Monday, May 12, 2003

the league of extraordinary gentlemen

'Twas at the Phone Booth show that I caught the preview for this movie, right before the preview for X2. I almost confused the slap-dash images of the former with the latter. Curiousity (as always) got the better of me and I decided to ferret out more information about the movie and the league itself. The premise pays homage to the grand adventure stories of yore and features a cast of characters culled from Victorian popular literature: Mina (from Dracula), Allan Quatermain (King Solomon's Mines), Captain Nemo (20000 Leagues under the sea), Dorian Gray (a portrait immortalised by Oscar Wilde), Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain ... or even Rush?), Hawley Griffin (H G Wells's Invisible Man), Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde (R L Stevenson). Two things caught my attention:

* starring Naseeruddin Shah as Captain Nemo. Predictably, the previews in the US omitted this little item. I wonder if there are desi previews hyping the presence of good ol' Naseer.

* The authors of the comic book that the film takes off from were Kevin O'Neill and Alan Moore. Alan Moore. That name rang a bell. In the pre-Internet age, I'd be banging my head against the wall, walking about furiously, behaving like a frog on speed trying to remember where I'd heard this name. With the Internet, it was a snap. And this time, I hadn't drawn a complete blank either. I thought "was he the guy responsible for From Hell?" And indeed, he was. I was a little dejected at having missed that movie, but I hope I can catch this one when it comes out. Sean Connery and Naseeruddin Shah: that's motivation enough.

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