Okay, so it is all very well me telling you ‘We’re changing the script to take it closer to the book’… But many of you won’t know the book, so you’ll probably be rather stuck as to what that means. Well, I thought I’d give you an example.

The character ‘Clovis Dardentor’ is an absolute force of nature. Everyone who has read the script, including Stephen Fry and John Lloyd have agreed. Jules Verne really made something special there. We maintained that (to a point) in the screenplay adaptation… but I don’t think we did it enough.

Below is a page from the screenplay and a page from the original book. Both extracts describe the first time we meet our hero, Clovis Dardentor. By recognising the difference between the two, you’ll know what I mean when I say “We’re changing the script to bring it back to Jules Verne.”

Here, in the screenplay, we meet Clovis Dardentor in a departure lounge at an airport. It is great writing (by the lovely Lizzie Hopley) but something’s missing:

Now, here is the moment in which we meet Clovis in Jules Verne’s original manuscript. Mr/Monsieur Desirandelle (Annette Badland’s husband from JAM) is on a steamboat which has left the harbour without Clovis Dardentor, who was running late. Clovis commandeers a small boat in order to catch up…

Do you see what I mean? The sense of adventure in the original version is incredible. And THAT is what we want to bring back; the ADVENTURE!

So please, faithful producers, bear with us. We really think it is of utmost importance to get this new version of the script just right. Once we’ve done that, we can take it to the town. Given the staggering brilliance of Jules Verne’s lost hero, Mr. Clovis Dardentor, we reckon that the studios will well and truly be his playground. We’ve already had interest, so with a brand new screenplay and a massive dose of Jules Verne adventure, we should have considerably more!