THE THREE MUSKETEERS, again... but without D'Artagnan?

The Three Musketeers. Because we haven't seen this a thousand frikkin' times. According to WIKI, there have been 34 movies, t.v. series', radio productions and the like of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel. To me, there feels like there has been about 300, especially when you consider how many other Dumas' novels with similar themes have already been adapted. Variety report that Millennium Films are the studio going to that well again. Remember the novel is in the public domain, so no fee or rights issues have to be cleared for a studio to put the film into production...

New pic will trace how swordsmen Athos, Porthos and Aramis first banded together. D'Artagnan, the last member of the eventual quartet, will either be introduced later in the first movie or in a second installment.

Millennium Films are of course the same studio behind the upcoming resurrections of the Conan, Hercules and Buck Rogers series. They also brought back Rambo this year and are hoping Stallone quickly goes ahead and shoots a sequel. They are certainly a studio more interested in finding big tentpoles from regurgitated but known material than they are anything original which they would have to find a new audience for. Millennium Films - an independent studio who want to play with the big boys but can't afford to pay directors/actors big salaries, so they have to find cost effective projects like this one with the hope that the name recognition of the material will pull through. So usually at this point I tell you my favourite movies adapted from the novel, but honestly I've only ever liked one amongst the sea of crap. The Richard Lester directed musical version from the 70's starring Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee, Charlton Heston, Michael York, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay, Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch, Spike Milligan and Gerald Chaplain. Man, with all the money in the world you would struggle to get a cast as impressive as that these days.