Watchmen HBO Eyeing ‘Watchmen’ TV Series from Damon Lindelof

[Sithborg]

Lindeloff is saying a lot of good things. Lets see how that translates onto the screen.

 

[flickchick85]

Man, i really hope they don't make any of these characters "badass". Not even Regina King's character.

Regina King was born badass. She can't help it!

 

[Hollis Mason]

Regina King was born badass. She can't help it!

Makes sense.

 

[Hollis Mason]

Lindeloff is saying a lot of good things. Lets see how that translates onto the screen.

If he screws it, he is gonna get crucified by Watchmen fanboys, comic book fanboys, Moore fanboys, DC fanboys...

 

[Sithborg]

Considering the snyderistas likely view Rorschach as the best hero, I expect them to take quite the personal umbrage with the Rorschach militia.

 

[Hollis Mason]

Even Marvel fanboys will hate him. Watchmen is like the comic book bible to some people.

 

[TMP98]

Considering the snyderistas likely view Rorschach as the best hero, I expect them to take quite the personal umbrage with the Rorschach militia.

Anyone who thought Rorschach was the hero missed the point of Watchmen. Granted, Snyder's take made him a lot closer to Batman than Bickle.

 

[Hollis Mason]

Oh yeah, some Snyder Fanboys are like the Rorschach's cult. They are already hating this. I saw many of them angry in the youtube trailer.

 

[Pennywise]

Damon Lindelof to 'Watchmen' creator Alan Moore: 'F--- you, I’m doing it anyway'

Watchmen‘s original creator Alan Moore is “not thrilled” about HBO’s new adaptation, according to the network’s president of programming Casey Bloys, but showrunner Damon Lindelof says he’s moving full-steam ahead with this message: “F— you, I’m doing it anyway.”

But Lindelof isn’t actually trying to start a war with legendary comic writer Moore. When addressing the room of reporters at the summer edition of the Television Critics Association press tour Wednesday, Lindelof explained that Moore’s decision to distance himself from the new adaptation of his graphic novel is “an ongoing wrestling match.”

“I don’t think that I’ve made peace with it,” he said. “Alan Moore is a genius, in my opinion, the greatest writer in the comic medium and maybe the greatest writer of all time. He’s made it very clear that he doesn’t want to have any association or affiliation with Watchmen ongoing and that we not use his name to get people to watch it, which I want to respect.”

Despite Lindelof’s “personal overtures” to explain what his new adaption of the graphic novel would be, Moore remains steadfast in his decision to separate himself from the project and won’t consult on the series, a stance that he’s taken for years on the material.

“As someone who’s entire identity is based around a very complicated relationship with my dad, who I constantly need to prove myself to and never will, Alan Moore is now that surrogate,” Lindelof jokes. “The wrestling match will continue. I do feel like the spirit of Alan Moore is a punk rock spirit, a rebellious spirit, and that if you would tell Alan Moore, a teenage Moore in ’85 or ’86, ‘You’re not allowed to do this because Superman’s creator or Swamp Thing’s creator doesn’t want you to do it,’ he would say, ‘F— you, I’m doing it anyway.’ So I’m channeling the spirit of Alan Moore to tell Alan Moore, ‘F— you, I’m doing it anyway.'”

He then immediately followed up with, “That’s clickbait, guys! Clickbait!”

Lindelof did promise, however, that the original source material isn’t being retconned or rewritten in his HBO version. “We reexplore the past but it’s canon,” he says. “Everything that happened in those 12 issues could not be messed with. We were married to it. There is no rebooting it.”

And while fans may be wary of another Watchmen adaptation without Moore’s seal of approval, Lindelof explains that he’s a fan of the original as well.

“All I can say is I love the source material,” Lindelof says. “I went through a very intense period of terror of f—ing it up. I’m not entirely sure I’m out of that tunnel. But I have a tremendous amount of respect for this. I had to separate myself a little bit from this incredible reverence to take risks.”

 

[Sithborg]

I mean, really, was there any doubt on Moore's reaction?

Also, Snyder was a fan as well. Though, I suspect that they read two different stories.

 

[flickchick85]

Nobody expected this to have Moore's blessing, lol.

 

[Pennywise]

HBO’s 'Watchmen' Has a New Celebrity President But No Internet [TCA 2019]

Lindelof shared a few details of the new present day setting of his Watchmen. Find out who followed Richard Nixon as President of the United States, what no longer exists in Watchmen’s 2019, and what else has changed. Watchmen premieres this fall on HBO.

A Former Actor Still Became President
This alternate history’s Richard Nixon had a five term presidency, which left no room for Ronald Reagan to be elected President in 1980. However, former actor still became President of the United States in this world, but one from the opposite end of the aisle.

“Robert Redford is the president of the United States and has been the President in the world of the show since the early ‘90s since they’ve abolished term limits,” Lindelof said. “We’re interested in exploring what would happen if a very well-intentioned liberal white man was President for way too long. Nixon was still president in ‘85. He remained president, was re-elected in ’88. He died in office. Gerald Ford became President as Nixon’s Vice President and then was defeated in ’92 by Robert Redford.”

That’s actually a rather poignant take on alternate history. A conservative celebrity is currently in power, and an unhappy populace might fantasize about how the country should be run. Lindelof is taking the position that a beloved celebrity with liberal politics could still get the country into just as bad a place. For example, there is still volatile racial violence.

“Personally speaking as a white man, the idea that systemically our country would ever come to a place where there wasn’t an incredible amount of anger, pushback and vitriol about balancing the power scale between people of color and white people would be ridiculous,” Lindelof said. “Nobody would ever swallow that. We’re trying to reflect where well-intentioned white people are trying to make things better and we’re now dropping the audience into the unintended consequences of that intentionality.”

There’s No Internet in Watchmen
Lindelof says we’ll recognize the 2019 of Watchmen as similar to our own. The biggest difference will be nobody is spending time online, and nobody has smart phones.

“We’ve created a world that does not have an internet,” Lindelof said. “People do not have smart phones. Even though it’s set in 2019, the Redford administration saw the writing on the wall and stepped in to make sure we could not troll each other.”

Honestly, fictional President Redford may have been right. We’ve seen toxic fandom proliferate online. Lindelof admitted that being on Twitter brought out his meanest qualities.

“As a parent of a 12-year-old, the thing we talk about most amongst our peers is what affect is social media and screens having on our culture,” Lindelof said. “That worry is embedded deeply in the thematics of the show.”

The Comic is Canon
Lindelof decided to make a sequel to Moore and Gibbons’ Watchmen rather than retell the comic. Though he’s carving a new path, Lindelof asserts that everything that happened in the comic happened in the backstory of the show.

“We’re not going to mess with it,” Lindelof said. “It’s canon. We re-explore the past but it’s canon. [That’s] one of the rules that we had as storytellers, writers. Even once we got into production, everything that happened in those 12 issues could not be messed with. We were married to it so there’s no rebooting that.”

Race is the Political Issue of Watchmen
The original comic books were dealing with the Cold War, which was the hot button political issue through the ‘80s. The Cold War ended decades ago, but the world, and especially America, are still dealing with political crises. Lindelof decided that Watchmen could comment on modern day racial politics. The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 is a focus of the series.

“Four or five years ago, I first read The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates,” Lindelof said. “That was the first time I heard about Black Wall Street, Tulsa in 1921 and was ashamed and confused I’d never heard about it before. Then I bought and read The Burning. That was the beginning of my education. When I started thinking about what Watchmen was going to be, in the original source material, the book was highly political. It was about what was happening in American culture at the time, even though presented by two British artists. What in 2019 is the equivalent of the nuclear standoff between the Russians and United States? It felt it was undeniably race and policing in America.”

In the pilot, white supremacists attack the police. That’s an inverse of the problem we’re facing in the real world, in which police violence is disproportionately directed at people of color. Lindelof is not pulling a The Confederate here though. He’s not suggesting the roles of race are reversed, and he promises the dynamics of Watchmen will be explored further in subsequent episodes.

“That idea started to graft itself into the Watchmen universe and needed to be presented in a responsible way,” Lindelof said. “My hope is over the course of the entire season, the nine episodes we’ve completed, you’ll have a much better sense of that. I think those contradictions were things we were very aware of in storytelling and tried to square to the best of our ability. There are no easy answers. There are no grandiose solutions. In a traditional superhero movie, the bad guys are fighting aliens. When they beat the aliens, the aliens go back to their planet and everybody wins. There’s no defeating white supremacy. It felt like a pretty formidable foe.”

And there are still problems with law enforcement in Watchmen, not the least of which is that the cops now wear masks.

“Are the police presented in a heroic light, the heroes of this story?” Lindelof said. “The answer is most certainly no. Watchmen is not interested in talking about who the heroes, villains, good guys and bad guys are. It’s an examination of institutions and politics.”

 

[Binker]

The Rorschach group is giving me KKK vibes, anyone else?

 

[Lencho01]

‘Watchmen’ Boss Damon Lindelof Talks ‘Channeling the Spirit of Alan Moore’ in HBO Series

 

[dark_b]

HBO’s 'Watchmen' Has a New Celebrity President But No Internet [TCA 2019]

“We’ve created a world that does not have an internet,”

this is interesting.

 

[Sithborg]

The Rorschach group is giving me KKK vibes, anyone else?

I think Lindelof pretty much confirmed it in his interviews.

Looks to me some fun alt history going on as well.

 

[Motown Marvel]

‘Watchmen’ Boss Damon Lindelof Talks ‘Channeling the Spirit of Alan Moore’ in HBO Series

Except when Moore did write Superman and Swamp Thing, he did so to the praises of their creators and fans of the characters because Alan Moore is a great writer who can develop established properties without undermining their established characterizations and stories.

I'm not trying to deny Moore isn't crotchety, nor am I denouncing Lindelof, because I am intrigued by the potential of what I've seen for this show. But if he thinks he can distill both Moore and punk to be nothing more than "F*** you, I do what I want", then he grossly misunderstands both.

EDIT: In a different article featuring full quotes from Lindelof, he specifically cites Moore writing Superman and Swamp Thing.

 

[Hollis Mason]

What about "Lost Girls"? Moore did whatever he wanted with those characters. He did the same thing he cries about. At least Damon isn't making Dr. Manhattan a sexual beast like he did with Alice.

Jesus that comic was so weird.

I mean, don't get me wrong, i love Moore as a writer bur i don't give a **** about his opinion on things since i heard him talk about how Superheroes are white supremacists idiots or some **** like that, or some of the last interviews he made where he attacks the genre that made him who he is.

 

[Motown Marvel]

What about "Lost Girls"? Moore did whatever he wanted with those characters. He did the same thing he cries about. At least Damon isn't making Dr. Manhattan a sexual beast.

Jesus that comic was so weird.

I mean, don't get me wrong, i love Moore as a writer bur i don't give a **** about his opinion on things since i heard him talk about how Superheroes are white supremacists idiots or some **** like that, or some of the last interviews he made where he attacks the genre that made him who he is.

Lost Girls was phenomenal.

While Moore has commonly worked with established characters, he's never had to tell a creator to "f*** off" when handling their property. Most likely because he's a quality writer who makes a point to understand characters well enough to further develop them in respect to what has already been established by the creator. In regards to literary characters who's creators are passed, there are probably very few people on this planet who could provide a valid opinion on how the creator's would have reacted to Moore's interpretation of their work.

My point is: if Lindelof wants to do what he wants, then he should do what he wants. But he's self consciously trying to justify it (which isn't necessary to begin with) and the justification he provides is flawed. He's trying to use Alan Moore as a defense against Alan Moore and it doesn't hold up at all.

 

[Hollis Mason]

Lost Girls was phenomenal.

While Moore has commonly worked with established characters, he's never had to tell a creator to "f*** off" when handling their property. Most likely because he's a quality writer who makes a point to understand characters well enough to further develop them in respect to what has already been established by the creator. In regards to literary characters who's creators are passed, there are probably very few people on this planet who could provide a valid opinion on how the creator's would have reacted to Moore's interpretation of their work.

My point is: if Lindelof wants to do what he wants, then he should do what he wants. But he's self consciously trying to justify it (which isn't necessary to begin with) and the justification he provides is flawed. He's trying to use Alan Moore as a defense against Alan Moore and it doesn't hold up at all.

Lost Girls was meh, imo. But even if he didn't tell the creator to **** off, do you think Lewis Carroll would have liked to see Alice having sex at 14 with some old man? Or L. Frank Baum watching Dorothy have sex with his creations? Remember those are stories for kids and those author made them FOR KIDS. So when Moore cries that people use his character for what they want, it sounds hypocrite considering he took other character he didn't own and made a freaking porn fantasy with them.

I agree that telling Moore to **** off is a little too much, but dude is a nutcase. He is insane and a hypocrite. It Isn't like he has already said worst things about people he doesn't know just because they adapted his work. Just watch his new interviews to get a point. Damon is kinda right,

Also, Dave Gibbons liked the series and Watchmen is 50% his, and he isn't screaming about it. His work in Watchmen was incredible and his art is what, in my opinion, makes the story so great, because it is wonderful. And Dave is a truly nice man (talked with him in Twitter).

Also, remember Moore wanted to use the character from Charlton Comics in Watchmen, and he basically was going to destroy them.

Anyways, i respect your opinion and i hope i don't sound like a prick. You seem like a nice guy and i really don't wanna fight anyone here

 

[Motown Marvel]

Lost Girls was meh, imo. But even if he didn't tell the creator to **** off, do you think Lewis Carroll would have liked to see Alice having sex at 14 with some old man? Or L. Frank Baum watching Dorothy have sex with his creations? Remember those are stories for kids and those author made them FOR KIDS. So when Moore cries that people use his character for what they want, it sounds hypocrite considering he took other character he didn't own and made a freaking porn fantasy with them.

I agree that telling Moore to **** off is a little too much, but dude is a nutcase. He is insane and a hypocrite. It Isn't like he has already said worst things about people he doesn't know just because they adapted his work. Just watch his new interviews to get a point. Damon is kinda right,

Also, Dave Gibbons liked the series and Watchmen is 50% his, and he isn't screaming about it. His work in Watchmen was incredible and his art is what, in my opinion, makes the story so great, because it is wonderful. And Dave is a truly nice man (talked with him in Twitter).

Also, remember Moore wanted to use the character from Charlton Comics in Watchmen, and he basically was going to destroy them.

Anyways, i respect your opinion and i hope i don't sound like a prick. You seem like a nice guy and i really don't wanna fight anyone here

Without drawing out my point which I feel I've made....Lewis Carrol, specifically, would have actually been totally cool with that scenario.

 

[Hollis Mason]

Without drawing out my point which I feel I've made....Lewis Carrol, specifically, would have actually been totally cool with that scenario.

Fair

 

[Pennywise]

Robert Redford to Play President Robert Redford in HBO's Watchmen

 

[antsman41]

Robert Redford to Play President Robert Redford in HBO's Watchmen

This is so cool cool cool.

 

[flickchick85]

Robert Redford to Play President Robert Redford in HBO's Watchmen

That’s just...awesome.