'Three Musketeers': Five Things You Need To Know

Before seeing Orlando Bloom and Logan Lerman in action, check out these fun facts.
By Eric Ditzian

Orlando Bloom and Milla Jovovich in "The Three Musketeers"
Photo: Summit Entertainment

When you're sequestered in a London hotel during the finest weekend of U.K. weather that anyone in that virtually sun-free territory can remember, you tend to learn a few things. People get a little loopy. They speak off the cuff.

Such is the situation MTV News found itself in earlier this month during a press day for "The Three Musketeers," when we ended up learning a few surprising things about director Paul W.S. Anderson's 3-D take on the classic Alexandre Dumas novel, an adaptation that stays true to the original's creative core but takes joyful liberties no one in the 17th century could ever have imagined. Read on for five rather surprising things you need to know about "The Three Musketeers," which hit theaters Friday (October 21).

Lerman's Crazy Hair
As we first noticed when set photos popped up last year during production, and as posters and trailers have subsequently made clear, star Logan Lerman rocks a very Jim Morrison-like hairdo to play D'Artagnan, a young chap looking to join the vaunted Musketeers. But Lerman didn't grow his hair out for the role, nor did he slap on a wig every day.

"It's extensions," he told us. "It was really uncomfortable. A wig would have been a more comfortable choice. I felt ridiculous walking around [off set]. I just had a beanie on all the time."

Bloom's Anti-"Pirates" Preference
At this point, after the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, Orlando Bloom approaches anything involving swords and seafaring with caution. What attracted the actor to "Musketeers" was that his director didn't want him, for once, to play the good guy.

"They wanted me to be part of the movie as Duke of Buckingham, as opposed to playing one of the Musketeers," he said. "That sold me. The idea that I got to be the kind of villain, sort of a bad boy, bit of a rogue. Lot of fun. Fun, fun, fun! I get to be an arrogant prick and get away with it!"

Jovovich's 3-D Assets
Milla Jovovich, who just so happens to be married to Anderson, insisted on doing all her fight training while wearing a corset -- a noble, if highly uncomfortable, decision. For her husband's film, though, she was willing to do whatever was necessary, including showing off her assets for Anderson's 3-D cameras.

"I did have to prepare a lot to make my cleavage what it was," she said. "I had to eat a lot of pasta and get cinched really tightly into the corset to get the effect and let the girls do the acting for me. Each one took classes. Stanislavski. I think the left one is more talented than the right."

Bloom's Rock Star
Not only does the Duke of Buckingham act differently than Bloom's "Pirates" good guy, he also dresses completely differently, often slipping into high heels and maintaining a wardrobe that contains every color you'd find in the rainbow (and many you would not). To pull it all off, Bloom turned to '70s-era rock and roll.

"The Duke had a questionable sexual background, no one was quite sure what his sexual flavor was or how many flavors he liked to participate in," Bloom explained. "He's a very outspoken and outrageous character. So for me, I just got to swagger through it all. You don't want the costumes wearing you. You've got to wear the costumes.

"Paul wanted the Musketeers to be superheroes and for me to be a kind of rock star. So I went with David Bowie from Ziggy Stardust," he added. "He wore some of those outrageous costumes onstage. So with the Duke, he just owns every square foot that he steps in. He's like, 'This is all my territory.' "

Anderson's Da Vinci Inspiration
Easily the most eye-popping features of "The Three Musketeers" are the fantastical airships he introduces to 17th-century Europe: part ship, part hot-air balloon, totally steampunk. In the film, the ships are said to be built from Leonardo da Vinci's actual designs. The truth, however, owes more to artistic license than Renaissance ingenuity.

"We did take our inspiration from his real etchings of airships," Anderson told us. "We felt that Da Vinci had designed so many extreme, futuristic things that we could take the liberty of saying this is one of his designs and have this flying galleon."

Check out everything we've got on "The Three Musketeers."

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