The Three Musketeers

[Drunk Monk]

Starting this thread not with the awesome Hobbs one but with the dumb 2011 one with the CGI battle blimps.  We watched it in Geneva in French.  When it came on, I dissed it appropriately, but those actors are Tara's generation so she wanted to see it through.  And then, it was filmed in Versailles and the final Rochefort duel is atop Notre Dame, so it became interesting on that 'we were just there' level.  But it's still dumb overall.  Horribly dumb.  Dumbest 3M flick ever.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

So dumb that I forgave it. Still hating “Brat-Pack” version with a near-Lynchian hate.

[Drunk Monk]

Me ‘Now do you see why I dissed that other version so hard?’
T ‘Totally. That other one was completely lame compared to this.’

After Geneva I made my daughter promise to watch the ‘73 version with me. She loved it. We both laughed so hard. It’s still great on every level, especially those background details. What a cast. What great fights. Hobbs still rules. Spot on comic timing. Pick up your damn sword D’artagnan! A true masterpiece that stands the rest of time. Even better because of the locations having now been to Versailles (spent 2+ hours in line looking at those damn gates) and that gothic wonder of the Toledo cathedral. 

Not sure if we’ll get to 4 musketeers before she leaves. I warned her of the tragic death and she hates those.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Best leave her with just the Three then. That last fight in Four was magnificent, but the death is tragic.

Best version. Screenplay by George MacDonald Fraser (Flashman books). Best acting, directing, fighting.

[Drunk Monk]

She may just watch it on her own.  I'll probably watch it on my own if we don't watch it together.  But yeah, giving the comedic style of 3M, the deaths in 4M are harsh.  I remember.  

I still luv Reed's performance most of all.  He just nails Athos.

[Drunk Monk]

I can hear that Yeti "squeee!" as soon as he gets to who's playing Milady.

Feb 11, 2021 10:30pm PT
Dimitri Rassam, Pathe Team on Big-Budget ‘The Three Musketeers’ Film Adaptation (EXCLUSIVE)

By Elsa Keslassy

Chapter 2
Dimitri Rassam is joining forces with Pathé on a €60 million ($73 million) two-part adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ is classic French masterpiece “The Three Musketeers.” The star-studded cast includes François Civil, Eva Green and Vincent Cassel as D’Artagnan, Milady and Athos.
The two sprawling feature films, titled “The Three Musketeers – D’Artagnan” and “The Three Musketeers – Milady,” will be directed by Martin Bourboulon, who recently helmed “Eiffel” with Romain Duris and Emma Mackey. Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière (“Le Prenom”) wrote the script of both films based on Dumas’ classic.
Now in pre-production, the pair of films will shoot simultaneously at the end of this summer in France. Germany’s Constantin Film and Spain’s DeAPlaneta have come on board to co-produce and have already acquired rights for Germany and Spain.
This marks the most ambitious film project announced in France, if not in Europe (excluding the U.K.), since the start of the pandemic.
Pathé will release theatrically in France and handle the foreign sales. The movie has been pre-bought by M6, OCS and Canal Plus. M6 will also be co-producing.
The high-profile cast, which mixes veteran actors and up-and-comers, also includes Vicky Krieps as Queen Anne of Austria, Pio Marmaï as Porthos, Duris as Aramis, Louis Garrel as King Louis XIII and British thesp Oliver Jackson-Cohen as the Duke of Buckingham, as well as rising French star Lyna Khoudri as Constance Bonacieux.
The cast for other roles, such as Richelieu, will be unveiled in the coming weeks. The adaptation will also introduce a new character, Hannibal, based on the true story of Louis Anniaba, the first Black musketeer in French history.
Rassam, the CEO of Chapter 2, a Mediawan company, said he has “always dreamed of bringing ‘The Three Musketeers’ to the big screen and there is no better partner than Pathé to embark on this adventure.”
“We feel a great deal of responsibility to protect the work of Dumas whilst offering an authentic and exciting cinematic saga for today’s audiences,” said Rassam, who is one of France’s top producers with credits ranging from the BAFTA-winning animated feature “The Little Prince,” to French hits such as “Le Prenom,” and Benjamin Millepied’s feature debut “Carmen,” which is shooting in Australia.
Rassam said that the project will base all characters on existing historical figures like Dumas did, and will also be including new characters such as Hannibal to enrich Dumas’ “extraordinary” canvas in an organic way.
With movie theaters currently closed in France, Pathé Films’ CEO Ardavan Safaee said the company strongly believes that “audiences will crave stories that are eventful and adventurous” in a “new post-pandemic world.”
Safaee also said the French studio was an ideal home for the project, “100 years after Pathé’s first production of a ‘Three Musketeers’ movie.”
“We are thrilled to launch, for the third time in our history, the adaptation of one of the most iconic piece of French literature with an incredible creative team and longstanding partners who gathered as our own musketeers!”
Bourboulon said “adapting Dumas’s rich work in this day and age has never been more relevant and the desire for a big show on the big screen has never been stronger.”
“Following ‘Eiffel’ (Pathé’s biopic of Gustave Eiffel which he recently completed), this project is part of an obvious artistic continuity coupled with the pleasure to join forces again with a group of trusted authors and producers for this new adventure,” said the helmer, who added that the cast will bring modernity to this adaptation and the “promise of a great cinema event.”
Delaporte and De La Patelliere said their ambition was to “channel Dumas, to write films with a sense of adventure, panache and suspense but also dialogues worthy of Cyrano.”
“What struck us was how modern the characters and the themes were in Dumas’ work. Society’s violence, the place of women, religious wars … It is with that in mind that we approached our adaptation,” said the pair.
Martin Moszkowicz, the executive chairman at Constantin Film, said the company was “very proud to be part of this sterling group of extraordinary talent for this outstanding project, that takes one of the greatest stories ever told back to its roots in France.”
Ignacio Segura, the general manager at DeAPlaneta, said that as “co-producers (DeAPlaneta) looks for stories like this, with great international appeal, big production values and beloved characters that resonate with audiences all over the world.”
“We can’t wait to unveil the epic adventures of these iconic characters not only on their great movie theater experience, but on the many different transmedia storytelling that this large new franchise has to offer,” said Segura.
Pathe’s slate includes “Coda,” which opened Sundance and landed a record-breaking deal with Apple, and the company is in pre-production on “Asterix & Obelix: The Silk Road,” another big-budget French movie expected to shoot later this year.

Or maybe the Yeti just noticed the pic and squeed prematurely.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I’m inclined to dislike all versions of 3M that aren’t the One True version. I’ll gladly watch the new Milady (the first who can exceed Fay Dunaway) (?) and revile the rest of the effort.

I’d like to be pleasantly surprised. I love the book; if idiots can just stick to the book and to the correct fighting style...

[cranefly]

I think there's some premature condemning of all flavors but the original.

For one, let's not too hastily forget 1973's They Were Called Three Musketeers But They Were Four.

...

Okay, now we can forget.

[Greg]

When we say best version, we do mean the one with Gene Kelly, right?

[Drunk Monk]

Gene's version was good too. 

And then there's this...



As a footnote, we watched the first hour or so of the York/Reed/Chamberlain/Finlay/Dunaway/Heston/Lee/Miligan/WELCH&Hobbs version a week or so ago. Stacy needed something to clear her palette before bed after watching the first ep of Remember Me (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...3#pid44903). It's available on Amazon Prime and it is still SO GOOD. Every scene is perfect. Love that film.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I rewatched it last week as well. Perfect.

Gene Kelly's version was good, too.

CF, it is never too early to condemn a heresy.

[cranefly]

A question about the photo of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao.  That's from Meals on Wheels, which I saw a long time ago -- possibly at one of the San Jose Cameras or the Towne or someplace else.  LCF has never seen it, and for centuries now I've been striving to remedy that situation as well as enjoy it again.

But it seems to be one of those rare elusive Jackie Chan films that gets limited distribution.  DM, any idea why that is?

I see that Meals on Wheels gets mentioned a few times on Doom, but has never had a proper review -- unless it got lost in one of the earlier DOOM iterations.

[Drunk Monk]

I think WoM available on Amazon Prime. I watched it again after visiting Barcelona to see if I recognized any locations (I did - one of the Plazas). I'm surprised I didn't review it. 

And it's Wheels on Meals. The common story is that the film canisters only had partial titles and they got reversed somehow screwing up the title. I worked in a theater with ED & LB when we were still using film and that just doesn't make sense.  

Tell LCF it is a must see. Both of the Jackie/Sammo/Yuen films WoM & Dragons Forever are choreographic masterpieces. 

Oh look - it's on my top Martial Arts flicks on Amazon piece:

[b][b]Wheels on Meals (1984)[/b][/b]
Jackie Chan earned his Kung Fu prowess from being trained from childhood in traditional Chinese Opera. Many of his classmates also became stars in martial arts film. This is one of two collaborations between him and his two martial brothers, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao (the other is [b][i]Dragons Forever[/i][/b]).
A modern comedy shot in Barcelona, the chemistry between Jackie, Sammo and Yuen is magical as they bring the fastest three-person sparring scenes ever captured. On top of that, Jackie faces off against real-life kickboxing champion Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez in what is considered by many as the greatest fight scene ever filmed. 

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Vincent Cassel as Athos in the upcoming French version (Bah! What do The French know about Musketeers, anyway?). His father was Jean-Pierre Cassel, who played King Louis in the One True Version.

[cranefly]

Dammit, I knew it was an ass-backward title, but I managed to double ass-backward it in my mind and make un-ass-backward.

The logic I heard for titling it Wheels on Meals was that there had been too many titles already that year starting with M, so the powers that be opted to just switch the title around to improve the marketing.  That logic seems very suspect, so I'm inclined to think it's correct.

As for Vincent Cassell, he's impressed me so many times with his acting and his physicality.  So I'm seeing his involvement as a major positive.