The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Stephen Norrington |
Screenplay by | James Dale Robinson |
Based on | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Dan Laustsen |
Edited by | Paul Rubell |
Music by | Trevor Jones |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates |
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Running time | 110 minutes[1] |
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Languages | English German |
Budget | $78 million[3] |
Box office | $179.3 million[3] |
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, also promoted as LXG, is a 2003 steampunk[4]/dieselpunk superhero film loosely based on the first volume of the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, it was released on 11 July 2003 in the United States, and 17 October in the United Kingdom. It was directed by Stephen Norrington and starred Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shah, Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Stuart Townsend, Shane West, Jason Flemyng, and Richard Roxburgh. It was Connery's final role in a theatrically released live-action film before his retirement in 2006 and death in 2020.
As with the comic book source material, the film features prominent pastiche and crossover themes[5] set in the late 19th century. It features an assortment of fictional literary characters appropriate to the period who act as Victorian era superheroes. It draws on the works of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, Ian Fleming, Herman Melville, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Gaston Leroux, and Mark Twain, albeit all adapted for the film.
It received generally unfavorable reviews but was financially successful, grossing over $179 million worldwide in theaters, and earning rental revenue of $48.6 million and DVD sales (as of 2003) of $36.4 million, against its $78 million budget.[6]