Alan Moore’s ‘From Hell’ heading to the small screen

If you didn’t have enough nightmares after reading Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s legendary graphic novel “From Hell,” or watching the 2001 film adaptation, you’re in luck. The network FX plans to adapt the book into a television series, Deadline reports.

The script will be written by David Arata, who co-wrote the screenplay for the film “Children of Men,” based on the P.D. James novel. Don Murphy will serve as executive producer; Murphy produced the film version, as well as such movies as “Natural Born Killers,” “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “Transformers.”

“From Hell” deals with the Whitechapel murders perpetrated by Jack the Ripper, the 19th century London serial killer whose identity has never been discovered. There have been dozens of theories, of course; Moore’s novel posits that the slayings were the result of a conspiracy to cover up the birth of a prince’s illegitimate child.

The book is considered by many comic-book aficionados to be one of the greatest graphic novels ever written, and the film adaptation did well at the box office despite a tepid reaction from critics. The reclusive, sometimes irascible Moore hasn’t weighed in on the planned television series yet, but he’s traditionally been skeptical of Hollywood adaptations. In 2008, he told the Los Angeles Times: “I find film in its modern form to be quite bullying. It spoon-feeds us, which has the effect of watering down our collective cultural imagination. It is as if we are freshly hatched birds looking up with our mouths open waiting for Hollywood to feed us more regurgitated worms.”