The Weekly Planet - The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: November 10, 2022

2003 was very much like today in the sense that everybody was looking to adapt comic book properties into a huge movie franchise. So in continuing our Alan Moore-athon we're taking a look at The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or LXG if you would. In Sean Connery's final live action role before retirement he leads a team of 19th Century super people as Alan Quartermaine. We've never liked it but maybe that's wrong. Doubtful though. Thanks for listening to our Caravan Of Garbage review!SUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNVideo Edition ► https://youtu.be/tr5Uto1dAqEHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-moviesThe Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care.

From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca.

Mason, have you ever watched a movie? Yeah. And then thought to yourself, it's too many movies. Who's in charge of this? What's happening? Oh, they should reduce the number of movies. Who can we talk to? Warner Brothers, because that's what they're doing. They're just cancelling things What's happening? Oh, they should reduce the number of movies. Who can we talk to?

Warner Brothers, because that's what they're doing. They're just cancelling things left and right. You think they're on the right track? Who the fuck knows? Right? It's neither here nor there. Mason, we're continuing our Alan Moore-a-thon, where this week we're looking at possibly,

but potentially not the worst adaptation of his work. I think it's the worst one I've ever seen. Yeah. But I haven't seen what we're doing next week. Really? Yeah. Me for Vendetta? Oh, I have seen that.

Okay. How many of these are we doing? Four. Okay, right. I haven't seen the number four. I haven't seen number four. Yeah, yeah. Anyways, this is Caravan of Garbage.

I've seen plenty of number two, though. Not wrong. He's not wrong, everyone. Ha, ha, ha. Anyways, this is Caravan of Garbage. Leave a like if you could. Because, yes, we are looking at the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from the year 2003, which was shortened, of course.

To LXG. Is this the biggest fraud? Fraud, yes. It is, yes. But just an absolute swipe at, like, X-Men. Oh, absolutely it is. And, you know, this was obviously adapted from the comic book League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore

and drawn, I believe, by Kevin O'Neill, which itself started out as kind of, you know, it's kind of a gag. It's the Justice League, it's the Avengers, it's the X-Men, but it's a bunch of kind of famous literary characters, which are all coincidentally out of copyright. Well, some. And it is, yeah but and it is you know it is a superhero team of sorts but i think the the comic book has a lot of depth and

i think in doing in making this they'll the the creatives would just like or the producers would just like we need an x-men thing just just give it and put it if we could put an x in the title as well that would be great like this there's no to this. There's no word that starts with X in the title either. You will find one or I'll find a guy who can. Yeah, and that's the thing, right? What a twisted tale this weaves. And of course,

we are going to come back to what Alan Moore thinks about this adaptation. Spoiler alert, he fucking hates it like he does everything. But there's also... Justifiably.

Yeah, completely. There's also lawsuits involved with this. And this is also a movie. And I know you feel the same about this. That we've seen too many times. We've seen it too many Yeah, completely. There's also lawsuits involved with this. And this is also a movie, and I know you feel the same about this. That we've seen too many times. We've seen it too many times, Mason. We've seen it more times than any human being should. One day we're going to have to watch it again.

I can feel it in my bones. And something's going to tick over in our brains. Yeah. We're going to become weird gentlemen in top hats. That's going to become our personality, the worst crime of them all. Oh, my God, the worst. And like you mentioned, though, I just love this idea. And every time I start to watch this, there's a part of me that's like,

maybe I've missed something here. Maybe this is something. And it is something because the core idea is really solid. Now, you've read a lot of this, right? I've read all of it, yeah. So this covers, I guess, some of the first volume, although... Not strictly, obviously. No, it's just the gathering of the team to do a mission kind of thing.

Whereas... The LXG. The LXG, exactly. Whereas in the comic books, they are battling against racial stereotype Fu Manchu. Gotcha, good, good. But in this, they are battling against Australian racial stereotype. What's his name? Keith Urban.

No. Richard Roxburgh. Richard Roxburgh. Mum per year, by the way, or just I should say around the 2000s. He was a big player in Hollywood in terms of being a villain. He was the Duke in Moulin Rouge. He was Hugh Stamp in Mission Impossible 2. He was a big Dracula in Van Helsing.

That's right. He was having an absolute, he was just tearing through Hollywood at this time, wasn't he? And if you're looking for a better thing that he was in, as these... Anything. Anything, even if he wasn't in it. Just pretend he was. But the Australian TV series Rake,

where he's a gadabout, a low-rent lawyer. Yeah, it's good stuff, mate. It really is. They remade it in the US. Not good. Who was the Rake? What's his name? He was fucking...

An actual Rake? Yeah, it was an actual Rake. That's good. And everybody kept stepping on him and going, Oh, Rake, you've swatted me in the head. Tee hee hee hee. This was directed by Stephen Norrington. Yes.

Who directed Blade. Blade won an absolute classic of the genre. And I also want to point out, hasn't made a movie since. Right. And I also want to talk about why that is the case. Because I don't think this is his fault, quite frankly. Is this the only person involved in this production who never made a movie again after this? Well, I never made a live action movie after this, which again we'll talk about.

So the idea of the team is, unlike the comics, Alan Quatermain is the lead. Yes, whereas in the comic books it begins as Mina Harker being the one to assemble the team. And not a Dracula, by the way. Yeah, mostly not a Dracula, yeah. Okay, but you don't want to commit to that? Well, I mean, again, a lot of... Which is not in every panel, so maybe there's some panels. That's true, maybe she's doing some Dracula stuff off panel.

No, she does have the bite mark on the neck, but she is not, in fact, a Dracula. Yeah, that's it. But in this, clearly they were like, okay, well, we like this idea, but God, there's a lot of standing around. There was a lot of standing around in olden times. Could we make this less olden times?

Yeah. And could we make it less standing around? Can everybody have wacky powers? I will say this though. Connery, despite his advanced age in this, he can still pull off some pretty good action. He's doing that opening brawl that he has. Pretty solid stuff for a man who's 1,000 years old.

His entirely furniture-based combat in that opening sequence. He won't hit a man, but he'll pick up an end table and beat him to death with it. I feel like whoever choreographed this, and here's the name, Ben and Lawrence will put it up, there you go, did a good job of working around not only his age but also his strengths and obviously the stunt people involved with that. I think he does a really good job of being 1,000 years old and pulling this off.

Can we talk about that opening sequence? Yeah, let's do it. First of all, I love that he's got a guy to pretend to be him. Yeah. And he absolutely knows that guy's going to get shot eventually. Well, yeah, that's why he's there, right? Sure, but that guy's going to get shot eventually. Well, yeah. That's why he's there, right? Sure. But that guy doesn't suspect a thing.

He's like, I need a guy. And the guy's like, a guy to tell stories? And he's like, if you want. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Have fun while it lasts. Absolutely. And I also love that a bunch of very obviously armor-plated guys come in

and bullets bounce off them. And the guy who's been ordered to collect Alan Quartermain is like, they're indestructible. Yeah, they're indestructible. Oh, they're wearing oven doors, man. Yeah. They're Back to the Future 2'd it. This is 3'd it.

3'd it, yeah. And 2, you see it in the clip in 2. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But also Ned Kelly. There's a big Ned Kelly in this. There's a big Ned Kelly in this. They should have put Ned Kelly on the team. Right?

God damn it. So the reason Sean Connery did this movie famous. Just one real guy. That's right, right? Yeah. Yeah, they hung him, but it didn't take. Didn't take. Because they left the armour on.

He slipped out of his armour. And somebody wrote a book about it, so it counts. Yeah, exactly. So Sean Connery, the reason he did this, despite not understanding the script and not getting it, was because he turned down Gandalf. He turned down a role in The Matrix. Both of those because he's like, I don't get this.

And then so he figured, well, I don't get this one. Yeah. And the other ones I didn't get, they were huge hits. So by process of... Not getting something? Not getting something, I guess, by the transitive properties of me not getting something, this will also be a big hit. It wasn't a massive flop, I don't think.

It was a massive flop. Was it? Yeah, it didn't do well. No, it didn't. But, you know, we've got the other team members. We've got Captain Nemo, and I'm like, oh, I like the design for this. I like they didn't go just with a standard white guy, but that's an idea obviously taken directly from the comics.

But, you know, he's a famous actor, and he's doing some whipping about, which I enjoyed. There's one of the Invisible Men. Correct, not the one from the original novel. This is An Invisible Man. It's An Invisible Men. Correct. Not the one from the original novel. This is an Invisible Man. It's an Invisible Man. Yeah. There's Mina Harker, of course, as we mentioned.

There's Dr. Jekyll, which, by the way, a couple of things I love about that. First of all, he's just a dude in prosthetics who they big up for one. Yeah, sure. And I think it's pretty seamless when he's in and around scenes. And also when we're introduced to him, giant top hat. Absolutely. Would have had to go to a tailor. I do have a note here that says disturbing lack of top hats on the main cast.

In this era, those haircuts, my God. Yeah, I completely agree. No wonder they've become weird, monstrous outsiders. They're refusing to wear top hats. That's actually the worst thing you could do. You'd be like, I'm an invisible murderer. And they'd be like, but you're wearing a hat, right? And you'd be like, yeah.

Yeah, definitely. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, that's great. I would say that the Mr. Hyde design isn't a million years. It's not a million miles away from the comic book version. But the tiny little legs in the live action version make him look pretty ridiculous. Yeah, because it's a dude. Yeah.

It's the actor. What's his name? Jason Fleming. Jason Fleming. Last week. Yeah, exactly. Who's good? So Dorian Gray, who's not in the comics.

Who's the villain? Is it the guy who's not in the comics. Who's the villain? Is it the guy who's not in the comics? Who's going to betray the team? Great, great question. It's this guy, obviously. Paul Stewart Townsend, though. So he was the worst Lestat of the original two, obviously. In your opinion, okay.

Well, look, to be fair, I haven't seen either of those movies. But he was also... I knew you were just basing that on the court of public opinion. Exactly, yeah. Wow. I shouldn't jump to conclusions, should I, Mason? I should do my own research. Okay, let's brief pause while we both on the court of public opinion. Exactly, yeah. Wow. I shouldn't jump to conclusions, should I, Mason? I should do my own research. Okay, let's brief pause while we both watch every version of that thing.

I didn't like any of it. Okay, right. He was also booted from Lord of the Rings two days after filming. He was original Aragorn, and they went too young, get rid of him. Huh. Yeah, which is kind of insane. Because Aragorn's supposed to be like 100, right? He's like 80, think In the first movie

It looks great He probably moisturises I don't think he'd need to Okay But you know also Like most people in this movie Massive idiot So the way that dude goes down in the end is

If he looks at his painting He'll disintegrate It's part of his curse and whatever And he just looks at it Can I close your eyes? Right What are you doing? What are you doing?

Close your eyes and kick wildly You'll probably kick the painting over that's right well i mean there is there is that aspect of you know and i guess it was intended as kind of you know a classic you know tie someone to the railroad tracks villain where they're like you know they should have put the painting on the front of a train right railway track but just the idea of well i've gotten i've gotten away with it so i better explain my plan you know the bond villain. But just the idea of, well, I've gotten away with it, so I better explain my plan. You know, the Bond villain thing. Yeah, absolutely. Just don't, I reckon.

Oh, there is a big moment where they explain the plan, don't they? On a gramophone. A big black and white gramophone or something. Well, I wanted to get to that. Speaking of technology. Oh, yeah. First of all, I think we should break. Top hat technology way off for the year, obviously.

Absolutely. But I think we should break down the characters and whether or not it looks like they know what an iPhone is. Okay. Connery, no. No, absolutely not. Even him in real life, no. Tom Sawyer?

Absolutely. He's got the haircut of a man. Who knows at least what a Razor flip phone looks like. Absolutely. He should have been in some of the Fast and Furious movies. Absolutely, yeah. Mina Harker, yes. Dorian Gray, 100%.

I can say that. Invisible Man? Maybe not. No. Everyone else, no. But the technology of this movie, again, clearly they went, okay, what a great idea. Let's set this in the Victorian era.

Oh, that's going to present some problems, isn't it? How are we going to get around? How are we going to get around? How are we going to get around? How are we going to do a car chase? We can't put them on penny farthings, can we? Can we do a penny farthing race? Can they be on some sort of steam-powered penny farthings? No.

No. They're going to build a giant submarine underwater vessel and they're also going to build an automobile. An automobile? See, I don't have a problem with moving technology up. This is obviously a fantastical era. But I do have a problem with somebody seeing a car for the first time and then going, I'm going to outrun an earthquake in this thing.

That's the shit I have a problem with. Well, I guess I don't. Here's the thing. I don't have a problem with a guy very quickly figuring out how something like this would work. Because, you know, he's a young guy. He'd be TikToking, you know what I mean? He would be.

But I don't like the idea that Captain Nemo just independently developed what looks like a 1940s roadster in the 1800s and it's got like a manual transmission with a clutch in it. Apparently it's not a clutch. Apparently it's two brakes. It's one for each side of the car. Oh, I see. According to whom? According to IMDB, Mason. Oh, I see. Apparently. According to whom?

According to IMDB, Mason. Oh, okay. IMDB trivia. Okay, great. And some behind-the-scenes stuff. There was also a rumour, I thought this was interesting, that Campion Bond was going to be in this.

Right. And now Campion Bond, he's in some of the comics, isn't he? That's right. He's like the great-grandfather of James Bond. Yes, that's right. He was also rumoured to be played by Roger Moore. Oh, that's great. But that's only been a be played by Roger Moore. Oh, that's great.

But that's only been a rumour. Never confirmed. Maybe they were saving it for the sequels also. Have any of the Bonds been in movies together? That's a great question. Isn't it though?

Let's say no. Yep. And then as soon as we finish recording we'll think of a number of very obvious answers. I agree. Yeah.

But we won't put it on the screen. We won't put it on the screen. Yeah. Do your own research. That's right. We encourage that. I also think the plot of like, so M, who you're like, oh, M like Bond.

No, M like Moriarty, Mason. You didn't get that. I picked up on that. I get things. God. His idea was. That being said, it is intended to be the precursor to like the 007M. Yes, yes, yes.

And in the subsequent series, the comic book series, it is Mycroft Holmes. Oh, okay. That makes sense. Cool. So, he decides to assemble a league of extraordinary gentlemen, if it were, and women. Well, interestingly, the original title, the comic book title, was going to be the League of Extraordinary Gentle Folk. Okay.

But that sounds like Folk of the Faraway Tree. It does, doesn't it? Seems a bit airy-fairy, doesn't it? Yeah, you don't want none of that. Yuck. So his plan is to recruit this team because he wants to steal all their powers. So he could then sell them in like an arms race because they're barreling towards a world war, which is seemingly inevitable because it actually happens. We're barreling towards World War I, he said. What did he know?

The dog that's barking. Yes. Everything. Whoa. Ollie, relax. Is that your wife falling down the stairs? No, no, it's the possum on the roof. Oh.

But maybe. Maybe she's on the roof. Maybe she's on the roof. Cleaning the gutters. That's right. Yeah. But if this is a man who wants to steal powers, don't assemble the team that will destroy you. What were you thinking?

Yeah. What if one teaches another one how to shoot you in the back? Sure. What if that happens? What if that happens? Yeah. Or just bring them in and be like, I just, just FYI, just before you join this team,

big paycheck involved, just we'll do a little physical. Yeah. And then once you've done that, you'll be like, see you later, idiots. And why get Connery? Yeah. What's his magical power? African back from the dead palace.

He can't die in Africa. Yeah, exactly. He can't die in Africa? Apparently. Yeah, I guess you're right. Wow. It just kind of gets worse as it goes. Sure.

You know, it just kind of unravels in ways that are nonsensical. I don't think it's like a, it's not a poorly made movie in terms of like visually there's some interesting stuff going on. I like some of the designs. Yeah, I think the costumes were of somewhat varying quality. Sure. Although I can't think of a really good one now. Top hat.

The big top hat. The big top hat. The big entirely CGI top hat? Potentially. Who's to say? They all feel a little bit like Spirit Halloween costumes. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fair enough, yeah.

What do you think about the Mr. Hyde transformation, which is just a series of flashes and different kind of... Kind of fun. I enjoyed the retro vibe to that. It is a bit like that, isn't it? Yeah. I still think there's a couple of good moments though that... FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship

between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever?

Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care. From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca.

That's sunrisechallenge.ca. Work in this, right? I've got two things here. That's sunrisechallenge.ca. see him kind of book it to get away and he whips off his coat and he like splashes like the drink in his face yeah to wash it off love that that's a bit of really good stuff yeah and the other one is you see connery line up the villain m and you watch him like track him through a bookshelf and shoot him as he's past it and pings him in the head nice did i just love that idea that he's just like he's that good a shot you know yeah yeah really good i mean the one the one thing you know i actually yeah i was gonna say i say I really did enjoy the invisible man effect. But, I mean, you know, in universe, if you wanted to track him, you'd just listen for the sound of his dick flapping against his thighs, obviously.

Maybe he's not that, you know, well proportioned. He's got the confidence of a man who is, though. Yeah, but he would because nobody could see. Oh, that's a really good point. It's just every time you see him open up the trench coat and he's invisible, I'm like, all right. Stop it. Stop it, mate.

Come on. I know it's probably not technically a crime in that era, but it should be. There's a reason it's a crime now, all right? You're right, you're right. Well, this movie should have been ahead of its time in that sense, shouldn't it? He should have been arrested at the end of public nudity.

Absolutely. Is there anything you want to add before I do some green trivia? I love their trip to dreary Venice. That was nice. I'd love to see it. So grey. Just grey and miserable Venice. Yeah.

I have a question here. We're going to outrun the explosion to get ahead of the explosion to set off the next explosion, to stop the explosion. But if you set off the next explosion, won't that just trigger just the rest of the explosions? No, you do it in a different direction, the other direction. I didn't think about that. I had a question about how the Norfolus tracks its little shuttle thing.

Is this on that big globe, that spinning globe? Yeah, and I thought maybe it's an enormous length of fishing wire, perhaps. Just trailing the entire ocean. Okay, yeah, yeah, potentially. There seem to be multiple attempts in this movie to set up various love triangles. There's one between Dorian Gray and Lena Harker and Tom Sawyer. Yep, but...

And also... Mr. Hyde. Also Mr. Hyde, yeah, yeah, yeah. There was also an attempt... Remember when he's obviously standing there? Yeah. And not like hiding Mr. Hyde, hiding. But just like, hello.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, the part where Dorian Greatest explains what his greatest weakness is. Hey, does anyone want to hear my weakness? Yeah. If I look at that pony, I'll die. They also attempt to set up Tom Sawyer as the son quarter main lost. Like, he's trying to make up for lost. There's no time for that.

That's good. There was no time. There was too many buildings exploding. No, you're great. Also, Tom Sawyer, like he's trying to make up for loss. There's no time for that. No, it's good. There was no time. There was too many buildings exploding. No, you're great. Also, Tom Sawyer, like a blatant attempt to, you know. Americanise. Americanise this whole situation. He's not in the comic. He's not in the comic, that's true.

No, I've just written big time Ned Kelly vibes. Absolutely. That's important. Is that the name of your Australian hip hop album? That's exactly, you're right, yes. It's called Skip Hop, everyone. Oh, no. Don't tell the world about it.

Oh, and also, here's a little Easter egg for regular listeners of our podcast, The Weekly Planet. Is this Blue Harvest? No, this is Sean Connery saying the game is on. Oh, my God. Maybe that's where we got it. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe he incepted us.

Fuck me. Anyway, I've got one piece of green trivia because I've got more interesting things to talk about. I'm very excited. Here's the Rodney Supercut. Runny. This is something I saw on IMDB and I don't get it. So can you help me with this?

Sure. Because it's just a random thing somebody put in. Okay. Peter Wilson's motivation for her character was... Australia's own Peter Wilson. Thank you. La Femme Nikita's own also. That's right. Peter Wilson's motivation for her character was that of a own Peter Wilson. Thank you. La Femme Nikita's own also. That's right.

Peter Wilson's motivation for her character was that of a flat, hollow, unleavened bread that could be split open to hold a filling. I don't know. Kebab meat?

Kebab meat. Is this a sex metaphor? I don't think so. I hate this anyway. I don't like this. And I wish I didn't read it out. Is it a quote from her? I don't think so.

Where did this come from? I couldn't... I mean, I've seen this several times and I don't get it at all. Okay, right. Anyway, I hate it. Anyway, this is... Sorry I couldn't read it out. Is it a quote from her? I don't think so. I couldn't, I mean, I've seen this several times and I don't get it at all. Okay, right. Anyway, hate it. Anyway, this is- Sorry, I couldn't help you there.

But that's an insane sentence. Someone will figure it out. Sure. Anyways, everyone quit forever, as mentioned. So Stephen Norrington, as mentioned, hasn't directed a movie since and Sean Connery retired. This is of Connery. Oh, there's some back and forth here.

So settle in, Mason. And this is before we get to the lawsuit, which is a whole separate other thing. Connery said, it was a nightmare. The experience had a great influence on me. It's made me think about showbiz. I got fed up dealing with idiots. Now, Norrington also said that he didn't like the studio supervising and the large crew and Connery and Norrington disagreed over almost everything, with Norrington constantly changing setups apparently during the shoot, much to Connery's annoyance. Now, according to anonymous sources...

Connery seems like a one-take guy. Well, yeah. I've got something about that. According to anonymous sources on set, there were frequent shouting matches, and in one infamous incident, Norrington challenged Connery to hit him in the face, which Connery responded by walking off the set.

Norrington did not attend the opening party. And when Connery was asked where Steven could be, he is said to have replied, Chuck me arse. Is that what he said? He said, Chuck him in the local asylum. Whoa.

Anyway, Jason. See, the thing there is he missed a chance to say arse. He could have said chuck him in my arse. Chuck him in my arse, for example, yes. So Jason Fleming was asked in an interview... He was arsh.

He was arsh if the stories were true, and he said... No, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is fictional. It's based on the comic book by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, is what he said. Yeah, but then they said... It's absurd. Are you kidding me? An automobile in that era? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

And then upon clarification, they were talking about the rivalry. Oh, I see. Between Norrington and Connery. And he said, yes, this is his story. First hand. Second hand, because it's then through me. My favorite bust up was in Venice. The league had to walk.

Oh, my God. They actually went to Venice? I guess so. Does he mean the green screen representing Venice? Maybe. The league had to walk from Captain Nemo's boat down the street. Magnificent Seven style. At the end of the take, Sean Connery shouted to Norrington,

What? You want... I'm not doing the accent. What? You want us to do that again? And Norrington replied, For $18 million, I don't think it's too much to ask that you walk down a road. He got $18 million. Yeah. To which Connery's reply was, Unprintable.

Uh-oh. Something about up his arse or whatever. Probably that thing that I said, yes. Anyway, as of 2018, Stephen Dorff, he's obviously one of the leads. He's a collaborator in Blade. That's right. Said Norrington was making a film with miniatures at his own house

and Dorff thought it would take him another decade to complete. So Norrington, who is, I don't think, a bad director. I agree. What are you up to, Norrington? Right? Show us what you're doing. What are you doing? Stan Winston released that movie recently.

Exactly. Had God, that weird wet puppet extravaganza. Was that Stan Winston? Because he died. Oh, now I'm thinking of it. Phil Tippett. Phil Tippett. Should I do that whole thing again? Sure. But we, now I'm thinking of it. Phil Tippett. Phil Tippett. Should I do that whole thing again?

Sure. But we'll leave this in for the bonus. I love it. That's great. Yeah, well, I mean, Phil Tippett, big time special effects guy, made his own movie in his basement, I guess, Mad God. Yeah, for decades, right? Yeah, that weird wet puppet extravaganza.

So maybe Norrington's, and people seem to like that, so maybe Norrington's onto something here. Absolutely. Maybe that's the future, not dealing with actors. Yeah, the dream. Yeah. Wet or otherwise. They call it the George Lucas. Anyways, big court case.

This is via comic book movie. And this also ties into what Alan Moore thought of this, right? Oh, yes. So Alan Moore was sued as part of a suit against 20th Century Fox for plagiarism of the screenplay cast of characters from the early 90s, which bore a heavy resemblance to the movie version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, also known as LXG, right? This is Alan Moore's quote.

They seem to believe that the head of 20th Century Fox called me up and persuaded me to steal this screenplay, turn it into a comic book, which they could then adapt back into a movie to camouflage petty larceny. This led to Moore giving a 10-hour deposition. He believes... Mr Moore, can you please briefly summarise this?

No, I'm going to do this for 10 hours. He believes he'd have suffered less if he'd sodomised and murdered a busload of children after giving them heroin. My goodness. Yeah. And what's interesting about that is I believe part of the lawsuit included the idea that Dorian Gray was in the movie and the pre-existing script. But he's not, like we said, he's not in the original comic books. Exactly.

So Alan Moore. As if Alan Moore would be, some Hollywood guys would come up to him and be like, can you make something as a smoke screen? Yeah. For this weird fraud we're going to do? Ridiculous. Can you make that for literally years? Could you do that and just continue making it for years as a smoke screen?

Ridiculous. Alan Moore said though that, yeah, there were some similarities in the movie version, but not what he wrote. And so he said that, yeah, the case could have merit because, you know, Alan Quartermain was the lead. The appearance of Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray and all of that. And the villain was going to be Huckleberry Finn. Yeah, that was part of it. And he also said by 20th Century Fox settling the case, Moore felt that this was almost an admission of guilt. Uh-oh. So it seems like that it's very possible, because it was settled out of court,

that they did maybe take some things from the script to put into the movie version. Anyways, this cost $78 million, because they had to go to Venice, maybe. And it made... They had to trick the cast into thinking they were in Venice. They had to build a fake plane and put them all in it, and they had to keep changing the backgrounds.

So it made $179.3 million. So it made a little bit more than its budget, I should specify, but not enough for the planned sequel, which was cancelled due to the negative reception and poor box office of this. Now, the idea for the sequel was that it would be the second series of the comic book. War of the Worlds book war of the worlds

war of the worlds exactly they would have adapted that now i believe also in the much more modern day issues sure where alan moore's pop culture references also wear thin they do a little bit they there's a reference to drum and bass in like the the 2000s issue i'm that big fan oh yeah yeah but they meet the real james bond right and he's like a horrible drunk and like a awful person. They do, yeah, yeah, yeah. What's interesting about the subsequent stuff, because there were further volumes of this original storyline and then there was a series called The Black Dossier

and then there was a series called Century, which sort of charted the adventures of the remaining teams over the course of the century, ending up in the 2000s. And what's interesting about that is that I'm sure it would have been harder to write and manage because at that point, a lot of the characters were not public domain anymore. Exactly, yeah. There's a Mary Poppins analogue in there. There's a Harry Potter kind of character.

So it's, yeah. It's well worth a read, though. Okay. It gets pretty deep. Sure. I'll tell you that. Unlike some of this early stuff, I think if you don't have perhaps an encyclopedic knowledge of...

Very specific pop culture. Yes, I think you might be a little bit lost. But it's fun to look it up, I think. And you can always look it up. That's right. Which is a thing we both agree on. Absolutely. So you like reboots, don't you?

No. Do you like a series or a movie? Because they've talked about doing one or the other. I don't like any of these things. It looks like the movie at this point is the one that's moving forward. But this is what Alan Moore said about the series reboot from a few years back. Because, you know, I love all these quotes. They're always great.

He's the, of his time. What's the guy? He's always doing quotes. He's dead. The guy. He was in Transformers. He was Unicorn in Transformers. Orson Welles.

He's the Orson Welles. Why would I pick Orson Welles? I don't know. I don't know. My brain kept going, say Stephen Dorff. And I'm like, no, shut up. He's not talking about Stephen Dorff. Alan Moore, I believe, is the Orson Welles of his time. And he just gives great quotes. He's

super talented and he gives great quotes. He loves the medium he's in or he loved it and then just forces crushed him with nonsense. And he's just like, well, I hate this, but you're getting good quote. So he said, the announcement that there is a league of extraordinary gentlemen television series hasn't caused me to drastically alter my opinions now it seems they are recycling things that have already proven not to work oh boy yeah there's something here though obviously right you could make this something you could make i mean he won't like it but you could but i think it's also similar to what happened last week when we talked about from hell i think so much of the appeal of the comic book is that it's alan moore's writing but it's also the great art and and i think last i think uh from hell would have worked better as

kind of like some sort of sin city like woodcut yeah you know animation style and i think so much of this would have worked better if it genuinely did look more like that era and that sepia tone and everybody was just dirty and gross. Top hats. Yeah, as opposed to surfer dude haircuts and, you know, et cetera. And lack of top hats. No, I don't disagree. James, ask me if you think I like Dorian Gray's suit.

Yeah, okay. Do you like it? No. What's wrong with it? It's a matching two-piece in that era. Are you kidding me? He'd be wearing a compost. Am I kidding you?

He was a man of means, and in that era he'd be wearing a compost, which is all three, the vest, the coat, and the trousers would all be different materials to show off how many suits he could afford. Oh, wait, so you'd wear a different combination of things. Correct. That seems wrong, though. Well, it's right. Can't argue with that.

Anyways, do you want a hint towards next week, Mason? Yes. Knowing full well that it's V for Vendetta? Yes, give me a hint. Here it is. Okay. What is it? Yeah, what is it?

Well, look, if you do want to see that early, whatever it is, you could actually head over to BigSandwich.co where they always go up early. But that's not the only thing you'd be finding there. It's like our private Patreon, where you can also find exclusive movie commentaries and podcasts

and a bunch of other bits and pieces that we do there I love little bits and pieces huge back catalogue of stuff that we don't release in the main feed

for example for example Mason of our podcast The Weekly Planet where we talk movies and comics and TV shows that comes out every flippin' Monday

if you don't mind me using the appropriate language of the era of this movie. Absolutely. That's the whole thing. Yep. You know what? I liked how the 20th Century Fox logo turned into a little bit of the background.

We don't see that enough these days, I think. You're right. Who do you credit for that? You know, I'll take it. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you.

And credit to Ben and Lawrence for the edit. That's right. Thanks, everybody. Grabbed out Jimmy, guys. We'll see you next week. that. Thank you. And credit to Ben and Lawrence for the edits. That's right. Thanks, everybody. Grabbed out Jimmy, guys. We'll see you next week. Never again, Mason. Never again will we discuss this movie. God, I hope not.

God, what if this didn't record? I would kill myself. And you too. Oh, no, no. Fx's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.

Fx's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.