I’ve been watching the trailers for From Hell, where Johnny Depp is on the trail of Jack The Ripper. Is he supposed to be the same character he played in Sleepy Hollow? He acts the same way, appears to have the same job , it’s the same time period, etc.
No. Sleepy Hollow was entirely fictional. From Hell is “fictional;” it’s based on the graphic novel of the same title and is a fictional solving/tying together of all the events surrounding the Whitechapel/Jack the Ripper murders in Victorian London.
But all the characters in the story, including Depp’s character Inspector Abberline, were real, historical figures. No connection to Sleepy Hollow at all.
I recommend you read the book, because I can tell from the trailers that major changes were made.
For example, in the book Abberline worked with an alleged psychic to try to find the killer. The directors of the movie seem to have thrown out the psychic character and made Abberline himself psychic.
Also, none of the Ripper’s victims was younger than forty. But in the movie, one of them is played by Heather Graham, very definitely under 40.
i thought it was the same character, but done accidently. My beef with the movie From Hell was i couldn’t tell what the title was, i didn’t beleive From Hell was it, i thought it was a tagline, and was waiting for the real title when the preview ended. maybe Ripped: From Hell would be better…
The title was a historical choice. At the time of the murders, newspapers were getting bombarded by letters from sickos claiming to be the killer.
But there was one letter received which is generally accepted as having been written by the murderer himself, since it was accompanied by a piece of kidney artery that matched a similar part missing from the most recent victim.
And that letter was signed “From Hell.”
Fiver, thanks for the clarification, and the book recommendation.
Tars, I also was confused by the title in that trailer. I sure hope the movie doesn’t suck, b/c if it does, that’s one unfortunate title.
I know this is picking nits, but I don’t think it’s entirely accurate to say that letter was signed “From Hell.”
I’ve seen that letter reproduced in various books (it’s also shown on this page) and the “From hell” line is actually more of a dateline up at the top of the note than a signature. As the linked page makes clear with a transcript, this note is actually “signed Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk.”
You’re right, there is no connection between Sleepy Hollow and From Hell. But I’d like to make the observation that in the source work for Sleepy Hollow (that’d be The Legend Of same, by Washington Irving), the characters were based on real historical people. Real people who lived in my hometown, coincidentally, and whose houses still stand, for the most part.
I think it is also worth mentioning that the events of Sleepy Hollow took place soon after the Revolutionary War, which places it within a decade or two before the turn of the nineteenth century (of course, Washington Irving’s story was probably placed around 50 years earlier than that).
from Hell is placed just before the turn of the twentieth century. Would make the character played by Mr. Depp rather well-preserved to have been in both places.
I just wanna say I tihnk you all should read the Graphic Novel From Hell. The movie doesnt look very good and I wouldnt be surprised if they skip a lot of the scenes for the movie. Its a great book by Alan Moore (also wrote The Watchmen and other great graphic novels) and Eddie Campbell.
If you want to learn a little more about “From Hell,” check out Eddie Campbell’s Web site at http://www.eddiecampbellcomics.com.
I’ve been a fan of the man’s work since he published his autobiographical “Alec” series (about he and his pub friends when he was living in England, very funny and thoughtful stuff here).
I would hope they cut a few scenes. The thing is the size of phone book! 
I must go on the record as saying I didn’t care for it. I couldn’t get around Campbell’s art. I kept getting the characters confused because I couldn’t distinguish them from each other (plus, I am not a big fan of black and White). I think I may have given it more of a chance if it had been drawn by Dave Gibbons! 
I admit the drawings arent the greatest but they give great atmosphere to the story. Really makes Jack seem evil. You have to admit that the dialogue is really good though.
Eddie Campbell’s style may not be to some folks’s liking, but I don’t think it’s fair to call it “bad.” I was frustrated at times when I couldn’t quite tell what was going on, but this is sort of the point in many parts of the story. London was so foggy and smoggy in 1888 that nighttime visibility was seldom more than 5 feet.
But anyway, the art is wonderfully atmospheric and conjures the mood very powerfully.
I have to think much of the stuff in the story about Freemasonry will be left out of the movie. Especially the part about Nicholas Hawksmoor’s obelisk/churches and their pentagonal placement about the city; I just can’t imagine how the directors can make that make sense to a movie audience.
By the by, I recommend the London Walks “Jack the Ripper” tour to anyone who’s interested in the Whitechapel killings or in the book and movie. In two hours you visit all the murder scenes (inasmuch as it’s still possible), then finish up at the Ten Bells pub, which was the very pub where the Ripper’s victims went to drown their many sorrows.
The mood was certainly well placed, but I guess the more appropriate word for the art was “elementary”. I don’t mean that as a kiddie drawing, but just someone without the highest degree of skill. In my graphic storytelling, I need only two things from my art (1) Clarity and (2) Distinct faces. Campbell’s art was too scratchy for me (some consider it a boon to the story). I will admit his cityscapes were nice. I think it was people I was most objectionable. A few of the hard core sex scenes reminded me of the ones the decent artists back in middle school used to draw!
Not everything about freemasonry is gone. In one of the ads you see a large case being closed, just above the latch is what appears to be a Masonic Symbol.
I had thought that Mary Kelly, whom Ms. Graham is playing, was the youngest of the lot, and only in her 20s or 30s.
She will, in any event, end up a much less gorgeous corpse than she did in Drugstore Cowboy.
Before anyone mentions it, I’d like to acknowledge the irony of a man named Watson using the word “elementary”. Inevitably someone would point it out, as if I had never heard the joke before.
I think the dead giveaway that they are not the same charcater is the fact that they take place about a century apart.
Sleepy Hollow was set in the United States around 20 years after the American Revolution whereas Jack the Ripper takes place in London in the 1880s.
Dman, I missed the one post that already stated what I said… read you idiot read!!! (that was to myself)
My bad: Mary Kelly was indeed only 25 when she died. She was therefore much younger than the other victims.
However, to back myself up in the midst of my retraction, given the kind of life an East End prostitute was forced to live in the 1880s, I daresay she probably looked much, much older than 25.
She certainly wouldn’t have looked like Heather Graham.