Being a comic book fan, Watchmen is my bible, but my favorite comic book series by Moore (possibly my favorite comic book period) is the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Starting in 1999 and with a whopping thirteen issues and one graphic novel to date, the League is a thing of no equal. Drawn by the splendid Kevin O’Neil, it is set in an alternate reality populated by characters previously seen in existing fiction, a reality where Elizabeth I never existed, but had the fairy Queen Gloriana in her stead. Where the Second World War saw Britain fight a Germany ruled by a zealous German with a silly moustache called Adenoid Hynkel and elected an authoritarian socialist regime – known as Ingsoc - soon later.
The world of the League is where every story from fiction has happened, and I do mean every story. The Big Lebowski, The Threepenny Opera, Les Miserables, Don Quichote, Slow Chocolate Autopsy, Jerry Cornelius, Seinfeld and The Crimson Avenger; pop culture, influential classics and works so obscure that you wonder if Moore just made them up; all of them co-exist in and shape the universe of the League, or at least get a nod and a wink.
Amid this rich and incredibly detailed backdrop is the focus of the story; a covert British Intelligence unit comprised of individuals with unusual skills and abilities convened to deal with unusual threats to British national security. They operate out of a secret wing of the British Museum and answer to a spymaster known as M.
The first story arc was set in 1898 and featured a newly assembled League trying to retrieve material that is essential for Britain’s proposed space program, as well as the lethal duel between two master criminals. The second arc was a retelling of War of the Worlds from the League’s perspective. And then came The Black Dossier, a graphic novel that saw the series go from Justice League of Victorian England to being about the entirety of fiction. It was set in late fifties England following the fall of English socialism and concerned the surviving members stealing a valuable secret document that charted the history of the League.
The third series, which’s first and so far only issue came out May 2009, is about the League trying to prevent the end of the world over the course of an entire century. The first issue was set in 1910 and was a reworking of the Threepenny Opera, complete with catchy musical numbers.
The first arc series had a loose adaptation in 2003 starring Sean Connery and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was poorly received, particularly by the fans who noted a massive amount of liberties such as turning the strong but normal heroine into a vampiric subordinate of the more conventional male protagonist, as well as the inclusion of an American character that took too much screen time, and much, much more.
It was mediocre, but I liked at the time, and I still appreciate it for showing me how amazing comic books could be. TLOEG was the first comic book I read and I haven’t stopped since.
I’m not sure of the status of the film rights; are they still with 20th Century Fox or have they reverted back to Moore? Either way, we’re probably never going to see a proper adaptation. But like the man said, we might all be in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. And with that, allow me to present to you my proposed cast for a reboot!
Wilhelmina Murray
A headstrong former music teacher and a willing divorcee, which was cause to be cast aside by polite society in Victorian England. Her encounter with one of the worst monsters of history had strengthened her character and made her a fit candidate to lead a new lineup of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
The ideal Mina would have been Helena Bonham Carter about 15 years or so ago. Eva Green has a great quirky, gothic look to her, but I’m not sure she has the acting chops to star. Kate Winslet would actually be a good Mina for an adaptation of the actual Dracula. Though I don’t recall seeing her in anything remotely similar, she is a great actress regardless.
Alan Quatermain
A once famed game hunter and national hero, since believed dead and succumbing to drug addiction. Though he retains his remarkable marksmanship skills, he is a bit of a blundering shadow of his former self.
Captain Nemo
An Indian nobleman, rebel, science pirate and patron of a pseudo-anarchist society located in a place called Lincoln’s island. He was coaxed into serving his former enemies with the promise of adventure.
Ghassan Massoud is a Syrian actor known to western audiences for his portrayal of Saladin in Ridley Scott’s historical epic Kingdom of Heaven, in which he was great, as well an appearance as an Arabian pirate lord in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Dr. Henry Jekyll
A once respected medical practitioner with a monstrous alter-ego know as Edward Hyde. To escape scandal and reprisal he faked his death and fled to Paris, where Hyde grew larger and more vicious as the years went on. He was quite violently recruited into the league and offered a conditional pardon.
Last time around Hyde was played by Jason Flemyng in a latex suit that generally had a cool design, but looked like latex everywhere aside from the head. CGI has gone a way in the last seven years, thought they haven’t quite nailed the Hulk yet, Davy Jones is mighty convincing. So that might be the way with the actor providing mo-cap and voice. Eccleston would be a brilliant Hyde, but playing Jekyll would be a break from his usual roles.
Hawley Griffin
A university student who achieved invisibility. While believed to have been trampled by a mob in West Sussex, he’d actually fled to Edmonton, where he resided in a girl’s school and indulged in sexual assaults that were widely believed to be events of a divine nature. He was recruited into the league with the promise of a pardon and a cure to his invisibility.
Griffin is unseen or covered in bandages the whole time. What’s needed is an actor who can act through voice alone and still be menacing.
The Doctor (Who is not Fu Manchu, I assure you)
A Chinese warlord and the East End’s undisputed crime lord. His theft of a newly invented anti-gravity mineral sparks the formation of a new League.
Campion Bond
The League’s handler. A rotund, pompous and despicable agent of the British secret service hailing from a family of some infamy.
Mycroft Holmes
Sherlock Holmes’ older brother and the director of British Intelligence.
Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty
The prime example of a master detective and the very prototype of the super-villain. Holmes is seen with Moriarty in a flashback, in their infamous fight at Reichenbach falls that was the apparent death of both.
John Carter and Gulliver Jones
A pair of human men who’d fought for the confederacy during the American Civil war, and were transported by magical means to Mars, where they’d come to make their home. The two forge an alliance to unify the various Martian tribes against the belligerent Mollusks.
The issue in which these characters appear is heavily influenced with the movie of Lawrence of Arabia, with Jones modeled after Lawrence and Carter modeled after either Ali or Prince Faisal. The epic had an unofficial sequel starring these two actors as Lawrence and Faisal. Both would be cameos, and it’d possibly be an obscure in-joke that’s not worth it, but there it is.
Dr. Moreau
An eccentric scientist with connections to the British government. He conducts his gruesome experiments in a massive forest in the British countryside.
Bill Nighy can give off a kindly grandfather vibe at the same time he gives off a creepy pensioner from down the hall who smells funny vibe. My second choice would be Patrick Bauchau.
Orlando
A possibly deluded, sex-changingl Immortal warrior with an infinite appetite for fighting and sex. He/she had been founding a member of the league as well as a member of two others, including the second Murray League.
Whoever could play Orlando has to be able to be believable when made up into the opposite gender. A woman has better chances of pulling that off. Tilda Swinton would have been great as she got many to think she was a somewhat effeminate man in Constantine, but she’s already played Orlando before. Cate Blanchet gave a stellar performance as Jude Quinn, a Bob Dylan analogue in I’m Not There. And with her stature playing a warrior wouldn’t be such a stretch.
Also, there’s a chance we’ll get to see Winslet and Blanchet necking at last. And is that alone not worthy of a reboot?
AJ Raffles
A penitent gentleman thief who was press-ganged into joining the second Murray League.
Alan Quatermain Jr.
Believed to be the long lost son of Alan Quatermain, who came to be associated with Mina Murray shortly after the death of his father and then became a member of her second League.
Tom Carnacki
Psychic medium and occult detective who volunteered his service to the second Murray League to prevent an impending apocalyptic event.
Andrew Norton
A time traveler who, while able to move from time to time, is unable to leave London. He appears in the vicinity King’s Cross railway station and speaks in oblique riddles that hint that he is aware of the League universe as the all-encompassing nexus of all of fiction.
My previous pick was Rowan Atkinson, but then I thought the role was brief and requires the actor to deliver lines rapidly while seeming uninterested. Why not the creator of Andrew Norton and his physical model in a cameo?
Janni
The rebellious daughter of the late Captain Nemo, who rather than continuing the family business ran away and became a maid at a seaside hotel.
Mack the Knife
A merchant navy captain who probably was Jack the Ripper. He is one of two primarily musical characters who sing a great deal of their dialogue, which no one else ever comments upon.
Nick Cave is one of those musicians you can still safely call a rock star. He’s the frontman of The Bed Seeds, Grinderman and previously The Birthday Party. He’s had some forays into film, such as writing the western modern classic The Proposition and playing a troubadour in The Assassination of Jesse James, for which he composed the soundtrack. He did a brilliant cover of Mack the Knife and there’s no one I’d rather see sing MacHeath’s last plea from the gallows.
Suki Tawdry
A prostitute of middle years who becomes acquainted with Janni. She is one of two characters who sing a great deal of their dialogue, which no one else ever comments upon
Formerly of the Dresden Dolls before embarking on a successful solo career. I don’t think she’s done any film, but she publicly and hilariously mocked the Katy Perry and she sleeps with Neil Gaiman. That’s got to count for something, right?
Oliver Haddo
A fictionalized Alister Crowley. Leader of a sinister cult of magicians attempting to create a Moonchild, a being destined to end the world.
Robert Cherry
A British spy who - under the cover identity of Harry Lime, a racketeer - operated in Vienne during and following the Second World War. He later was recalled back to England, where he became director of the British secret service and was part of the rise, reign and downfall of Ingsoc.
Actually, I think I can see Allam playing Lime and Rush playing Haddo just as well.
Sir Hugo Drummond (Not nicknamed Bulldog)
A violently racist and jingoistic war veteran. He is one of a trio of agents dispatched to capture the rogue League in 1958.
Emma Night (Who shall never marry a man called Peel)
Drummond’s goddaughter and head of Night Industries. She is one of a trio of agents dispatched to capture the rogue League in 1958.
Jimmy (Who absolutely does not have the last name Bond)
A buffoonish, misogynistic and vicious spy. He is one of a trio of agents dispatched to capture the rogue League in 1958.
Careful observers will have noticed that I’m a huge fan of The Wire. Dominic West just excels at playing bastards.
Billy Bunter
A sad elderly man and caretaker of the defunct Greyfriars School, which he attended as a young pupil with Robert Cherry.
Prospero
An Italian nobleman and powerful sorcerer who was a founder of the League, and who has since became a major figure in the League’s lore.
Prospero has been noted by many to be intended as Moore’s author surrogate. Moore looks kind of like a well fed Jeremy Irons, beyond all the hair that is.
Queen Gloriana
A fairy-human monarch, corresponding to Elizabeth I in our universe. It was under her orders that the league was originally founded.
Why yes, the humor in Swinton playing an Elizabeth I surrogate while Blanchet plays Orlando is not lost upon me.
My second choice would be Miranda Richardson. You know, Blackadder and all that.