Who watches the Watchmen? Probably not Alan Moore. Back in 1986, Moore and artist Dave Gibbons co-created the seminal comic book series that inspired the upcoming HBO series. However, Moore has a longstanding grudge against DC for not returning ownership of the characters to himself and Gibbons. Regardless, Damon Lindelof, the showrunner of Watchmen, recently admitted that he sought Moore’s blessing. It went about as well as can be expected.
Via SYFY Wire, Lindelof appeared at HBO’s TCA presentation, and related his interaction with Moore.
“[Moore] has made it clear he wants no ongoing affiliation, and to not use his name to get people to watch it,” said Lindelof. “I made personal overtures to explain what we are doing, and he declined. As someone who has a very complicated relationship with my dad — I constantly need to prove myself to [someone] … Alan Moore is now my surrogate. I love [that] Alan has a punk rock spirit. I’m channeling his spirit to tell him, ‘F*** you; I’m doing it anyway.’”
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Moore has a long history of rejecting Hollywood’s overtures, and he’s openly disdainful about previous adaptations of his work. Those include V For Vendetta, From Hell, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Moore was also dismissive about Zack Snyder’s Watchmen theatrical adaptation.
Lindelof has described HBO’s Watchmen as a remix of Moore and Gibbon’s original story that treats the comic as canon. The recently released Comic-Con trailer revealed that Doctor Manhattan will play a role and that the world has greatly changed since the events of the comic.
Watchmen is slated to premiere on HBO later this year.
What do you think about Lindelof’s latest comments about the Watchmen series? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Watchmen
