Today in unnecessary reboot news, 20th Century Fox is looking to remake 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and turn it into a film franchise, Deadline is reporting.
The 2003 film starring Sean Connery and Jason Flemyng eventually made $179 million at the box office, but it was maligned by critics and fans of the graphic novels from Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. It’s generally considered a giant flop and effectively ended Connery’s career.
The new film will also be based on Moore and O’Neill’s graphic novels and follow the plights of famous literary characters such as Alan Quartermain, Mina Harker from Dracula, Doctor Jekyll, and Captain Nemo during an alternative Victorian England, but will have no ties to the original. While Fox tried to make The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen into a TV show, the project never went past the pilot stage.
Ira Napoliello, Matt Reilly, and John Davis are set to find writers and directors who will turn it into a franchise.
It’s no surprise really that people are basically treating this as a joke.
Just imagine if the new League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen had the exact same cast as the original movie.
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) May 27, 2015
https://twitter.com/bafeldman/status/603553333429686273
Moore, who’s spoken harshly against adaptations of his work before, noted back in 2013 when the pilot failed that “it seems [Fox is] recycling things that have already proven not to work.” We guess that he’ll be as equally thrilled when he learns of the reboot attempt.
News of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen reboot comes at a time when fans are clamouring for more female comic book movies and substantial roles for women than ever—and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen only has one in its ranks.
But why do we have to be limited to what’s in the text? If Fox is determined to make this work—and right now it looks to be that way—why not use the original name for the series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk, and cast women?
Hot topics in the @DotGeek newsroom: Which women to cast in an all-female League of Extraordinary Gentlemen reboot to stop it being awful.
— Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor) May 27, 2015
Tilda Swinton (whether in just one role or all of them is optional), Tatiana Maslany, Octavia Spencer, Lucy Liu, Lupita Nyong’o, Ming-Na Wen… and that’s just off the top of our heads. The possibilities are endless. And if the movie flopped again, there’s an original flop to show it probably wasn’t just the casting choice.
H/T Empire Magazine | Screengrab via MistarMuffin/YouTube