Alan Moore on his movies

[Racetrack]

This is a great recent interview with Alan Moore where he talks about his career and the movie adaptations which he hates (movie talk starts at 14:10 but worth watching it all).

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAfXSgRxQEc
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn95a3gGaW0&feature=relmfu

Also this is a short clip about V For Vendetta being used as a symbol of Occupy and Anonymous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLrraNUAk2c&feature=related

So what do you think of his views on movies being made from his work and his distain for them? I've been reading his comics since i picked up the Killing Joke as a kid when it came out so i'm a big fan but all this time i never listened to the man speak, just read dozens of out of context quotes over the years. When taken out of context he comes across as a grumpy old hermit who hates the world but when you actually listen to him he's a really down to earth, humble and genuine man who makes great points, not to mention a literary genius.

HOWEVER i still can't agree with him about the movie adaptations. Not because he isn't entitled to his opinion, he is more than any of us since it was his work, but because he refuses to even watch any of the movies based on his work. If he watched From Hell, LoEG, Constantine, V or Watchmen and said "i don't like x, y and z" then that would be ok. He also doesn't think that ANY comic can be made into a movie. If he had his way this site wouldn't even exist!

Agree, disagree? Either way i highly recommend watching if your a fan of his work or the movies that were based on it.

 

[Motown Marvel]

awesome interview. i love hearing alan moore talk about....anything. he's incredibly intelligent and rational. you may see his opinions as bitter, but you cant disagree that they're not informed or understandable. and he's pretty honest about his flaws and admitting when his opinions are biased for personal reasons.

thanks for posting.

 

[S. Grundy]

The thing with Constantine though, is while he did create the character it was Delano and Ennis that really sort of defined him.

 

[Doctor Jones]

If he hasn't seen the movies that he "hates" then he has no right to an opinion because he has no information to back his "opinions" up. They're biased judgements until he actually sees them. If he does that and dismisses them then where is an opinion?

 

[kit1982]

Meh if anything it comes across that he doesn't even really have an opinion on the movies themselves, he just doesn't like them as it isn't what he signed up for. You look at the passion that he talks about ethics in the comic book industry or even the controversy of Lost Girls, whereas he sort of just skips past the issue of movies, even his answer is a little half hearted. I mean I think the whole ordeal of the court case for LEG coupled with the comic companies lies counts more for his opinion than the actual quality of the films.

I've met him before and it seemed like if you ask he'll give you a nice soundbite about the films, but otherwise he won't bring it up, he isn't that bothered.

 

[Rocketman]

Alan Moore is full of it. I've never been a big fan of him, and I think he talks at both ends of his mouth. Him, Frank Miller, and Grant Morrison are probably the three most overrated people in comics... Jim Lee following by a narrow margin too.

Moore always whines and cries about people taking his work, when taking other peoples' work is ALL he's done his ENTIRE career.

Watchmen, first of all, is completely taken from other characters. They're all based on existing DC characters like Mr. A, The Question, Nightshade, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, etc. And the ending is knowingly taken from something else.

Near the end of the project, Moore realized that the story bore some similarity to "The Architects of Fear", an episode of The Outer Limits television series. The writer and Wein argued over changing the ending, and when Moore refused to give in, Wein quit the book. Wein explained:

I love the first 11 issues of that book something fierce. They're brilliant. But I've always hated the ending, because it simply stole the ending to an episode of 'The Outer Limits,' which Alan fully admitted! And I kept telling him, 'Be more original, Alan, you've got the capability, do something different, not something that's already been done!' And he didn't seem to care enough to do that.

Moore acknowledged the Outer Limits episode by referencing it in the series' last issue.

V For Vendetta is completely designed and modeled around Guy Fawkes, so if Moore has any problem with Occupy Wall Street using the mask as influence, why is it okay for Moore to take Fawkes' image for his own purposes, but it can't be done to him? Loads of hypocrisy here.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is composed of literary characters that Moore himself didn't even invent - he took them for his own story! Dorian Gray, The Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Tom Sawyer... NONE of these characters belonged to Moore.

So, I have a REAL problem with it being okay for Moore to take all of this stuff, yet it's not okay when someone else takes it from him? Not even From Hell is actually wholly original, as it depicts actual events and is based on a real figure, Jack the Ripper.

This is exactly why I don't care for the man, no matter how talented or praised he is. He's simply a bitter old fool who makes his own rules, and then cries when someone other than him follows them.

 

[Motown Marvel]

when alan moore utilizes characters from literature he completely redefines them for his purposes. when people take from alan moore, generally speaking, they just rehash his ideas with lesser innovation and success. there is a difference.

while i agree he might not be in the best position to be opinionated about the movies, his opinions of the movies are usually pretty right on. and frankly, for the most part, he's not criticizing the movies themselves. his main issue seems to be the transfer of medium itself, which he doesnt agree with. and he doesnt need to see the movies to have that opinion.

 

[KalMart]

Maybe his stuff is better suited just to be comics. Movies aren't the ultimate of defining version of everything.

 

[S. Grundy]

V For Vendetta is completely designed and modeled around Guy Fawkes, so if Moore has any problem with Occupy Wall Street using the mask as influence, why is it okay for Moore to take Fawkes' image for his own purposes, but it can't be done to him? Loads of hypocrisy here.

Moore has been pretty supportive of OWS and the use of the mask, hell he even tore into Frank Millers looney ass for his comments on OWS.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Has Alan seen Watchmen yet?
That'd be interesting, considering how much of film was a slave to his original work.

 

[Coca Cola Duracell Franklin.]

I'm pretty much convinced Alan Moore has seen the movie adaptations of his work, and just lies to everyone to appear stubborn.

 

[Pond]

Alan Moore is full of it. I've never been a big fan of him, and I think he talks at both ends of his mouth. Him, Frank Miller, and Grant Morrison are probably the three most overrated people in comics... Jim Lee following by a narrow margin too.

Moore always whines and cries about people taking his work, when taking other peoples' work is ALL he's done his ENTIRE career.

Watchmen, first of all, is completely taken from other characters. They're all based on existing DC characters like Mr. A, The Question, Nightshade, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, etc. And the ending is knowingly taken from something else.



V For Vendetta is completely designed and modeled around Guy Fawkes, so if Moore has any problem with Occupy Wall Street using the mask as influence, why is it okay for Moore to take Fawkes' image for his own purposes, but it can't be done to him? Loads of hypocrisy here.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is composed of literary characters that Moore himself didn't even invent - he took them for his own story! Dorian Gray, The Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Tom Sawyer... NONE of these characters belonged to Moore.

So, I have a REAL problem with it being okay for Moore to take all of this stuff, yet it's not okay when someone else takes it from him? Not even From Hell is actually wholly original, as it depicts actual events and is based on a real figure, Jack the Ripper.

This is exactly why I don't care for the man, no matter how talented or praised he is. He's simply a bitter old fool who makes his own rules, and then cries when someone other than him follows them.

There is a great diference between writing a story with Dracula on it and taking the novel that Bram Stoker wrote and screw with it.

Using modern and classical fictional myths is one thing, touching a piece of work is somethin else.