When the League arrives at the London Docks, the camera passes by a wall with a poster for a carnival that is coming, there are two names: Dr. Alan Moore and Dr. Kevin O'Neill. These are the names of the gentlemen that created and wrote the comic "League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen". The poster is, in fact, a duplication of the title page of the League of Extraordinay Gentlemen Vol. 1 collected edition.
As was the case with From Hell (2001), another movie based on a comic by Alan Moore, the scenes set in London were filmed in Prague.
Monica Bellucci was originally cast as Mina Harker, but had to drop out due to schedule conflicts.
Filming was delayed due to the summer 2002 floods in Prague, Czech Republic which destroyed more than $7 million worth of sets.
There were widespread rumors that Jason Isaacs was to play the part of British Agent Campion Bond. However, in an interview Isaacs revealed he hadn't even read the script and that all reports of him in the role were, in fact, fabricated.
The last scenes filmed were for the trailer, which will be the first scenes publicly seen.
The film's literary characters are Allan Quatermain from H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" (1885) plus dozens more (many written by other authors under Haggard's name), Mina Harker from Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897), Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde from Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886), Rodney Skinner replacing Griffin from H.G. Wells "The Invisible Man" (1897) (due to rights issues, and the character in the comic was given the name Hawley Griffin as the original novel gave no first name), Captain Nemo from Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1870) and "The Mysterious Island" (1874), Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde's "The Picture Of Dorian Gray" (1891), Tom Sawyer from Mark Twain's "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer" (1876) among others such as "Tom Sawyer: Detective" (1891) written by numerous others, Ishmael from Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" (1851), and Professor James Moriarty from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Final Problem" (1893) and The Fantom's mask design alludes to Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom Of The Opera" (1911). Also, M (a shortening for James Moriarty) is taken from the Sherlock Holmes stories.
Quatermain, Nemo, Jekyll & Hyde, Dorian Gray, and Professor Moriairty all "died" in their original novels or stories. In the novel "The Invisible Man" Dr. Griffin went quite mad and was eventually killed. Here, Skinner says he got the serum to turn himself invisible from a mad doctor, a very clever way to get around the rights issues. Both the original Invisible Man, Mr. Hyde, and Nemo were far from heroes in their original incarnations. Nemo was a rebel to the crown and Mr. Hyde and the Invisible Man were murderers and rapists.
English comedian Eddie Izzard read for the part of Rodney Skinner/the Invisible Man.
The character of Tom Sawyer was added because the studio thought many people in the American market wouldn't care about the movie unless an American character and cast member was in it.
The magazine on Quatermain's desk aboard the Nautilus is "The Strand". Arthur Conan Doyle originally published the Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand.
The Character of Campion Bond, a British Intelligencer, was to be a main character in early drafts of the script. He was eventually totally cut out of the film to be saved for a possible sequel.
Although Alan Moore uses "Quatermain", and this is often considered the canonical spelling of the character's name, H. Rider Haggard himself occasionally used "Quartermain", and that spelling is used several times throughout the movie (especially obviously on the grave marker).
A poster in the background of one scene displays "Volcanic eruptions on Mars". This is an inside joke to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2 comic in which the League battle the Martians from H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. this is also a hint of a possible sequel to the film.
When Nemo first introduces Alan Quartermain to his first mate, his first mate introduces himself by saying, "Call me Ishmael." This is the opening line of "Moby Dick" by Hermann Melville, another great 19th century literary work.
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