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'Watchmen' TV Series From Damon Lindelof on HBO {SPOILERS FROM PAGE 8}


AncalagonTheBlack

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8 minutes ago, williamjm said:

To be fair to Snyder, I can think of much worse choices - just imagine what Michael Bay's Watchmen would have been like.

Okay, fine.  He wasn't the worst possible choice, but he was a very poor one given the conflict between his ridiculous visual style and the source material. 

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23 hours ago, briantw said:

Okay, fine.  He wasn't the worst possible choice, but he was a very poor one given the conflict between his ridiculous visual style and the source material. 

Frankly, giving the reins of a graphic novel such as Watchmen to a director who goes to promote it with a NRA cap is more shocking to me than a visual style. The political statement was completely muted, if not reversed...

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  • 1 month later...
7 hours ago, Ran said:

http://www.vulture.com/2017/11/damon-lindelof-watchmen-adaptation-dangerous.html

Lindelof saying the right things, but... still don't think he should be doing this.

“I love the Marvel movies and we saw Justice League this morning and I’m all for Wonder Woman and Batman and I grew up on these characters"

I see what he did there - very diplomatic given HBO and Watchmen are WB properties like Justice League.

 

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On 27/09/2017 at 8:53 PM, williamjm said:

To be fair to Snyder, I can think of much worse choices - just imagine what Michael Bay's Watchmen would have been like.

Brett Ratner's Watchmen?

A sick part of me would have liked to view a Michhael Bay watchmen. You can guarantee the squid would have been in his version with tentacles tearing down skyscrapers and Nite-Owl and Rosrchach doing a buddy cop routine.

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  • 6 months later...

Lindelof's message is a great read and shows he knows a lot about the source material and is fully aware of the controversy of adapting it (nice touch mentioning Alan Moore has the ability to curse him).

The stuff about remixing and how it's not about the end of the world almost suggests this is more "lindelof's TV show about superheroes inspired by the Watchmen graphic novel" to the point where I feel a lot of trouble could have been avoided by dropping the association altogether (or just calling it "wild cards"). But I think he has a valid point about the nature of adaptations and how they don't affect the source material at all. If the show is good more people will read the original.

I'm also encouraged by the fact lindelof seems genuinely invested in this. I worried it was a case of held at gunpoint/cash but I really doubt that now. 

Hopefully he'll continue to be this open with the show's development as it's quite rare we get this level of detail from a creator outside of box set extras.

He's earned my viewing if episode one anyhow.

I also liked the joke about being good at endings. I'm guessing that's a ref to "lost"?

I finally have access to "leftovers" now so need to see how he's developed from lost.

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On 9/22/2017 at 3:31 PM, Ran said:

Heaven forfend HBO follow up an adaptation with new stories.

:bang:

Lindelof's little jujitsu move with "There are a million ways to rationalize unethical behavior" then leading to "I am compelled" is bullshit. Rank, utter bullshit. You know what you call someone who has a compulsion to steal things despite knowing it is unethical? A thief. No matter how you dress it up, this is unethical. It's unethical when Cooke, Azzarello, Straczynski, and Wein did it in Before Watchmen, it's unethical when Lindelof does it.

Lindelof's basically being a scab when he has the absolute power to say no to this. And, given the evidence, it seems like the rights holders have pretty much settled on Lindelof as the guy to do it. If he says no, it'll probably sit in a drawer for another four or five years before anyone decides to ask someone else. Someone else who may care less about Moore's feelings and Watchmen, maybe, but if they still say yes, it's only equally unethical to Lindelof saying yes.

Bah, humbug. Not watching this.

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1 hour ago, Ran said:

:bang:

Lindelof's little jujitsu move with "There are a million ways to rationalize unethical behavior" then leading to "I am compelled" is bullshit. Rank, utter bullshit. You know what you call someone who has a compulsion to steal things despite knowing it is unethical? A thief. No matter how you dress it up, this is unethical. It's unethical when Cooke, Azzarello, Straczynski, and Wein did it in Before Watchmen, it's unethical when Lindelof does it.

Lindelof's basically being a scab when he has the absolute power to say no to this. And, given the evidence, it seems like the rights holders have pretty much settled on Lindelof as the guy to do it. If he says no, it'll probably sit in a drawer for another four or five years before anyone decides to ask someone else. Someone else who may care less about Moore's feelings and Watchmen, maybe, but if they still say yes, it's only equally unethical to Lindelof saying yes.

Bah, humbug. Not watching this.

Preach.

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It's not the kind of thing that's going to sway people who aren't on the fence about whether Moore's feelings about adaptations be acknowledged. 

I'm not that entrenched regarding adaptations in other media but have still to read any comics featuring the Watchmen. Beyond that special last year which had a surprise appearance. I guess we all have our line in the sand. Can understand Ram's feelings

 

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5 hours ago, Morpheus said:

Long-winded, (self) referential, employs self-deprecation to mask a massive ego, ultimately hollow. Yep, that letter is definitely a Lindelof joint. :P

 

You've all got me thinking what's worse - someone who doesn't have a clue about the show and (one of) the creator(s)  or someone who does know the source material and the issues the author has with adaptations and makes the show anyhow?

I can't wait for Alan Moore to release his reply to lindelof. Or even better a direct response to Lindelof's missive. Given his general grumpiness and outspoken nature I'd be surprised if he lets it lie.

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2 hours ago, red snow said:

You've all got me thinking what's worse - someone who doesn't have a clue about the show and (one of) the creator(s)  or someone who does know the source material and the issues the author has with adaptations and makes the show anyhow?

Kind of think of it like Breaking Bad. Regardless of where it's low-grade biker kitchen crank sold by Pinkman or it's Heisenberg's pure Blue Sky, it's still meth.

 

Quote

I can't wait for Alan Moore to release his reply to lindelof. Or even better a direct response to Lindelof's missive. Given his general grumpiness and outspoken nature I'd be surprised if he lets it lie.

At this stage I expect silence unless Lindelof or HBO makes the mistake of claiming (directly or indirectly) that Moore gave his blessing.

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I'll be honest, I'm a hell of a lot more curious about this knowing it's not a direct adaptation than I was before.  We already got a direct adaptation of Watchmen (for the most part), and it was mediocre.  It looked pretty and told the right story, but it told it all wrong and without nuance.  At least an updated version will bring something new to the table.  Maybe it will still suck, but at least for now it's a little interesting. 

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10 hours ago, briantw said:

I'll be honest, I'm a hell of a lot more curious about this knowing it's not a direct adaptation than I was before.  We already got a direct adaptation of Watchmen (for the most part), and it was mediocre.  It looked pretty and told the right story, but it told it all wrong and without nuance.  At least an updated version will bring something new to the table.  Maybe it will still suck, but at least for now it's a little interesting. 

I think you’re right, it’s better than an adaption which would inevitably add a bunch of flab and changes to the source. My one sticking point is the ending, that right there is one of the classic ‘not-supposed-to-be-answered’ questions. It’d be like The Italian Job II: Turns Out Michael Caine Did Have A Great Idea in which the gang are all fine and on their way home. At the least, I hope the repercussions of Rorshach’s diary were very serious and the world is still perilously close to the brink as a result.

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8 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

 I hope the repercussions of Rorshach’s diary were very serious and the world is still perilously close to the brink as a result.

I see that as too pessimistic, not world peace but a massive nuclear and military buildup led a man to destroy a whole city with a fake alien attack should give some people pause.

Also if there is no Dr. Manhatten then a major reason for the buildup has also been removed.

Spoiler

Though if all major World Leaders are a Donald Trump type then I can see it.

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/18/2018 at 1:10 AM, Werthead said:

Very good, really looking forward to this.

My feelings are pretty much the opposite, definitely want to see what they come up with in a universe that:

a) has my interest and so many possibilities

b) isn't otherwise going to see new books /comics so new interpretations are welcome.

I see that they are planning it as a sequel. This is probably better than retelling the film's storyline. Is it better than a prequel? Possibly, not sure, all depends on the strength of the story. I think I'd prefer sequel to prequel here.

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2 hours ago, Calibandar said:

Very good, really looking forward to this.

My feelings are pretty much the opposite, definitely want to see what they come up with in a universe that:

a) has my interest and so many possibilities

b) isn't otherwise going to see new books /comics so new interpretations are welcome.

I see that they are planning it as a sequel. This is probably better than retelling the film's storyline. Is it better than a prequel? Possibly, not sure, all depends on the strength of the story. I think I'd prefer sequel to prequel here.

I think they were saying a "remix" possibly suggesting they will cover the original material too. Maybe 3 timelines?

I think a lot of the problems people have are with the fact Moore doesn't want them to be made and it seems a shitty thing regarding the creator. The artist is fine with it and I'm not sure what Moore's contract was regarding ownership (it's super shitty if he has full creative control and it's made against his wishes). I know he had legitimate beef with them using his name and work to sell movies. They never attach his name to projects although it's hard for them not to use his work when a project is clearly based and named after it.

It's uneccessary in the sense the creative talent involved could be doing something else - many of us scratch our heads at why GRRM's wildcards was ignored by HBO given the success of GOT. But it's been a while since the film and maybe this will be like Buffy or Stargate where the TV version is as good/better than the film.

Having just finished "the leftovers" Lindelof gets my attention on anything he's showrunning. Although again I'm thinking he could have done anything so why "Watchmen"? 

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