Morgan Freeman wants to remake a movie that has already been made over 40 times
It takes a lot to be famous for just your voice, but when you sound like Morgan Freeman, it is inevitable.
The legendary thespian has been gracing our screens (and ears) for over six decades, starring in a wide variety of cinematic delights. Thrillers, horrors, kids’ movies, animations, documentaries—you name it, Freeman has tried it, and he was probably very good at it, too.
Given how much class he brings to proceedings, it should come as no surprise that Freeman has starred in so many movies based on classic novels. His most famous literary adaptation is easily The Shawshank Redemption, which is based on a novella by Stephen King. The actor may not be a fan of his own work, but everyone else would beg to differ.
Elsewhere, Freeman has played Alex Cross in two films based on James Patterson’s books, appeared in The Sum of All Fears, an adaptation of Tom Clancy’s novel of the same name, and starred in various other stories with roots in the written word. If you want to get cute, then Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy is technically based on the Batman comic books, so they kind of count too.
Freeman is clearly keen to bring great works of written fiction to the big screen, with one classic tale, in particular, at the top of his list. In an interview with Dolce, the Oscar-winner revealed a desire to make a version of The Three Musketeers. And when the interviewer pointed out that several takes on the story already existed, Freeman politely informed him that all of those other versions were wrong.
“They never made the right one!” he explained, “I want to tell that story from Alexandre Dumas’s point of view. Three mixed-race guys, brought from the colonies, raised at the court of Louis the XIIIth among the best, well-trained. They stuck together, like birds of a feather”.
He adds, “Then comes the new guy, d’Artagnan, who wants to join them to be among the best. You could use the analogy on the basketball court, same thing with the Count of Monte Cristo… I’m coming up with that idea. I can push it—I have a film production company!”
First published in 1844, Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers is one of the most famous classic novels of all time. The story of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d’Artagnan has been told many times in movie form. A version was made in 1903, although very little is known about it, and Douglas Fairbanks played d’Artagnan in 1921. Paul WS Anderson, Richard Lester, and Martin Bourboulon are among the famous directors who have tackled the swashbuckling adventure, and there’s even a 2004 musical version featuring the current President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Dumas’ grandmother was an African slave, and his father was born on the modern-day island of Haiti. His mixed-race heritage informed a lot of his writing, as Freeman alluded to, in an age where people of African descent were treated as second-class citizens, if at all as people. Dumas has had an untold impact on popular culture, which is why his works continue to be remade over and over again.
This interview was conducted in 2015, and a decade later, Freeman’s version of The Three Musketeers still hasn’t materialised. He clearly didn’t “push it” hard enough.
