The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

If you haven't read the book, you're safe reading the cast list, but that's about it.  If you go further then prepare for SPOILERS.  Buy the book from Amazon because dammit, it's good.  I almost always refer people to the cheapest copy available but the hardback in this case is sweet. And well, the paperback's not out yet. God only knows how long that'll get delayed. Live a little.
 

DreamCast:

Agent Campion Bond Alfred Molina
Ms. Wilhelmina Murray Helena Bonham Carter
Mr. Allan Quatermain Peter O'Toole
Captain Nemo Kabir Bedi
M. Auguste Dupin Jean Rochefort
Dr. Henry Jekyll Richard O'Brien
Mr. Edward Hyde CGI
Dr. Hawley Griffin Jonathan Harris (voice)
The Doctor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
M Ian McKellen
Mr. Sherlock Holmes Jason Isaacs

DreamCrew:

Directed by  Nicholas Hytner
Adapted by  Tom Stoppard

This DreamCast forged by Bailey and Widge.

Why The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?  Well, if you're asking that question then you haven't read the book, which you should certainly fix. Take an England in which all the characters we know from literature actually existed, and then have a number of those characters join together to defend the Crown against a pair of enemies that no one expected. It's not only well written by the illustrious Mr. Alan Moore (From Hell and Watchmen) and artistically crafted in pictorial form by Kevin O'Neill (Marshal Law), but have you seen the annotations for this thing? If you haven't, go now. Chock full of wonderful easter eggs, let me tell you. It's just a damn good story, and would make a damn good movie. But.

If you've been keeping up with stuff over at Corona's Coming Attractions then you know what shape this real life project is actually in. If you don't and want to get really damn down and depressed, then read Patrick Sauriol's review of the script here.

What's the scoop? A very precious substance known as Cavorite has been stolen by the nefarious Doctor (who's name was changed, not to protect the innocent, but instead DC from copyright infringement on someone else), and since that substance can negate gravity--you wouldn't want an evil type to have their hands on it. Therefore, Agent Campion Bond brings together a new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, using a very strange assortment of people that are quite familiar to those of us here on "Earth-Prime."

Directed by Nicholas HytnerOkay, let's see--rip-roaring action and intrigue coupled with period sensibilities and dialogue. Hmmm. What sprang to my mind instantly was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There you had Ang Lee, who had before been best known for films like Sense and Sensibility. Then he goes and makes a martial arts flick that not only has a great story, multi-dimensional characters, and the most kickass fighting sequences you've ever seen. Who knew? So I started thinking about the next crossover director that could pull off the same thing. And Hytner immediately came to mind. He has scored twice for us with The Madness of King George and The Crucible. If he was interested, we're sure he could do right by this book.

Adapted by Tom StoppardThere's only one man who can pull this off as it should be done, in our humble opinions. I mean, let's face it, he took Shakespeare in Love and changed it from a simple Julia Roberts starrer into a piece rich with both that period feel and plenty of literary easter eggs for people to find. And if you've read the annotations referenced above, you know that this film needs those same kind of eggs. Tom's the man.

Alred Molina as Agent Campion Bond:    Our first thought when casting this part was, "Where are we going to get someone that wide?" Once we realized that it was a pretty much superhuman impossibility, we just concentrated on finding someone worthy of the role. Bond is a bit of a prick, and as is revealed at the end of the book, Her Majesty sometimes has a need for pricks. Or... something like...ah...never mind. Regardless, Molina has played many roles in his time, but his pompous ass thespian in The Impostors springs to mind first. Tone it down a bit and give him the cool cigarette case--then rock on.

Helena Bonham Carter as Ms. Wilhelmina Murray:  The major thing that stuck in our minds while casting Mina is that...she's the leader of this group. Before the turn of the century, before women's rights or anything like that--she was leading this group of monsters and former pseudo-heroes. Which means she can't take any crap--period. I mean, this is the gal who survived a bit with the Big D, right? So this narrowed the field quite a bit--who can handle themselves among this men's club? The answer was relatively simple.

Peter O'Toole as Mr. Allan Quatermain:  How to find an aging Brit actor who could pull off the aging (and supposed to be dead) Mr. Q. I was racking my brains to find someone who could go from dope fiend to relatively heroic and be believable. I was getting nowhere, which is when Bailey threw out O'Toole's name--and it suddenly made perfect sense. We checked out a recent photo of him, and sure enough--he's getting on up there--and he can still act his ass off. So hand that man an elephant gun.

Kabir Bedi as Captain Nemo:  Bailey brought up Bedi as we first started casting the film, and he just said, "You know, the henchman in Octopussy." And I said, "Of course!" He's best known to American audiences for that role, but if you click the link up there, you'll see he's had a pretty far reaching career. We think he's perfect.

Jean Rochefort as M. Auguste Dupin:  We first became aware of Rochefort when he was picked to play the Don in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. And although he's recently had some health problems that have delayed that project, we are talking DreamCasting here, so we think he could find time after his recuperation to do this project for us. Which we certainly wished we were doing.

Richard O'Brien as Dr. Henry Jekyll:  Have you seen Jekyll in the book? He's pretty much green, for crying out loud. And man, does he look like he needs some vitamins. Or something. Anyway, I was tossing around one actor's name when Bailey suggested Mr. Hand from Dark City and we were sealed. Hyde would be CGI, since he's just so damn big. We also figure we'd give a little bit of an effect to O'Brien's voice for the monster, since he sounds pretty creepy all by himself.

Jonathan Harris as Dr. Hawley Griffin:  I was dead set on the voice of Tim Curry from the beginning, but then Bailey stepped in and put me in a bit of a quandry. Curry's got that great evil voice, no argument, but if we're not careful we've got Captain James T. Hook instead of a giggling invisible maniac. Harris has been doing voice work recently and with just a little edge he could be pretty unnerving. Use a body double that's blued out using effects and we're set.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as The Doctor:  Tagawa is perhaps best known to the general sci-fi/fantasy crowd as Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat. And we don't normally give you guys direct links to images just because, well, we're lazy. But check this out and then tell us you can't see him writing poetry on a guy's abdomen with acid.

Ian McKellen as M:  At first I was thinking SDI fave Sir Ian Holm but after considering the illustrations in the book a little further and reading again the showdown with his nemesis below, I figured we could go for Richard III instead of Ash. Any man who can deliver Shakespeare while standing at a urinal? Oh yeah.

Jason Isaacs as Mr. Sherlock Holmes:  A small role, but perhaps he'll figure more in the sequel? Alan? Hmmm? Anyway, we checked out what Holmes' age would be during the small flashback confrontation with M and Isaacs is dead-on. And he's got that nice intense look and feel that Holmes would have. And dammit, we like him.

Disagree?  Did we miss something?  Well, email us for Forbin's sake and tell us all about it!  And while you're here--Would you like some coffee?

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