That crackling sound you can hear is Alan Moore setting fire to his beard. Transformers producer Don Murphy is developing a new version of Moore and Eddie Campbell's dense Jack The Ripper tome From Hell for television. The FX Channel is its intended home, and David Arata (Children Of Men) will adapt the complex narrative.
We've been here before in slightly different circumstances. Murphy was also one of the producers behind the 2001 Hughes Brothers version starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham. That film did as good a job as could reasonably have been expected of simplifying and cramming the story into two hours.
But Murphy apparently always thought the material was better suited to an episodic format, and the rise of must-see quality TV drama has prompted him to seize the opportunity. Moore and Campbell's massive massive graphic novel sees Inspector Abberline of the Yard investigating a Ripper conspiracy that involves the Freemasons, the Royal Family and a lot of quite complex psychogeography. Whether the series will manage to keep any of that more esoteric stuff intact remains to be seen.
Moore's conclusion as to the Ripper's identity was more fanciful than this year's latest theory. But whether or not the mystery is ever solved, the interest is always undeniably there. A new From Hell hewing closer to source may well prove a quality item.
Moore's thoughts on the subject are not yet on record...