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Story by: Jack Foley
SEAN Connery stars as Allan Quatermain, the world's greatest
adventurer, employed by the British Government to lead a legion
of superheroes the likes of which the world has never seen, in
this summer's highly-anticipated, The League Of Extraordinary
Gentlemen.
The league in question is comprised of Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin
Shah), Dracula vampiress, Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), an invisible
man, Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), American secret service agent,
Sawyer (Shane West), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), and Dr Jekyll/Mr
Hyde (Jason Flemyng), while Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge) plays
the League's enigmatic recruiter, M.
The team is the only thing standing between the future and total
destruction.
Armed with the most cutting edge technology available, and the
most extraordinary powers the world has ever seen, the League
stand ready to take on history's nastiest foe - yet another OTT
maniac (Jason Isaacs) who is determined to take over the world
using the anti-gravity element, Cavorite.
Needless to say, the film is a period piece high adventure yarn,
with all of the characters coming from great and pulpy works of
fiction, published at the end of the 19th Century - which means
a lot of referencing old stories.
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Based on the graphic novel series, LXG (as it is being dubbed)
is one of those blockbusters that almost never got made. An act
of God, in the form of a huge flood in Prague, threatened to destroy
one of the sets, while director, Stephen Norrington, almost literally
came to blows with Connery.
The tension created by the delays to filming as a result of the
floods finally blew up in one exchange between actor and director,
in which Norrington dared Connery to punch him.
Connery, himself, admits the shoot was a tough one, but neither
artist will reveal how far the fracas went.
And whether such friction ultimately proves to the detriment
of the film remains to be seen, for advance word appears to be
pretty good.
The movie website, Aint it Cool News states that 'Norrington
has made another comic book classic. I don't know what hell he
went through, but the film rocks and rocks hard."
It adds: "…it [the film] never stops. This film looks
like it cost $300,000,000. Nothing but chases, fights and edge
of my seat gnawing. I was in awe."
The trailer, while not giving too much away, seems to suggest
that Connery is in wise-cracking form, while the special effects
look typically cutting-edge.
The movie is due for a US release on July 11 but, curiously,
has been put back to October 17 in the UK.
IndieLondon will, however, be bringing you an overview of the
US reaction following its release date across the pond.
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