The Ninth Gate (1999), directed by Roman Polanski, is a neo-noir, mystery (Mystery film) thriller (Thriller (genre)) about the rare book business, wherein rare-book dealer Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is hired by bibliophile (Book collecting) Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to validate a seventeenth-century copy of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, by Aristide Torchia, and what he encounters en route.

The film, based upon the novel The Club Dumas (1993), by Arturo P�rez-Reverte, comprises three genres, and was co-written by director Roman Polanski. The premiere showing was at San Sebasti�n, Spain, on 25 August 1999 ? a month before the 47th San Sebastian International Film Festival; in North America, it failed critically and commercially, because, reviewers claimed, it was a lesser effort than Rosemarys Baby (Rosemarys Baby (film)) (1968), his best supernatural-theme film; nonetheless, The Ninth Gate earned a worldwide gross of $58.4 million against a $38 million budget.