Alan Moore Disliked HBO's 'Watchmen' Series So Much He Told The Showrunner This
Image Source: JoBlo
Longtime fans of the popular graphic novel from the 1980s, Watchmen are more than aware of its creator, Alan Moore’s dislike for the attempts of adapting his work for television and film over the years. Ahead of production for the newest series on HBO, showrunner, Damon Lindelof reached out to Moore for his input by sending him a package with a note, “Dear Mr. Moore, I am one of the bastards currently destroying Watchmen.”
“That wasn’t the best opener,” Moore said of the showrunner letter. “It went on through a lot of, what seemed to me to be, neurotic rambling. ‘Can you at least tell us how to pronounce “Ozymandias”? I got back with a very abrupt and probably hostile reply telling him that I’d thought that Warner Bros. was aware that they, nor any of their employees, shouldn’t contact me again for any reason” (Variety).
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This reclusive writer has been outspoken for quite some time regarding both his displeasure with the adaptations created based on his work as well as his concern for what he conceptualizes as an infantilization of adults. "Several years ago I said I thought it was a really worrying sign, that hundreds of thousands of adults were queuing up to see characters that were created 50 years ago to entertain 12-year-old boys," Moore continued. "That seemed to speak to some kind of longing to escape from the complexities of the modern world, and go back to a nostalgic, remembered childhood. That seemed dangerous, it was infantilizing the population" (IGN). Moore warns that this pop culturalist shift has blighted the cinema as well as culture itself and puts society at risk for a level of fascism.
Essentially, Moore feels that the comic book enthusiast turned Hollywood superhero movie attraction aimed at adult audiences reverts childhood imagination into a more “grotesque” production. One of the main reasons he does not tend to care for his work on either the small or large screen is he feels that it represented a darker dystopian landscape with characters to match going as far as promoting white supremacy which is the direct opposite of his vision. He has stated that he feels embarrassed by these productions and that being forced to watch said properties are comparable to punishment.
Even without the support of its creator, however, the HBO miniseries starring Regina King has been a hit, earning 26 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and winning 11. All nine episodes of the series are available for streaming on HBO Max.
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