Back in May, we reported that 20th Century Fox was going to try and re-adapt Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s comic series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen after failing miserably with the 2003 Sean Connery film. For those who skipped that film (understandable) or the graphic novels (the first two are good, and you should read them), they follow a group of Victorian-era literary characters who try to save the world, although the book (unsurprisingly) embraces the darker aspects of characters like Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, and even the “heroic leader”, Allan Quartermain.

While doing press at the TCAs, Haleigh spoke to producer John Davis and asked him about the status of League. He acknowledged that the first movie was not well received, and he believes that they’ve figured how to make this new iteration work.

JOHN DAVIS: Just by going back to the roots and making it authentic to what the fan base 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?

First off, if Mad Max: Fury Road manages to have this kind of impact, it’s somehow even more successful than we previously thought.

But it’s odd that he wants this to be female-centric when there aren’t that many female characters. The only female character is Mina Murray (from Dracula), so is she going to be the protagonist? I have no problem with that if they do a good job writing the character, and I’m curious if they plan to bring in other female literary characters even if they’re not from Moore and O’Neill’s comics.

As for what Davis thinks people liked about the books, he says that they hope to capture that the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen “are rogues” and that “you can’t save the world with conventional people when unconventional things are happening.”