The original League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie failed to enchant audiences, so now Fox is giving the adaptation another go.
It’s not like comic book movies are exactly a new phenomenon in Hollywood. Although the big boom only really happened within the last decade, there have been adaptations since movies were invented.
But over the past few years, it’s become so common for big studios to focus on adapting existing stories as opposed to creating new cinematic experiences, sometimes they won’t even look for new stories to adapt — why gamble on something different when you know people will always pay to go see Spider-Man, after all?
However, we can see why Fox is eager to give The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a second chance.
The 2003 movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was not exactly a great success. Although it starred Sean Connery (incidentally, he hasn’t taken an acting job since, but we’re not sure those two facts are connected), the Stephen Norrington-directed clumsy, clunky adaptation is generally considered a flop.
However, the historical fantasy comic book on which is it based is actually really interesting.
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Created by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen mashes up iconic Victorian-era characters such as Captain Nemo, Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, the Invisible Man, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And Hollywood sure loves a good team-up.
20th Century Fox tried to reboot the franchise back in 2013 as a TV series, but without much luck. Now, however, they’re bringing it back to the big screen.
Variety reports that Ira Napoliello and Matt Reilly will be overseeing the remake (or re-adaptation), with no news yet of a timeline.
Back in 2003, Fox was hoping that the League movie would launch a franchise. No such thing happened, but perhaps the third time will be the charm.
In the era of Cinematic Universes, it’s not unfathomable that a more streamlined League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie could inspire sequels and character-centric spin-offs.