The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

As I was looking through my list of potential things to research that bared relavence to late 19th century London; save for the history of it, itself, a friend of mine brought up 'The league of extraordinary gentlmen' written by Allan Moore and drawn by Kevin O'Neil- it held an alternate victorian setting with a steampunk edge to it.

The concept of the series draws from books, from that time period; for example Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde. Written in the late 19th century 'Strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson. Using famous fictional figures from that time period, teaming up to fight against 'The fantom'. I find victorian fiction fascinating and this combination of well known figures was really well achieved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:League.jpg



I chose to watch the film adaptation of the comics mainly, purely for the scenes in London, I wanted to examine their adaptation of victorian London and also what areas were used most.
The opening sequence was possibly the most helpful part for me, as it featured police officers along with the appropriate setting; to no surprise the colour scheme was very monochromatic and dark, typical for the 19th century. Tall, overshadowing buildings, varying with tight, claustrophobic alleyways or wide open cobblestone roads. Large use of pipe work in the opening sequence as it pans down from the rooftops of London; technoligically there is electrical lights alongside the tank that breaking into the bank.

The characters colour scheme in the film are also devoid of much colour, either greys and black tones or natural hues; Captain Nemo is a slight exeption to the rule, wearing elaborate royal blue asian attire; emphasising how bleak Victorian London was.