20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997 Hallmark film) produced by Hallmark Entertainment. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997 Hallmark film) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1997 television film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Ben Cross as Captain Nemo. It premiered on March 23, 1997. Based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne, it is most notable for replacing the character of Professor Aronnax's manservant, Conseil, with the Professor's daughter, Sophie, who disguises herself as a boy so that she may accompany her father aboard the USS "Abraham Lincoln"; she becomes the apex of a love triangle involving Captain Nemo and Ned the
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and begins to sympathize with Ned Land. Near the end of the book, the "Nautilus" is attacked by a warship of some nation that had made Nemo suffer. Filled with hatred and revenge, Nemo ignores Aronnax's pleas for mercy. Nemo—nicknamed "angel of hatred" by Aronnax—destroys the ship, ramming it just below the waterline, and consequently sinking it into the bottom of the sea, much to Aronnax's horror, as he watches the ship plunge into the abyss. Nemo bows before the pictures of his wife and children and is plunged into deep depression after this encounter. For several days after this,