20th Century Fox is moving forward with a plan to reboot and rebuild The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen into a movie franchise.
NewsIn this day and age where you can’t throw a rock in the summer without hitting a superhero team-up movie—be it Avengers, X-Men, or soon-to-come dawning justices—it’s not a surprise that studios are willing to make a go at it outside of the caped and cowled. Indeed, some are even willing to give infamous franchise busts another look in this very new dawn.
Thus enter late night revelations that 20th Century Fox is planning to reboot The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen into a new franchise. The Avengers-esque set-up of some of the greatest heroes (and anti-heroes) of Victorian literature joining forces seemed like a dicey idea in 2003—especially in retrospect since it opened on the same day as Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl—but now this team-up approach to great literature has a certain appeal. It’s certainly evident at Showtime where John Logan and Sam Mendes have taken a very similar concept to The League and produced the intensely entertaining Penny Dreadful.
As an amalgamation of 19th century British concepts and ideas (and steampunk), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was created by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. Moore originally pitched it as “the Justice League of Victorian England,” but it later morphed into more than its six-issue concept (and has since left the 19th century behind).
Spawning three miniseries, as well as several graphic novels, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen tells of a secret society at the turn of the century consisting of Alan Quartermain, Mina Harker, Captain Nemo, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, and more. Their rogue’s gallery also includes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Moriarty, Fu Manchu, and the aliens from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds (who wouldn’t want to see Martians attacking Victorian England?).
Of special note is the lack of Americans—such as Tom Sawyer who despite being a boy in the 1840s, somehow appeared as barely 20 in 1890s London for 2003’s abysmal LXG adaptation. That film also holds the special distinction of being so dreadful with all of its poor choices that it led director Stephen Norrington to quit filmmaking—and its star Sean Connery also subsequently retired with this career capper.
Surely, they’ll have better luck this time?
