20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997 Village Roadshow film) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997 Village Roadshow film) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a 1997 two-part television miniseries produced by Village Roadshow Pictures, based on the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne. It was written by Brian Nelson and directed by Rod Hardy. The "Nautilus" has been sinking and damaging ships and is at first thought to be a giant narwhal. Pierre Aronnax and Ned Land and Cabe Attucks fall off the USS "Abraham Lincoln" and are picked up by the "Nautilus". Pierre Aronnax's father Thierry Aronnax is with the US naval party. Nemo
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who is known to be responsible for many serious changes in Verne's books. In the original text the mysterious captain was a Polish nobleman, avenging his family who were killed by the Russians in retaliation for the captain's taking part in the Polish January Uprising of 1863. As France was at the time allied with the Russian Empire, the target for Nemo's wrath was changed to France's old enemy, the British Empire, to avoid political trouble. Professor Pierre Aronnax does not suspect Nemo's origins, as these were explained only later, in Verne's next book. What remained in