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Brotherhood of the Wolf is based on a screenplay written by French film-maker Christophe Gans (who also directed the movie) and screenwriter Stéphane Cabel. Gans and Cabel took details for their story from a nonfiction reference book, La bête du Gévaudan: L'innocence des loups ("The Beast of Gévaudan: The Innocence of Wolves") (2001) by French zoologist Michel Louis, who described a series of killings that took place in France in the mid-18th century by a beast known as the Beast of Gévaudan.

Brotherhood of the Wolf is an attempt to explain the three-year reign of terror caused by a real Beast (or Beasts) of Gévaudan, a former province in the Margeride Mountains in south-central France. During the years from 1764 to 1767, an unknown animal resembling a large wolf (according to the descriptions of those who saw it and lived to tell) killed over 100 people and wounded some 100 others. The Beast was never caught nor was it ever identified. The movie gives a fictionalized account of a secret organization conspiring to bring down the authority of King Louis XV of France by the use of a large beast brought back from Africa by one of its members. The Beast of Gévaudan has become a topic of much interest to cryptozoologists (those who study mysterious or fabled creatures such as the Loch Ness monster or bigfoot). An artist's conception of one of the Beasts shown here is taken from an 18th-century engraving by A.F. of Alençon.

The opening and closing scenes take place during the French Revolution [1789-1799], but the majority of the movie takes place some 20 years earlier, during the three years that the Beast of Gévaudan was doing its killing [1764-1767].

The narrator is the old Marquis Thomas D'Apcher (Hans Meyer).

It's unknown how many of Mark Dacascos's fight scenes were filmed with him or a double doing the fighting. As a world renown martial artist, holding first place in a number of karate championships, chances are high that Dacascos did most of his own stunts, with the exception (perhaps) of stunts that might have resulted in injury to him. Suffice to say that the fight scenes were choreographed, and who better to portray Mani in fight mode than Dacascos himself?

Jean-François (Vincent Cassel) explains to Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan) that he was injured by a lion and that his arm became infected with gangrene.

Fronsac explains to young Thomas D'Apcher (Jérémie Renier) that the French army distributed linen infected with disease to the native Indian tribes. Considering it a gift, the Indians used them, got sick, and died. The army then came in and wiped out anyone more or less standing. "Civilized tactics" is what they called it.

Aristocrats with money or power were targeted during the French Revolution. Even King Louis XVI was guillotined in 1793. His wife, Marie Antoinette, suffered the same fate nine months later. The real Marquis d'Apcher is said to have been spared when his subjects actually stood up in his favor.

The Director's Cut features two prolonged story sequences showing some more background information of Grégoire de Fronsac. This adds up to a total difference of approx. 8 minutes.