I finished Around the World in Eighty Days today and also discovered there’s a movie coming out about the book. To be honest, I can’t imagine that the movie will be all that good. The story was interesting, but not amazing.
In the movie, Passepartout (the main character’s servant) will be played by Jackie Chan, which seems strange to me since in the book he’s a young Frenchman, and Fogg (the main character) will be played by Steve Coogan and there will be appearances by Rob Schneider, John Cleese, Johnny Knoxville, Kathy Bates, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wim Wenders, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson and Richard Branson… there’s a trailer here if you’re interested.
It doesn’t look like they’re taking much from the book other than the character names. In the book Fogg is not an inventor, there are no airplanes, air balloons or other strange contraptions (with the exception of a sail powered sled). Fogg in the book plays a character that does not ever show emotion rather than a passionate man set on making history as he’s portrayed in the movie. There’s also no sight of Fix in the trailer, the detective who, in the book, chases them around the world, but I can’t imagine they’d leave him out.
It does, however look like they’ll remain true to the Jules Verne’s completely inaccurate and error-filled portrayal of Mormons (if not in good taste, at least in good humor), and who better to play the part than Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It will be interesting to see how it turns out.