The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Dir: Stephen Norrington

2003

*

Stephen Norrington's 2003 adaptation of Alan Moore's infamous graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is an example of how not to adapt a comic book. 2001's From Hell was bad enough, it's no wonder Moore disassociated himself and vocally opposed further adaptations of his work, although I thought Watchman - the only film based on his work that he insisted his name removed from - was pretty good, all things considered. You have to wonder whether the producers, the director Stephen Norrington or indeed, anyone from 20th Century Fox actually read Moore's 1999 graphic novel before thinking it to be a good idea. Everything that was so amazing, original, popular and controversial, was missing. So the original fans hated it and got on their soapboxes and said so, as did Alan Moore himself. Not a great start when the author of your film hates everything about it and isn't afraid to say so. He has since admitted his naivety. He has stated that he was content to allow the filmmakers to do whatever they wished with his work and removed himself from the process entirely. "As long as I could distance myself by not seeing them," he said, he could profit from the films while leaving the original comics untouched, "assured no one would confuse the two. His attitude changed after producer Martin Poll and screenwriter Larry Cohen filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox, alleging that the film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen plagiarised an unproduced script they had written entitled Cast of Characters. Although the two scripts bear many similarities, most of them are elements that were added for the film and do not originate in Moore's comics. According to Moore, "They seemed to believe that the head of 20th Century Fox called me up and persuaded me to steal this screenplay, turning it into a comic book they could then adapt back into a movie, to camouflage petty larceny." Moore testified in a deposition, a process he found so unpleasant that he surmised he would have been better treated had he "molested and murdered a busload of retarded children after giving them heroin". Moore, not one to mince  words, has said worse about the issue since. I think 20th Century Fox deserved everything they got, although I do feel somewhat sorry for director Stephen Norrington and screenwriter James Dale Robinson. Norrington was a super special effects guy who was given a little too much too soon, based on his work on the first Blade adaption. After The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen he's been shuffled around, attached to many projects but is yet to direct anything else, almost as if he were blacklisted. James Dale Robinson's name has also been blackened in certain corners of the comic world, where he is now most predominant - luckily no one blames him, he was under pressure from the studio but he hasn't worked in film since. Just how 20th Century Fox could hope to turn a story, that involves Dr Jekyll raping The Invisible Man to death, into a child-friendly family film is beyond me. Sean Connery's Allan Quatermain was a million miles away from the heroin addict seen in the comics and while most of the comic is unfilmable, it was ridiculous to change it so much from the source material. It bombed, no one was happy, lawsuits were filed and Connery retired from acting altogether. I thought Jason Flemyng was great as Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde but that is about all I can say that is positive about this horrible CGI-heavy abomination. It's horrible, even if you haven't read the original, and even if you have and didn't like it.