The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box

The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jonathan Newman
Produced by	Peter Bevan Ibon Cormenzana Ignasi Estapé Karl Richards
Screenplay by	Christian Taylor Matthew Huffman^[1]
Based on	Mariah Mundi by G. P. Taylor
Starring	Michael Sheen Sam Neill Lena Headey Ioan Gruffudd Keeley Hawes Tristan Gemmill Aneurin Barnard
Music by	Fernando Velázquez
Cinematography	Unax Mendía
Edited by	David Gallart Bernat Vilaplana
Release dates	January 10, 2014 (2014-01-10)^[2]
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$14,380^[3]

The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box is a 2014 British fantasy adventure film starring Michael Sheen,^[4] Sam Neill, Lena Headey, Ioan Gruffudd, Keeley Hawes, Tristan Gemmill, and Aneurin Barnard^[5] in the title role and directed by Jonathan Newman. It is the first in what is intended to be a film franchise, and was written by Christian Taylor and Matthew Huffman, based upon the novel Mariah Mundi by G. P. Taylor.

Plot

Mariah Mundi has no choice but to unite with the enigmatic Will Charity when his family is kidnapped by an unknown enemy. Their adventure leads them to the mysterious and majestic Prince Regent, a huge steam-powered hotel on a small island at the furthest reach of the Empire. Mariah, with the help of Charity must unravel the secrets of the island to find the truth behind the disappearance of his family, and prevent Otto Luger from getting his hands on the mystical and powerful Midas Box.

Mariah and Felix attend a lecture by their father in the British Museum. Two strange men enter mid lecture, startling their father. The boys unaware sneak away into the museum for more interesting pursuits. While Mariah chides his little brother Felix to come back to the lecture he comes across an odd man, Captain Will Charity (Michael Sheen).

This man keels over and collapses in mid-conversation revealing a stab wound and asking him to get his parents. After being tended to, Will reveals to Mariah's parents that an Otto Lugar has found the map to the golden box, he is close to discovering it. When alone with Catherine, the mother of Mariah and Felix, he presents her with two halves of a green medallion telling her to keep them safe. Catherine leaves the room and when they all return to further speak with Charity, he has vanished.

Catherine seems to know how events will unfold and while hugging her boys goodbye and sending them home ahead of them places the two halves of the medallion in each of their pockets. The boys arrive home to awaken later to see that their parents are not home and that unknown men are breaking into their house. The two boys escape and sleep on the streets until morning, where they are caught for trying to steal bread and sent to a work house for boys.

Captain Charity reappears and comes to their rescue there but only manages to rescue Mariah while the younger boy Felix is taken by the two men who work for Lugar. Charity knows that Otto has currently purchased a luxurious hotel on an island and therefore the gold box is somewhere on that island. He sends Mariah to work there undercover as a servant in the hotel and promises to meet up later.

Mariah meets a young woman, Sacha, who is an employee there as well. They, feeling alone and out of place where they are, work together to discover the mysteries of the hotel and where Felix is. They break into the Lugar's office, and there find many interesting antique and magical artifacts, and steal a deck of cards as well as a page out of Otto's diary about the Midas box. They read to discover that in ancient times Midas first used the box for good as it could heal the sick, but once men tried to take it from him it was revealed to also destroy life and be used as a weapon. Drunk on his power Midas killed many and used the box for evil.

Mariah and Sasha then use the deck of cards they had stolen to find Felix. The cards they stole are from a dead gypsy woman who put all of her power into the cards before she died allowing the owner to ask one question. They ask where Felix is and figure out he is being put to work as a slave digging holes looking for the box along with several other children who had gone missing from the town.

Otto finds them and takes the other medallion from Mariah and finds the Midas Box. Otto forces Mariah and Felix to go and fetch the box from inside an Egyptian style tomb in the mountain, upon picking up the box a boobytrap is activated trapping Felix in the room with water pouring in.

Mariah escapes and goes after Otto knowing only the medallion can again open the door and free Felix in time. Remembering the saying about gold his mother told him Mariah realizes the only safe guard against the midas weapon is gold. He retrieves the golden armour from Otto's office and chases after him.

He resists a blast with his golden shield and then Captain Will comes to his aid. Together they fight off Otto and Mariah kills him with a blast from the weapon. Mariah goes and saves Felix. All seems well, and the authorities take the box and lock it up.

Mariah asks Sasha to come live with him and Felix as her father died in the struggles at the hotel and she accepts. In the credits it is revealed that someone more powerful was controlling Otto all along. This man receives a package and opens it to reveal Catherine, Mariah's mother. She is bound head to foot like a mummy but is awake. As she struggles the man chides her for giving the medallions to the children. It is revealed that the mastermind of the whole plot was Mariah's father all along.

Cast

Michael Sheen as Captain Will Charity - The character Captain Jack Charity, (as it appears in the original G. P. Taylor novel) is reported to be in part inspired by the restaurant owning adventurer and founder of Heroes Welcome UK, Major (Ret) John Senior^[6] GHV T.D.
Sam Neill as Otto Luger
Lena Headey as Monica
Mella Carron as Sacha
Ioan Gruffudd as Charles Mundi
Keeley Hawes as Catherine Mundi
Aneurin Barnard as Mariah Mundi
Tristan Gemmill as Isambard Black
Daniel Wilde as Cleavy
Xavier Atkins as Felix
Vincenzo Pellegrino as Grendel
Oliver Stark as Glocky
Ian Reddington as Ratchit
Brian Nickels as Grimm

Production

The film was released in 2014. The film was produced by London- and Los Angeles-based production company Entertainment Motion Pictures.^[7]

Filming

Filming took place in sound stages and locations throughout the South West of England including St Michael's Mount,^[8] Bristol, Bath, Charlestown Harbour, Kidderminster Town railway station, and Lacock Abbey.

References