3 Musketeers (2011) and a Very Shallow Look at Copyright and Public Domain

Intellectual property. This is a term that, ideally, would encompass any creative idea that a person has. It would make that idea the property of the person that came up with it, allowing them to be the sole decider of what happens with that idea. That isn’t always the case, which is why copyrights, trademarks, and patents exist. They make intellectual property a legal form of property through government authorized paperwork. Any ideas that don’t have that authorization could be considered public domain.

Public domain means that the public, in general, owns the rights to that idea. The idea could have come to fruition before the intellectual property laws were put into place, or the amount of time in which the idea was covered may have lapsed. When something is in the public domain, anybody can use it. There could be numerous different versions of an invention if that invention is in the public domain. A company could use a public domain character to help sell their product. In the case of movies and television, public domain can lead to many adaptations of the same story, or many distributors putting out the same movie.

Classic stories get retold time and time again because they fall under the public domain. Hansel and Gretel is a good example of this phenomena. Back in 2013, there were four different film versions of Hansel and Gretel released. The only reason they could do this was because of the public domain. There was copyright on the individual films, meaning that Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and Hansel & Gretel Get Baked couldn’t be the same movie. But when it came to the core elements, those could be the same. All four movies could tell the story of Hansel and Gretel and the witch that tried to eat them.

Most public domain stories don’t get adaptations at quite that frequency. When they do, however, there need to be some different details within them. A studio can copyright their version of the story, which would mean that similarities to that version would infringe upon that studio’s movie. This is where The Three Musketeers comes into play.

Alexandre Dumas wrote The Three Musketeers in 1844. It followed the adventures of d’Artagnan when he went to Paris to join the Musketeers of the Guard in the 1620s. Three of the Musketeers take d’Artagnan under their wings and teach him to be a formidable fighter in his own right. It was followed by two other books, titled Twenty Years After and The Victome of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. They were written between 1845 and 1850, with the final book being 268 chapters serialized from 1847 to 1850.

Since the tales were written in the 1840s, they have been in the public domain in the USA since the early 1900s. That has allowed a multitude of adaptations to be made on stage and on screen. They weren’t only adaptations of the first novel. The Victome of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later included the tale of The Man in the Iron Mask, which has also been adapted into films. There have even been prequels and sequels made to the original works since anyone can do what they want with The Three Musketeers.

That said, one studio can’t make the same exact movie as another studio. Under copyright law, when someone sets out to make an adaptation of The Three Musketeers, they can copyright their version of the film. That leads to every adaptation feeling markedly different from the other adaptations, unless a studio is remaking their own. With the differentiation, some interesting choices get made to set the versions apart from one another.

Take, for example, the two adaptations that came out in 2011. There was the big budget, Paul W.S. Anderson helmed film The Three Musketeers. There was also the mockbuster directed by Cole S. McKay, titled 3 Musketeers. Each one had to be different to avoid infringing upon copyrights. They also had to feature different elements than any of the adaptations that had come before. It would avoid copyright and justify adapting Dumas’s novel once again. This led to both 2011 versions to stand out as some of the most unique versions of The Three Musketeers.

The Paul W.S. Anderson film turned the historical story into a bombastic, 3-D action adventure with lots of death-defying action and flying ships inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s blueprints. It was clearly inspired by steampunk and the swashbuckling nature of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, going so far as to cast Orlando Bloom as one of the villains. Action of this large scale had never been seen in a Three Musketeers adaptation, making this one be the definitive big budget, effects filled version of the tale.

That same year, Cole S. McKay presented a modern version of the story in a different way. Instead of using modern effects, the story took place in the present day. 3 Musketeers showed D’Artagnan (Heather Hemmens) working as an agent of the NSA. She wanted to move up in rank, so she took on a mission that put her in contact with a special team of agents called The Three Musketeers. She worked with Athos (Xin Sarith Wuku), Porthos (Keith Allan), and Aramis (Michele Boyd) to unravel a conspiracy that would lead them to the person using the codename Cardinal.

The basic story was still there. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis were still the Musketeers. D’Artagnan was still joining them. They were still going up against the Cardinal. Some things needed to be changed, however, to separate itself from the other versions that were out there. The film definitely couldn’t be the same as the bombastic, big budget one that was coming out. The Asylum would have been sued had they released the same movie. The difference would be the setting. Instead of seventeenth century Europe, 3 Musketeers was set in the modern-day USA. There was still political intrigue in there. It was just modern-day spy political intrigue, rather than renaissance era king and cardinal intrigue.

The ability that people have to make so many different versions of the same story boils down to the public domain. The story of The Three Musketeers is part of the public domain, so anybody can use it for whatever they want. Studios have a copyright of their specific version of the story, but they can’t copyright the story itself. They can only make it their own and hope that people like their new version. Sometimes people do. Other times people don’t.

As time goes on, more things will end up in the public domain. Copyrights only last for a certain amount of years before they become public property. Then people will jump on the chance to make their own versions of those characters, stories, and ideas without needing to get permission from someone else. That will lead to innovation. It will lead to the stories being told in strikingly different ways. It will lead to entertainment, good or bad. And that’s all we can ask for: entertainment.

Here are some notes that I hope will be entertaining:

• Hansel and Gretel Get Baked (week 38) was mentioned in this post.
• 3 Musketeers featured Gerald Webb, a regular of movies produced by The Asylum. His other movies include 2-Headed Shark Attack (week 7), Sharknado 2: The Second One (week 190), and Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (week 300).
• Andy Clemence returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies for his third appearance this week. He was previously in Rise of the Zombies (week 16) and Bermuda Tentacles (week 96).
• Simon Rhee made his third appearance in the Sunday “Bad” Movies in 3 Musketeers. He had already shown up in Alex Cross (week 12) and Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (week 234).
• Kane Hodder is known for playing Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (week 294) and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (week 85). He showed up in 3 Musketeers.
• Keith Allan and Heather Hemmens both appeared in Rise of the Zombies (week 16) and 3 Musketeers.
• Steven Williams, who starred alongside Kane Hodder in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (week 85), appeared in 3 Musketeers.
• Andrew Ravani was in 3 Musketeers. He was also in Nazis at the Center of the Earth (week 73).
• Darren Anthony Thomas returned from Bermuda Tentacles (week 96) to be in 3 Musketeers.
• Alan Ranchins was one of the main bad guys in 3 Musketeers. He was previously seen in Showgirls (week 170).
• Did you recognize Timothy Ingles in 3 Musketeers? You may have seen him in Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (week 300).
• Another Mega Shark alumnus was Edward DeRuiter, who was in Mega Shark vs. Kolossus (week 300) and 3 Musketeers.
• Athos was played by Xin Sarith Wuku, who was also in Attila (week 321).
• Finally, Carl Ciarfalio was in 3 Musketeers after already appearing in The Incredible Hulk Returns (week 335).
• Have you seen 3 Musketeers? Have you seen any adaptations? Was this a giant post about nothing really? You can be honest. Let me know on Twitter and in the comments.
• If you have a suggestion for movies I should be checking out, those two places are good ones to tell me about them. Your suggestions will likely end up in the next bunch of scheduling I do.
• Head on over to Instagram and check out Sunday “Bad” Movies. I’m always posting something over there.
• Easter is next week, so I scheduled something a little special for it. It’s not a bunny movie. Nope. I went back to a religious film for next week. I think I found the perfect one, too. Miracle Man, a 2013 film, will be the subject of next week’s post. I’ve already seen it, and I can tell you that it is an insane movie. I should have a lot to write about. See you next week for that post!