I note in passing that AC was originally included in the dramatis personae of “From Hell”…
This from The Z Review (5 December 2001):
Johny Depp, is playing Inspector Abberline. Now if you have read From Hell the graphic novel they don’t really look much alike do they? Minor point, I know but From Hell is a meticulous story. Still if Depp hadn’t came on board who can say if this movie would have been made? Robbie Coltrane is playing Sgt. Peter Godley, Abberline’s partner. Ian (House of Cards) Holm is playing Sir Charles Warren. We also found this over at Aint It Cool, an interview with producer Don Murphy. “Well, it’s the JFK of Jack the Ripper movies with amazing historical detail, a flawed detective that nobody expects to solve the crime, an unlikely love story, and a conspiracy that goes all the way to Queen Victoria herself. Chief Detective Fred Abberline has worked his way out of Whitechapel when he is sent back in to work the Ripper case by his superiors, who are members of a secret society and hope that, thanks to his drug habit, he’ll never solve the case. Four women have been marked for death because of secrets they know…… and Abberline finds himself madly in love with one of them. He consults the Queen’s psychics, young Aleister Crowley, fellow policemen, and the Queen’s physician Sir William Gull – who might know more about the mysterious goings on that he admits!”