Details

Release year: 2002

Storyline

A young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous "friend", escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge.

Top credits

Directors

Kevin Reynolds

Writers

Cast

Jim Caviezel — Edmond
Guy Pearce — Fernand
Christopher Adamson — Maurice
JB Blanc — Luigi Vampa

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Did you know

• In the book, Fernand is publicly humiliated by the exposure of his old crimes, and he commits suicide. Villefort is driven insane, and Dantes leaves him that way. Danglars loses his wealth, his wife, and his daughter, thanks to Dantes.

• Screenwriter Jay Wolpert came up with the idea, not present in the novel, that Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce) and Edmond Dantes (Jim Caviezel) started out as best friends. His logic was that it would work better as a "buddy" film that turned sinister. Wolpert believed that when a friendship soured, the hate generated was both more terrible and more believable.

• The scene involving Villefort trying to kill himself, and Monte Cristo asking him: "Did you think I'd make it that easy for you?" was shot in two versions. Director Kevin Reynolds thought the other version, where the gun was loaded, worked better, and put it into the original cut. However, some test audiences, without the knowledge of the existing footage, indicated it would be better if the gun was not loaded, so the scene in the final cut was inserted.