The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (, titled The Three Musketeers – Part I: D'Artagnan in the United States) is a 2023 epic action-adventure film and the first of a two-part epic saga directed by Martin Bourboulon, based on Alexandre Dumas's 1844 novel. The film stars François Civil, Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris, Pio Marmaï, Eva Green and Louis Garrel.
It was released theatrically in France by Pathé Distribution on 5 April 2023. The second part, The Three Musketeers: Milady, was released on 13 December 2023. The films were co-produced by France, Germany, Spain and Belgium on a combined production budget of €72 million (US$78 million), around €36 million for each film, the second most expensive French production of 2023, and filmed back to back for 150 days from 16 August 2021 to 3 June 2022.
The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office hit in France, becoming the third highest-grossing French film of 2023, the fifth highest-grossing French film internationally and the eighth highest-grossing film of 2023 in France, with over 3.4 million tickets sold in the country and over 1.6 million tickets sold outside France. It received six nominations at the 49th César Awards.
Plot On his way to Paris to join the Musketeers of the Guard, D'Artagnan, a young man from Gascony, is almost killed trying to stop a young noblewoman from being kidnapped by a group of armed men. In Paris, D'Artagnan visits Capitaine de Tréville, the commander of the musketeers, at its headquarters. Tréville, who knew D'Artagnan's late father, encourages him to start a military career as a cadet. Through a window, D'Artagnan sees one of the men who tried to kill him days earlier. As D'Artagnan rushes out of the building to confront him, he unintentionally offends—on three occasions—three musketeers: Athos, Porthos and Aramis, who demand satisfaction. D'Artagnan schedules a duel with each of them the same day.
As D'Artagnan prepares himself for the first duel, he realizes that Athos's seconds are Porthos and Aramis, who are astonished that the young Gascon intends to duel them all. As D'Artagnan and Athos begin the duel, Cardinal Richelieu's guards appear and attempt to arrest the musketeers and the Gascon for illegally dueling. Although they are vastly outnumbered, the four men win the battle. Although proud of his guards' victory over Cardinal's guards, King Louis XIII nevertheless upbraids the musketeers and warns them the next man caught dueling will be sent to the dungeon.
D'Artagnan becomes friends with the Three Musketeers. He discovers that Porthos is bisexual. He finds lodgings and falls in love at first sight with Constance Bonacieux, a sentiment which she eventually comes to reciprocate. She works for Queen Anne of France, King Louis' wife, who is secretly in love with the Englishman Duke of Buckingham. Cardinal Richelieu plots to demonstrate that Queen Anne is cheating on her husband, which would lead, according to Richelieu's plan, to her beheading.
The king's military and clerical advisers and his younger brother Gaston (Louis' heir presumptive and political rival) urge the king to fight Protestant rebels at their stronghold of La Rochelle. King Louis, conscious of the history of religious wars under his predecessors, refuses to authorize a war.
An unknown young woman is found dead and naked, with multiple stab wounds, in bed with Athos. Athos is falsely accused of murder and is sentenced to death by the King's court. D'Artagnan realizes it was the same young woman he tried to save from being kidnapped on his way to Paris. Seeing a chance to save Athos, the musketeers resolve to learn her identity. D'Artagnan goes to the House of Valcour to talk to a family they believe is connected to the woman. While there, he meets Milady who pretends to be a member of the Valcour family. When D'Artagnan recognizes that she is an impostor, Milady attempts to kill him, but D'Artagnan eludes her.
Athos is freed on the way to his execution by his younger brother, Benjamin, who is in hiding with his allies, leaders of Protestant rebels, Saint-Blancard and Brandicourt.
The king gives the queen a gift of diamonds, but she gives them to Lord Buckingham as a keepsake. The king hears rumors of the affair and demands that the queen wear the diamonds to his brother's wedding. Constance sends D'Artagnan to England to retrieve the diamonds from Buckingham. Milady, an agent of Cardinal Richelieu, steals the diamonds from Buckingham, but D'Artagnan chases after her and retrieves them. Milady jumps off a cliff to escape. D'Artagnan returns the jewels to Queen Anne just in time to save her honor.
At the wedding of Gaston, Duke of Orléans and Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier, the Gaston-aligned plotters within the top ranks of French military join forces with the Protestant rebels, including Athos' brother, to try to assassinate the king, but Athos and the rest of the musketeers save him. The king pardons Athos and appoints D'Artagnan a lieutenant in the Musketeers.
At the film's ending, D'Artagnan is knocked unconscious in a dark street by one of the plotters' henchmen while trying to save Constance from being kidnapped.
In a mid-credits scene, Milady is seen speaking with Cardinal Richelieu. She mentions the problems the musketeers caused to her mission.
Cast
François Civil as D'Artagnan Vincent Cassel as Athos Romain Duris as Aramis Pio Marmaï as Porthos 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 Éric Ruf as Cardinal Richelieu Dominique Valadié as Marie de Médicis Julien Frison as Gaston, Duke of Orléans Thibault Vinçon as Horace Saint Blancard, leader of the Huguenot rebellions Marc Barbé as Captain de Tréville Alexis Michalik as Villeneuve de Radis Patrick Mille as Count de Chalais Ivan Franek as Ardanza Nicolas Vaude as the Judge Charlotte Ranson as Isabelle de Valcour
Production 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 took place 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 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), making it the second most expensive French production of 2023, behind Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie (€80 million). 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).
Pre-production On 11 February 2021, Variety announced the cast, which included François Civil as D'Artagnan, Eva Green as Milady de Winter, Vincent Cassel as Athos, Pio Marmaï as Porthos, Romain Duris as Aramis, Lyna Khoudri as Constance Bonacieux, Louis Garrel as King Louis XIII, Vicky Krieps as Anne of Austria, and Oliver Jackson-Cohen as the Duke of Buckingham. The saga was pre-bought by M6, OCS and Canal Plus in February 2021. Pathé released the films theatrically in France and handled the international sales.
On 23 November 2021, Pathé revealed the release dates for both films; 5 April 2023 for D'Artagnan, and 13 December 2023 for Milady, and also revealed the full cast; Ralph Amoussou as Hannibal, Éric Ruf as Cardinal Richelieu, Marc Barbé as Captain de Tréville, Patrick Mille as The Count of Chalais, and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as the Duke of Buckingham, replacing Oliver Jackson-Cohen.