20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997 Village Roadshow film)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1997 two-part television miniseries[1] produced by Village Roadshow Pictures, based on the 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. It was written by Brian Nelson and directed by Rod Hardy.

For the 1997 Hallmark Channel film, see 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997 Hallmark film).

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
DVD Cover
GenreAdventure
Romance
Sci-Fi
Based onTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne
Screenplay byBrian Nelson
Directed byRod Hardy
StarringMichael Caine
Patrick Dempsey
Mia Sara
Bryan Brown
Theme music composerMark Snow
Country of originUnited States
Australia
Original language(s)English
No. of episodes2
Production
Executive producer(s)Jeffrey M. Hayes
Keith Pierce
Richard Pierce
Producer(s)Dean Barnes
Production location(s)Village Roadshow Studios, Oxenford, Queensland, Australia
Point Cook, Victoria, Australia
Movieworld Studios, Australia
CinematographyJames Bartle
Ron Hagen
Bruce Phillips
Editor(s)Drake Silliman
Running time158 minutes
Production company(s)Frederick S. Pierce Company
Village Roadshow Pictures Television
DistributorABC
Village Roadshow Pictures
Release
Original networkABC
Picture formatColor
Audio formatStereo
Original releaseMay 11 –
12, 1997

Plot

The Nautilus has been sinking and damaging ships and is at first thought to be a giant narwhal.

Pierre Aronnax and Ned Land and Cabe Attucks fall off the USS Abraham Lincoln and are picked up by the Nautilus.

Pierre Aronnax's father Thierry Aronnax is with the US naval party.

Nemo is setting up an underwater domed city under the Atlantic south of West Africa. To avoid earthquake risks to it, he is first setting up a network of underwater explosives to release all Earth's geotectonic tensions at once and thus ensure that no more build up for a long while. During this a Chinese-looking pearl diving girl accidentally activates one of these devices and the Nautilus rescues her in time.

Nemo has a daughter called Mara.

The US Navy finds where Nemo's base is by a concentrated area of sightings of the Nautilus. The USS Abraham Lincoln sails to the place.

At the site, damage caused by Ned Land, and torpedoes fired downwards by the Abraham Lincoln, force the Nautilus to surface. The Nautilus's crew come out on deck and are summarily machine-gunned by the Abraham Lincoln's deck-mounted Gatling guns. Mara and some others escape in one of the Nautilus's diving bells. Pierre Aronnax and Ned Land and Cabe Attucks get on board the Abraham Lincoln. A US naval man boards the Nautilus and shoots Nemo and another survivor on sight. Nemo, before dying, activates a switch which makes the Nautilus explode.

Pierre Aronnax's account of these events finds its way to Jules Verne, who uses it as a basis for his novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Cast

Boe Kaan

Differences from the novel

The Nautilus gets its power by extracting the sun's heat from the sea water: this is impossible technology, and the movie wrongly calls it hydroelectricity.

Reception

DVD Verdict wrote the miniseries "comes off as incomplete", but praised Michael Caine's performance as Captain Nemo.[2] David Cornelius of DVD Talk called the adaptation "dreadfully dull", disapproving of director Hardy's and screenwriter Nelson's work.[1]

References
  1. Cornelius, David (25 April 2006). "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". DVD Talk. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  2. McEntire, Mac (24 May 2006). "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1997)". DVD Verdict. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
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