EXT. A FILM STUDIO, DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT MEETING ROOM–DAY
Three or four GUYS IN SUITS are sitting around an oak table. With them is a PRODUCER, an eager, seasoned buck who is shuffling papers at the speed of sound. He is presenting a film idea to the bigwigs.
PRODUCER (clears throat): All right. You guys are really gonna love this one. It’s got adventure, mystery, swordplay, romance and betrayal! It’s got an automatic audience! It’s…”THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO!”
SUITS look at each other, baffled.
SUIT #1: You want to adapt “The Count of Monte Cristo”? AGAIN?
PRODUCER (only slightly daunted): Well…it has been at least three years since anyone tried it last.
Silence. SUITS glance at each other, seemingly reading each other’s thoughts. SUIT #2 stands up.
SUIT #2: You’re right. It’s about time someone brought this wonderful story to the big screen…again! You have your money.
PRODUCER (also standing): Great! You guys will love it. Audiences will embrace it. Crowds will flock to it. Critics will love it…
THE WHOLE ROOM (in unison): …Again!
FADE OUT
OK, so that’s probably not how it really happened. But with Disney’s new swashbuckler (which promises its own “distinctive feel”), Alexandre Dumas’ hero is getting more exposure than Romeo & Juliet and those darn Musketeers.
Written in 1844, The Count of Monte Cristo is the story of Edmond Dantes, a sailor who is betrayed by his jealous best friend, Fernand Mondego.
Falsely imprisoned, Edmond is aided by another prisoner to become educated, skilled and–thanks to some conveniently buried treasure–filthy rich, returning 13 years later under the guise of a count to execute revenge on those who wronged him. This includes his fiancée Mercedes, who wound up marrying Fernand.
The novel was first adapted as a silent film in 1908, and has gone on to weather at least 12 big-screen adaptations (in many languages and versions) and five television movies and series.
So why stomp on familiar ground? Producer Gary Barber says, “The book has withstood the test of time, and we thought that the timing would be right because there hasn’t been a theatrical feature of The Count of Monte Cristo made in a long time.”
Indeed, the American big screen last saw Monte Cristo in 1934, a successful version starring Robert Donat (Goodbye, Mr. Chips). It even spawned two non-Dumas sequels, The Son of Monte Cristo and The Return of Monte Cristo.
Richard Chamberlain and Gerard Depardieu have each drawn the Count’s sword on television, with Kate Nelligan, Colleen Dewhurst and Tony Curtis filling in some of the supporting casts.
Jim Caviezel (Angel Eyes, Frequency) is the latest to fill the title role, with Guy Pearce as the sneering Fernand and Polish newcomer Dagmara Dominczyk (Rock Star) as Mercedes.
How do they measure up to the novel? See our comparisons.
| Character | Photo | Dumas says: | We say: |
| Edmond Dantes, played by Jim Caviezel |  | “He was a fine, tall, slim young fellow of eighteen or twenty, with black eyes, and hair as dark as a raven’s wing; and his whole appearance bespoke that calmness and resolution.” | Caviezel is fine, tall, slim, calm and yes, 33 years old, but not even the darkest of contact lenses could cover the blueness of his peepers. Then again, it would make a cooler poster. |
| Mercedes, played by Dagmara Dominczyk | | “Hair as black as jet…Lovely as the Greek girls of Cyprus or Chios, Mercedes boasted the same bright flashing eyes of jet, and ripe, round, coral lips. She moved with the light, free step of an Arlesienne or an Andalusian.” | This raven-haired beauty matches the description perfectly. In fact she’s so lovely that Mark Wahlberg couldn’t tell she was actually a man in Rock Star. We don’t know how an Arlesienne moves, but we’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. |
| Fernand Mondego played by Guy Pearce | | “[A] tall young man of twenty, or two-and-twenty, who was looking at her with an air in which vexation and uneasiness were mingled.” | The Aussie import is 34 years old, and looked terribly, terribly vexed and uneasy through the duration of Memento, which works for us. |
The Count of Monte Cristo opens Jan. 25.
