
The rumor mill started with regard to a ‘League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ back in May, but little has been heard about the film until now.
It Collider that broke the silence and revealed some intriguing information about the film, which is based on the much loved comic book series by Alan Moore.
The movie has been confirmed to be on the up and is being produced by John Davis for 20th Century Fox, but further to the confirmation of the movie it has been revealed that the new film will be female-centric. This move will make this movie even further removed from its comic book origins. The comics were mostly male led, but did have potentially strong female characters in Mina Harker and Captain Nemo’s daughter Jenny who both rose to the forefront in the books.
“It’s female-centric, which I think is interesting,” said Davis. “I love female characters, point-of-view characters in action movies. I thought ‘Mad Max [Fury Road]’ was great. I think you can always find a fresh way of doing something and going back to the basics. What is that people love? What is it that made them love the property in the first place?”
This is the second attempt at doing a big screen adaptation of the comic book series by Alan Moore. The first was released back in 2003 and starred Sean Connery as Alan Quartermain. Sadly the film was hardly a roaring success and is often top of peoples lists when it comes to talking about bad movies.
‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ was one of the most acclaimed comic book series of the late ’90s and early 2000s, first published by WildStorm imprint America’s Best Comics, and later Top Shelf Productions. The series has mostly been dominated by male characters, with “Dracula’s” Mina Harker being the most prominent female member of the team with Captain Nemo’s daughter Pirate Jenny having also risen to the forefront.
If this new film uses Mina Harker and Jenny as its lead female characters and does not gender bend established male characters such as Alan Quartermain or Captain Nemo then it could work out well. We have seen successful sex changes of popular male characters in recent years, but few of them have been successful. The recent Syfy series ‘Warehouse 13’ had much success with their take on HG Wells as played by the talented Jaime Murray, but that is only one of a few exceptions to the rule.