BABYLON A.D.
2008, France / US / UK / Czech Republic
T: 110.52m (dvd-Blu), 101m (Fr), 90m (US and UK), 83.33m (alt)
Pc: MNP Entreprise [Mathieu Kassovitz], Studiocanal, M6 and CinéCinéma (all Par), One Race Films [Vin Diesel (Hw), Dune Entertainment [Steven Mnuchin & Brett Ratner] (Hw), Babylon Films Limited (Lon) & Okko Productions [Marc Bernard Jenny] (Prag)
Dist: 20th Century Fox (08/29/08, US), StudioCanal (08/20/08, Fr), 20th Century Fox Canada (08/29/08, Can), (03/25/10, Czech Republic), Canal+ (Fr tv)
Budget: $60–70 million
Gross: $72 million. Yikes!
MPPA: 44122
D: Mathieu Kassovitz; P: Avram 'Butch' Kaplan; Sc: Mathieu Kassovitz, Éric Besnard & Joseph Simas; Nv: Maurice G. Dantec (“Babylon Babies” (12/99, Fr & trade: Del Rey (“Babylon Babies”, 07/29/08, US); St: Akira Kurosawa & Ryûzô Kikushima; Ph: Thierry Arbogast; Ed: Benjamin Weill; M: Atli Örvarsson
C: Vin Diesel [Mark Sinclair] (Toorop), Michelle Yeoh (Sister Rebeka), Mélanie Thierry (Aurora), Gérard Depardieu (Gorsky), Charlotte Rampling (The Noelite High Priestess), Mark Strong (Finn), Lambert Wilson (Darquandier), Abraham Belaga (Assistant to the High Priestess), Gary Cowan (Neolite Executive) & [?] (voice of the announcer at the Canadian Airport)
Syn: Mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a ‘Tibetan’ type Nun and her young charge, from a Noelite Convent in Central Asia, to Russia, then through Canada to New York. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a religious cult and a rogue mafia thug both want to harvest to produce a genetically modified ‘Messiah’.
Comm: [Filmed at Narvik, Norway, Torneträsk, Sweden (frozen lake as the Bering Strait), Milovice, Czech Republic (all Russia and Canada) and Kiruna, Sweden. Studios de Bry - 2 avenue de l'Europe, Bry-sur-Marne, France (interiors), from June 2006 to February 2007].
BABYLON A.D.
was based on the third novel in the series which was entitled “Babylon Babies”
(12/99). In the book, it was set in 2014, but for the film that was advanced to
2017, to set it even further into the future. Halfway through the ragged trio
board a submarine that carries them across the Bering Strait between Asia and
Canada. They make a long snowy trek across Canada which is breathtaking (even
if it wasn’t shot there). When they arrive at a nearby Canadian airport they
take a flight to NY, with no flag waving. Toorop during the journey pulls out a
digital map and locates their next destination, which is shown to be south, but
unspecified, depending on the angle.
BABYLON A.D. is a clever blending of Akira Kurosawa’s YOJIMBO (1961, Japan), by way of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964, Italy/West Germany /Spain), and the Christ story’s virgin birth, with the virginal ‘Aurora, with child. The unkempt Toorop like Toshiro Mifune & Clint Eastwood (and Franco Nero in DJANGO, 1966, Italy/Spain), before him, has had his sword/gun hand disabled. Believed dead, Toorop then rises from a coma five days later. He is then fitted with a synthetic glowing skin glove to give him support, much like the leatherette cast that Eastwood donned to protect his broken hand in “For a Few Dollars More” (1965, Italy/West Germany/Spain). BABYLON A.D. and co. appears not to have credited anyone for its inspiration(s), or spoke of them, unlike the official remake of “Yojimbo”, the Bruce Willis gangster-tumbleweed western “Last Man Standing” (1996, US), which wore its approval on its bloody sleeve. It is not known how much of “Yojimbo” novelist Maurice G. Dantec did borrow for his novels.
BABYLON A.D. was made between the Vin Diesel movies THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (06/2004) and “The Fast and the Furious” vineuels 5, 6 and 7 (2006-15, US).
Malaysian martial-arts star Michelle Yeoh appeared between her two best known films, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000, China) and the filmed in Montreal THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR (2008).
French actress Mélanie Thierry was next in the futurist thriller “Largo Winch” (11/08), the feature film that was a kind of follow-up to LARGO WINCH: The Series (2002, France/Canada). Both were based on the graphic novels of Jean Van Hamme & Philippe Francq. Ms. Thierry gave birth to her 1st child at age 26, on May 24, 2008, a full year after production of BABYLON A.D.
Lambert Wilson had co-starred in NORTH STAR (1996, Italy/France/Norway) the Alaskan set snowie. Fellow actors Gérard Depardieu & Charlotte Rampling (British born-living in France) round out the French cast.
Even though it's longer, the "StudioCanal" cut of BABYLON A.D. does not include the climactic chase scene between the Noelite soldiers and Toorop, or the final glimpse of Toorop with Aurora's children, which the English prints do.
Director Kassovitz in the end disowned the finished 20th Century Fox version of the film instead, claiming it did not represent his intended vision. Say no more.
French born Canada based novelist Maurice G. Dantec died June 25, 2016, in Montreal from a heart attack.
Trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41EFHlCWpnk
By Michael Ferguson
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