Paul W.S. Anderson, who’s best known for the “Resident Evil” franchise, including the upcoming “Resident Evil: Afterlife” is bringing back the Three Musketeers, in 3D of course, and lost of casting news has been released.
The titular characters, Porthos, Aramis, and Athos, are played by Ray Stevenson (from the series “Rome”, “Book of Eli” and the upcoming “Thor”), Luke Evans (who played Apollo in the newest version of “Clash of the Titans” but was only a thug in Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood) and the most recognizable actor of the trio is Matthew MacFayden, who played the most recent version of Mr. Darcy in the Keira Knightly version of “Pride and Prejudice”, and who played the central protagonist in the original, and far superior, “Death at A Funeral”. He also starts in the upcoming “Pillars of the Earth” miniseries, based on the bestseller by Ken Follett.
Anderson is bringing his big(ger) guns to the supporting cast though, including, fresh off his Oscar win, Inglourious Basterds’ Christoph Waltz as the central villain Cardinal Richelieu, a recent casting of Orlando Bloom as the Duke of Buckingham, and Anderson’s wife Milla Jovovich as M’lady De Winter, who will presumably go around kicking ass, only with a sword instead of guns or a machete.
“Percy Jackson” star Logan Lerman has also picked up a role as D’Artagnan, and Juno Temple from “Year One” and who apparently gets rather naked in Gregg Araki’s “Kaboom” is in talks to play the queen which the Musketeers serve.
Since Anderson hasn’t ever really done a period piece, I wouldn’t expect him to play this one straight, but to go for the big spectacle and slick looking movies that have become his bread and butter, which will probably come complete with a more modernized language as well as overall sensibility to the film. Additionally, it will be interesting to see how the marketing for the film pans out, since none of the leads really have the name recognition that will necessarily get people to the theater, which will undoubtedly shift not only the way the film is marketing, but could shape the story itself.
What makes this more interesting is that director Doug Liman is also prepping his own take on the Three Musketeers, which will arguably take itself more seriously than Anderson’s, but Anderson’s will release sooner, as his version starts shooting in September, and Liman’s version, which is slated to shoot later in the fall, does not even have a cast yet.
These movies may have to negotiate the same sort of territory that “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” did at the end of the 90′s, with two movies with very similar plots battling out for cinematic superiority.
