Yahoo News Watchmen TV show writer says it's a remix, not a reboot
The Leftovers creator Damon Lindelof has penned an open letter to fans clarifying his intentions in turning beloved graphic novel Watchmen into a live-action HBO series.
Lindelof is hard at work on yet another attempt to film the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons comic that many - including Moore himself - have said should remain unfilmable, a decade after director Zack Snyder's movie version sharply divided audiences.
In a detailed and emotionally-wrenching open letter to fans, Lindelof acknowledges that he was approached many times before by Hollywood executives to adapt Watchmen - including once by someone who apparently didn't even know who Alan Moore was.
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Stressing this vision is not a straight adaptation of Moore's story, Damon explains: "We have no desire to 'adapt' the twelve issues created thirty years ago. Those issues are sacred ground and they will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted… they will, however, be remixed. Because the bass lines in those familiar tracks are just too good and we'd be fools not to sample them."
In developing the project, Lindelof says that he came to the conclusion that any Watchmen series would need an "original" premise to reflect life now, rather than the grim view of the 1980s in Moore's comic.
"It has to vibrate with the seismic unpredictability of its own tectonic plates. It must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens," he argued. "Most importantly, it must be contemporary… The tone will be fresh and nasty and electric and absurd… Some of the characters will be unknown.
"New faces. New masks to cover them. We also intend to revisit the past century of Costumed Adventuring through a surprising, yet familiar set of eyes… and it is here where we'll be taking our greatest risk."
It was reported in February that Watchmen will be directed by Nicole Kassell, who has worked on The Americans, The Killing, The Following and two episodes of Lindelof's The Leftovers.
HBO has yet to announce a premiere date.
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