotten and decaying. When he sets eyes upon the painting, he ages rapidly, dies, and decays to dust while his portrait is restored to its former beautiful self. Quartermain and Sawyer confront M in his lair and reveal their deduction that M is none other than the infamous 'Napoleon of Crime', Professor James Moriarty.

As Skinner's explosives go off, Nemo and Jekyll escape the fortress through a small hole blasted through the wall, while Dante is crushed to death. Quartermain and Sawyer chase Moriarty around the fortress, and Sawyer is attacked by an invisible Reed and a flamethrower. Skinner saves Sawyer by setting the flamethrower's gas supply on fire but is badly burnt, though he survives. Despite Skinner's best effort, Sawyer is being held hostage by Reed. Meanwhile, as Quartermain is about to kill Moriarty, he sees Sawyer being held at knifepoint by Reed and chooses to save Sawyer by shooting Reed dead at the cost of being stabbed himself by Moriarty, who then flees across the ice toward the stolen exploration pod. Sawyer, using Quartermain's rifle "Mathilda" and the marksmanship skills Quartermain taught him earlier, shoots Moriarty dead, causing him to lose hold of a box containing his new weapons into the icy waters below. As Quartermain dies, he tells Sawyer that the new century belongs to him "as the old one was mine".

The surviving League members assemble in Africa to bury Quartermain, next to his son, subsequently deciding to remain together as Nemo invites the League to join him as he sees the world anew as the century turns after hiding away from it for so long. As they depart, a tribal witch doctor (Semere-Ab Etmet Yohannes) takes handfuls of dirt from the grave and begins a ritual chant. We are reminded of a witch doctor's blessing and pronouncement, recounted at the beginning of the movie, that Africa would not let Quartermain die. As the witch doctor chants, the earth shakes, making the rifle Sawyer left on the grave shake. Lightning strikes the rifle and Quartermain's grave, and the screen cuts to black.

Cast

• Sean Connery as Allan Quartermain
• Naseeruddin Shah as Captain Nemo
• Peta Wilson as Mina Harker
• Tony Curran as Rodney Skinner
• Stuart Townsend as Dorian Gray
• Shane West as Tom Sawyer
• Jason Flemyng as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Edward Hyde
• Richard Roxburgh as The Fantom / "M" / Professor James Moriarty

Production

This movie was filmed in Hungary, Malta, and the Czech Republic.

A character named Eva Draper (Winter Ave Zoli), the daughter of German scientist Karl Draper, was removed during editing but remained in some of the promotional material. Eva had appeared in two scenes: One ended up on the cutting room floor, and she was digitally replaced with a different character in the other. A brief fight scene featuring Tom Sawyer and the replacement character was rotoscoped into the movie, which certainly took Shane West by surprise. The deleted scenes which feature Draper appear on the DVD.

Sean Connery reportedly had many disputes with director Stephen Norrington. He did not attend the opening party; and, when Connery was asked where the director could be, he is said to have replied, "Check the local asylum." Norrington reportedly did not like the studio supervision and is "uncomfortable" with large crews.

For the script, the character "The Invisible Man" was changed to "An Invisible Man" since Fox was unable to obtain the rights to that character. A Fu Manchu character was also dropped from the script. At Fox's request, the character of Tom Sawyer was added for American audiences and to give the movie some "youth appeal." Producer Don Murphy, who described the request as a "stupid studio note," later stated that the move to add Sawyer was "brilliant."

The studio put pressure on the filmmakers for a summer release. Some people at Fox wanted it to be released in the fall; but, according to the Los Angeles Times, Fox already had Master and Commander lined up for the fall. The production ran into some trouble when a special effects set did not pan out as intended, forcing the filmmakers to have to quickly look for another effects shop.

Connery was paid $17 million USD for his role, which left the filmmakers little money to attract other big-name stars for the ensemble cast.

In an interview with The Times, Kevin O'Neill said he believed the film failed because it was not respectful of the source material. He did not recognize the characters when reading the screenplay. He also said that Norrington and Connery did not get along. Finally, O'Neill said that the comic book version of Allan Quartermain was a lot better than the movie version.

Lawsuit

In 2003 Larry Cohen and Martin Poll filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox, claiming the company had intentionally plagiarized their script Cast of Characters. According to the BBC, the lawsuit alleged "that Mr Cohen and Mr Poll pitched the idea to Fox several times between 1993 and 1996, under the name Cast of Characters," and that Fox had solicited the comics series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as a smoke screen. It noted that the films shared public domain characters who did not appear in the comic book series. Although Fox denied the allegations as "absurd nonsense", the case was settled out of court, a decision Alan Moore, according to the New York Times "took ... as an especially bitter blow, believing that [he] had been denied the chance to exonerate [himself]."

Reception

Critical reaction to the film was generally negative, garnering a 17% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 176 reviews, and a 30% approval rating on Metacritic based on 36 reviews. Empire magazine gave it two stars out of five whilst criticizing the film's exposition and lack of character depth, saying it 'flirts dangerously close with one-star ignominy'. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one star out of a possible four stating "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen assembles a splendid team of heroes to battle a plan for world domination, and then, just when it seems about to become a real corker of an adventure movie, plunges into incomprehensible action, idiotic dialogue, inexplicable motivations, causes without effects, effects without causes, and general lunacy. What a mess."

However, the film did well at the U.S. box office, opening at #2 behind Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen grossed an estimated $66,465,204 in Canada and the United States, $12,603,037 in the United Kingdom, and $12,033,033 in Spain. Worldwide, the film took $179,265,204.

Home media

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen earned a total of $48,640,000 in rentals with $14,810,000 from video rentals and $33,830,000 from DVD rentals. DVD sales meanwhile gathered revenue of $36,400,000.

Other media

A novelization of the movie was written by Kevin J. Anderson and released shortly before the movie.

The soundtrack album was also released internationally but not in the United States.

External links

• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at the Internet Movie Database
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at AllRovi
• Article at FilmForce about the film
• "Early review of the "LXG" script". Archived from the original on 2000-12-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20001214100900/http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/directorscut/001006. 
• Stax's review at IGN of a revised version of the script
• Internet Movie Firearms Database: Description of firearms used in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen