Posted on 09/22/2006 9:17:50 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Imagine a 20th Century that still had religious inquisitions, a world where the medieval Catholic Church still controlled everything and everyone. Where people were still burned at the stake, no religious tolerance and a place where everyone feared for their lives. Welcome to the world of Rex Mundi.
The first time that I heard about Rex Mundi was while working on the set of Tim Sullivans' Driftwood about a year ago. Famed Rock 'N' Roll KISS photographer turned movie producer Barry Levine mentioned that they were working with Johnny Depp on a film. Sworn to secrecy and under threats of death I kept my mouth shut.
Well now that the LA Times has officially announced that Johnny Depp will star in the Dark Horse Comics film adaptation of Arvid Nelson's Rex Mundi, we can talk about it.
We went on a mission, we wanted to talk to head honcho Mike Richardson, the President of Dark Horse Entertainment and the creator of Rex Mundi, Arvid Nelson. We wanted to give our readers an exclusive first look at what we can expect in the upcoming Rex Mundi feature....
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Synopsis: Rex Mundi is set in Paris, 1933, but not the Paris of our world. For a number of reasons, foremost the assassination of Martin Luther in 1521, this Europe is still in the dark ages. A handful of aristocrats hold all the power, and the church maintains a permanent Inquisition with all the license of the Gestapo in Nazi Europe. Art deco and jazz nightclubs are all the rage, but the political environment is still medieval. Magic is real in the world of Rex Mundi, but it is far more subtle than in a standard sword-and-sorcery novel. The rites and rituals of spell-casting are steeped in the occult, based on Judeo-Christian mysticism and cabala.
Rex Mundi blends the genres of film noir and "Indiana Jones" style action-adventure. The protagonist, Julien Saunière, is a Master of the Guild of Physicians. He maintains a private practice in Paris and is content providing medical treatment to the poor in exchange for odd-jobs and services.
He is also the longtime friend of the priest of the Church of the Magdalene, Father Gerard Marin. Marin comes to Julien one night in urgent need of help. Marin is in charge of a secret library of books hidden in the crypts beneath La Madeleine. Some of the texts have been stolen, but Marin does not know how, or even why. The bars and locks on the cast-iron door guarding the secret repository have not been tampered with, and the strange, cloying scent of sandalwood lingers in the musty air beneath the church.
Marin provides Julien one lead: much to his shame, the priest has been having an affair with a prostitute, to whom he revealed the location of the texts. The next day, Julien finds the prostitute brutally murdered in her room. He questions the owner of the tenement in which she lived and gets the name of her pimp. The landlord also reveals that he saw a short man wearing a white suit walking away from the building on the night of the prostitute's death. From these clues Julien will trace the crime to the highest echelons of the French aristocracy, to a secret society founded in Jerusalem during the First Crusade and somehow connected to the legend of the Holy Grail. There is such as a thing as the Holy Grail, Julien will discover, but it is not a cup -- it is a secret revolving around the origins of Christianity, a secret so devastating it threatens to plunge the world into a cataclysmic war.
Issue One ends with the murder of Father Marin the evening after he tells Julien of his predicament. Julien is driven to find out exactly why his friend was murdered, and he will not rest until he exposes those responsible.
Julien inhabits a very dark, dangerous world in which there are no good guys and bad guys, only people protecting their own interests. There are no charming, honest yet bumbling police detectives, as in a Sherlock Holmes mystery, only an Inquisition that poses just as much a threat to Julien as do the gangsters, occultists and secret society members guarding the secrets he is trying to uncover.
In Issue Two his investigation is further complicated by his involvement with Genevieve Tournon, a fellow physician and former lover. Genevieve is ferociously ambitious: she wants to become a High Guild Master and marry a gentleman, securing a title for herself and her descendents. She thus decided to leave Julien a long time ago. And indeed, Genevieve is well on her way to achieving her goals: through charm and skill she has secured an appointment as Personal Physician to the Duke of Lorraine and an extremely powerful politician, second only to the King himself.
Genevieve is forced to make a choice between her ambition and her feelings for Julien when Julien's investigation leads him to directly to the Duke. Julien will discover Lorraine's ancestors have challenged the Bourbon claim to the throne several times, but always failed to seize power. Lorraine is ready to make a new bid for power -- the House of Bourbon is weaker than it has ever been. Lorraine has been pressing for war and is winning support from influential politicians.
Just as Julien becomes aware of Lorraine's designs, so too does Lorraine become aware of Julien. Lorraine asks Genevieve to spy on Julien, which she gladly does at first, but she is surprised and disappointed to find that she still has genuine feelings for him. She becomes a double agent, informing Julien and Lorraine of each other?s activities, all the while imploring Julien to give. The closer Julien gets to the truth behind the murder, the stronger her feelings for him become, and the more she begs him to discontinue his quest. But Julien will not be placated with anything less than the truth.
The conspiracy Julien stalks traces its origin to the Templars, an order of knights founded in Jerusalem in 1099. The Inquisition eradicated the Templars in 1307 on charges of heresy and devil worship. But the Templars, it seems, were not exterminated completely.
Political tensions in Europe are phenomenally high, and the complex network of alliances, pacts and treaties between the major powers are ready to ignite into a devastating conflagration. Grail conspiracy members in England, Prussia and France are aggravating this situation to promulgate a bloody, apocalyptic war, the goal being the establishment of a French colony in Jerusalem and a new world order.
When Julien discovers the truth about the Holy Grail, he becomes driven to stop Lorraine and his conspirators at any cost.
Da Vinci Code redux, anyone?
Sounds like a mishmash.
???
It made a profit, right? As did V for Vendetta, taken from a graphic novel set in an alternate reality.
Sounds like a money maker. They'll do it.
Probably when they think they can make some money with it.
This should be good... the FreeRepublic Religion Forum posters should feel right at home... :)
Keith Roberts wrote an interesting alternative history of England where the Reformation was had been crushed, called "Pavane". The idea of this movie, however, doesn't really grab me.
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