Alan Moore’s graphic novel The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen—about a team of Victorian-era literary characters adventuring together in gentlemanly ways—was first destroyed by Hollywood in 2003 with an underdeveloped and underperforming film adaptation. Then Fox tried a television series that never took off. And now, as we reported in May, 20th Century Fox is working on a reboot to try to get it right this time. According to Collider, producer John Davis said at the Television Critics Association press tour this week that the secret to the reboot’s success will be a focus on the extraordinary ladies:
Just by going back to the roots and making it authentic to what the fanbase was really excited about. It’s female-centric, which I think is interesting. I love female characters, point-of-view characters in action movies. I thought Mad Max 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?
The only problem with Davis’s statement is that it’s unclear exactly how the reboot is going to be female-centric, considering that the team it follows—which includes Allan Quatermain, Mina Murray, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll, and the Invisible Man—is made up of mostly, well, gentlemen. Dracula’s Mina Murray is the only main female character, so maybe she’ll be running the show and calling the shots (or taking them, if she’s anything like Imperator Furiosa). Or maybe the film reboot will try to bring in female literary characters who don’t appear in Moore’s graphic novel. Either way, the influence of Imperator Furiosa is huge if it has the production team of a film with “gentlemen” in the title thinking of ways to get more extraordinary women in there.
Davis also said that this particular team of extraordinaries “are rogues.” “You can’t save the world with conventional people when unconventional things are happening,” he said.