Those of you accessing this page will know that the film is based on the novel The Dumas Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte, and stars Johnny Depp as Dean Corso, who is a rare-book dealer hired by a wealthy book collector to validate a copy of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, a book by the 17th century author Aristide Torchia.


These 2 images are from the binder who made the props for the film, the grain in the leather shows it is a poor quality sheep skin. The binding for the book will look very similar to the one in the film but it will be bound in a fine hand tanned consecrated virgin calf and not a rough old piece of chrome tanned "hair" sheep, it will also be a true 17thC style binding which the one in the film is not. The colour will be a 17thC formula that produces a rich blue - black called "midnight black" instead of a black aniline dye. I was thinking of blind tooling goetic Sigils within the pentacle.


The book in the film consists of paragraphs of printed text that is repeated called "filler text" and doesn't actually mean anything. Even the title "DE VMBRARVM REGNI NOVEM PORTIS" doesn't translate correctly. The true title is UT REGNUM DE UMBRA NONUS PORTA, the twist being:- My version comprises of "Nine Books of the Mysterious Arts" each "gate" opening a genuine book of occult lore.
These are some of the pages I have typeset and I have "aged" the paper to look in keeping with the period.











