The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) on Netflix
PG-1320031h 50mActionAdventureFantasy
In 1899, the Fantom pushes Britain and Germany toward war. The British recruit retired adventurer Allan Quatermain, who joins Captain Nemo, Mina Harker and other extraordinary allies.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb5.8/10193,340 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes17%
Trailer
Plot summary
A terrorist called the Fantom raids the Bank of England for Leonardo da Vinci's plans of Venice's foundations, abducts German scientists and blows up a Zeppelin factory in Berlin. With Britain and Germany edging toward war, the emissary Sanderson Reed travels to Kenya Colony to recruit the retired adventurer Allan Quatermain, who turns him down until assassins come for him. In London, Reed's superior, M, says the Fantom aims to profit from the war and will strike at world leaders meeting in Venice three days later. M assembles the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Quatermain, Captain Nemo, the vampire chemist Mina Harker and the invisible thief Rodney Skinner. In the London Docklands the League looks for Dorian Gray, Mina's former lover, and the Fantom's assassins attack.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Sean Connery said making the film was "a nightmare" that convinced him to permanently retire from acting in movies, adding that he got "fed up dealing with idiots."
- Sean Connery had already turned down the Architect in The Matrix trilogy and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, a role reportedly worth $450 million to him, before he agreed to play Quatermain for a $17 million fee that left little budget for other big-name casting.
- Sean Connery clashed repeatedly with director Stephen Norrington on set, and when Norrington skipped the film's opening party and someone asked where he was, Connery reportedly answered, "Check the local asylum."
- Larry Cohen and Martin Poll sued 20th Century Fox in 2003 for intentionally plagiarizing their script Cast of Characters, which they had pitched to the studio between 1993 and 1996; Fox denied the allegations as "absurd nonsense" but settled out of court, a decision Alan Moore believed denied him the chance to exonerate himself.
- Because 20th Century Fox could not secure the film rights to H. G. Wells's original Invisible Man character, the script had to rename him from Hawley Griffin to Rodney Skinner and call him only "An Invisible Man."
- The studio ordered the addition of the Tom Sawyer character to widen the film's appeal to young American audiences, a change producer Don Murphy first dismissed as "a stupid studio note" but later admitted was "brilliant."
- Kevin O'Neill said he did not recognize the characters when reading the screenplay, that Norrington and Connery did not cooperate, and that "the whole balance" was changed by "marginalizing Mina [Murray] and making her a vampire."
