In 2002, H.G. Wells’ classic 1895 novella, The Time Machine, was given a glossy modern makeover as a Hollywood feature directed by the legendary author’s great-grandson, British filmmaker Simon Wells.

Eight years after he played psychotic droog Alex DeLarge in Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian sci-fi satire A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell might have seemed like the obvious choice to play the Ripper.