The film starts where the first part, The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan, ends. D’Artagnan is knocked unconscious and captured by agents of Gaston, King Louis XIII’s younger brother and heir apparent. D’Artagnan escapes his captors and, in return, captures Comte de Chalais, Gaston’s top henchman. He orders de Chalais to lead him to the prison cell where Constance is kept, but unexpectedly finds there Milady de Winter, chained and apparently tortured. Milady and D’Artagnan escape together and spend a night in a forest hide-out. Milady tries to seduce D’Artagnan, but to no avail. She leaves him sleeping. D’Artagnan is again caught by de Chalais’ men, but escapes again. Athos visits the family castle to see his five year old son. Together, they visit the grave of the boy’s mother.
After surviving an assassination attempt at the end of the first part, Louis XIII decides to launch a war against La Rochelle, a Protestant stronghold on the west coast of France. D’Artagnan and his friends are sent to La Rochelle with the Musketeers, an elite unit of the French army, under the command of Captain Treville. In the war camp, D’Artagnan meets Milady who again attempts to seduce him. As they engage in kissing and undressing, D’Artagnan discovers a fleur-de-lis branded on her shoulder, and shockingly realizes that she is the woman that Athos told him about in The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan. Milady de Winter flees the scene and Athos learns from D’Artagnan that his former wife, the mother of his son, is apparently alive.
A small group of the Musketeers is led by Captain de Treville into a daring night raid to La Rochelle. Inside the fortress, they are discovered by Protestant rebels who were apparently informed about the coming raid by Comte de Chalais on Gaston’s orders. With the help of Hannibal, a commander of another French army unit, Musketeers escape after a valiant fight.
Athos follows Milady to a forest, where she secretly meets Cardinal Richeliu. He learns that Milady is ordered to assassinate Duke of Buckingham, whose support is critical to the La Rochelle rebels’ war efforts. After Richelieu departs, Athos confronts Milady who reminds him of their love days. Milady prepares to kill Athos, but he is saved by arriving Aramis and D’Artagnan. Milady flees.
Cardinal Richeliu meets Queen Anne and promises to return Constance who was kept under arrest on his orders. The Queen tells D’Artagnan that Constance is safe under Duke of Buckingham’s guard in England. Benjamen, Athos’ brother and one of Protestant leaders, is captured by guards of Gaston and is condemned to death by drowning. Athos decides to abandon the French army to save his brother. Aramis and D’Artagnan join him. Together, they escape to England.
Milady travels to England to assassinate Duke of Buckingham. In the Buckingham’s castle, Milady is recognized by Constance, Buckingham’s guest, captured and condemned to death. Before hanging, Milady is visited by Constance in her captivity. Pitying the fate of a young and beautiful woman, Constance exchanges clothes with Milady and lets her escape. When executioners come for Milady, Constance tries to explain that she is not the person sentenced to death, but in vain. She is hanged in the palace courtyard. D’Artagnan and his friends are moments late to Constance’s hanging. Together with Buckingham, they pursue Milady who used the time to put the duke’s palace on fire. D’Artagnan enters the burning building to fight Milady. During the fight, Milady vanishes and D’Artagnan is saved, unconscious, by his friends.
Captain de Treville is tried for treason in the King’s court. Aramis and D’Artagnan arrive to bring evidence that Gaston communicated with La Rochelle rebels to plot against the King. Treville is exonerated. Athos comes home to his castle to discover that his son was abducted by an unknown person. On the boy’s bed, he finds an earring that was once in possession of his wife.
- François Civil as D’Artagnan
- Vincent Cassel as Athos
- Pio Marmaï as Porthos
- Romain Duris as Aramis
- Eva Green as Milady de Winter
- Lyna Khoudri as Constance Bonacieux
- Louis Garrel as King Louis XIII
- Vicky Krieps as Anne of Austria
- Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Duke of Buckingham
- Alexis Michalik as Villeneuve de Radis
- Patrick Mille as Henri de Talleyrand-Périgord
- Ivan Franek as Ardanza
- Ralph Amoussou as Hannibal, inspired by Aniaba
- Thibault Vinçon as Horace Saint Blancard, leader of the Huguenot rebellions
- Camille Rutherford as Mathilde d’Herblay
Development
The idea for the project started in 2019, when producer Dimitri Rassam spent the year looking for a subject that could spark a real event on the big screen and made a list of works that he wanted to produce, and one of them stood out: the 1844 novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. In December 2019, Rassam had a meeting with director Martin Bourboulon at a restaurant in Paris to talk about his desire to adapt the novel. During the meeting, Bourboulon remembered the 1994 film Revenge of the Musketeers directed by Bertrand Tavernier, which was produced by his father, Frédéric Bourboulon. During the summer of 1993, Bourboulon, aged 14, visited the set of Revenge of the Musketeers with his father and was impressed by the sets of the swashbuckling comedy filmed in the medieval alleys of Sarlat-la-Canéda and in the moat of the castle of Biron. With Bourboulon’s verbal agreement, Rassam then recruited a duo of seasoned screenwriters: Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, and both immediately agreed.
On 13 May 2020, a meeting was held in Paris in the office of Chapter 2, Rassam’s production company. A videoconference with Ardavan Safaee, president of Pathé Films, Rassam, Bourboulon, Delaporte and La Patellière. The two screenwriters presented a 60-page storyboard, summarizing their upcoming storyline for the project. Five hours later, the cutting was approved and the preparation for the film was launched, although the screenplay had not been finished. Contrary to the previous adaptations of the novel, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière wanted to make Dumas’ work “a thriller in a violent world”. Rassam described the project as “a response to American franchises”.
On 29 June 2020, Pathé CEO Jérôme Seydoux announced that a new version of The Three Musketeers would be adapted for the cinema by his company. The screenplay started being written in the summer of 2020. On 14 October 2020, Pathé announced that the film would be split into two parts titled D’Artagnan and Milady, respectively, with Martin Bourboulon set to direct both films on a screenplay written by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, and that shooting was expected to begin in France in summer 2021 and last seven months. Pathé also announced that both films would be released in 2023.
Produced by Dimitri Rassam for France’s Chapter 2, a Mediawan Company, and Pathé, the two films were co-produced by M6 Films, Germany’s Constantin Film, Spain’s DeAPlaneta, and Belgium’s Umedia. The combined production budget for the two films was €72 million, (US$78,2 million in 2023). €36,08 million for D’Artagnan and €36,16 million for Milady, (US$39.1 million). Which makes it the most expensive French production of 2023. The score was composed by Guillaume Roussel.
This is the first French film adaptation of The Three Musketeers in 62 years, since Bernard Borderie’s two-part saga was released in 1961.
Director Martin Bourboulon said that the inspirations for this new adaptation of The Three Musketeers were The Duellists (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), La Reine Margot (1994), Gladiator (2000), Elephant (2003), and The Revenant (2015).
April 19th, 2024
