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‘Watchmen’ TV Series From Damon Lindelof in the Works at HBO

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Jun 21, 2017.

  1. Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    The Hollywood Reporter:


    Fresh off of critical favorite The Leftovers, Damon Lindelof is in talks for a potential Watchmen TV series for HBO. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the project is in the early development stages. An official deal is not yet in place. Representatives for HBO and producers Warner Bros. Television declined comment.

    While I do think this is better suited for the small screen (and without any Zack Snyder), I dunno, part of me just wonders if the magic came specifically from the comic medium.

     
  2. failinginplace

    Regular

    I pretty much agree with your take on this. I think if someone like Bryan Fuller was attached to this, especially after seeing what he's done with American Gods, I'd be way more down for the idea. And I feel like they need to stick to a limited series, none of the "before watchmen" crap. Just the original source material.
     
    Jason Tate likes this.
  3. elemenohpe

    Irregular Prestigious

    Yeah, I just don't see it adapting well to any other medium...
     
  4. Malatesta

    i may get better but we won't ever get well Prestigious

    more than the medium (alan moore's ridiculous talent for framing and recurring imagery notwithstanding), the issue is that Watchmen - like Seinfeld - has had such a large influence on the art form that it's hard to take it at face value anymore. turning it into a show won't be able to do anything informative with its characters or themes, because they were so deftly handled before and now represent a whole thematic industry shift.
     
  5. Tim

    grateful all the fucking time Supporter

    I'm personally really excited for this.

    Snyder's adaptation was trash 'cause it was super faithful in really weird and wrong ways while failing to adequately capture the source material in others. A large part of the comic's success was that it took definitively Golden Age-style superheroes and plopped them into the era's very real and not-comic-book-y world. Basically, to pull this off, the stylish, choreographed slo-mo of Snyder needs completely rejected and replaced with a grounded realism that makes Logan and Nolan's Batman feel cartoony. Downplay the action, and lean into the characters and state of the world.

    Superhero deconstruction has been so overdone since the Watchmen comic came out that simply resting on that deconstruction won't do anything, but if done right, this could be a really fascinating project.


    (And, by the way, all of Before Watchmen wasn't crap. Some good creators participated, and some of it was pretty cool. I don't know that I'd necessarily want any of that incorporated into this series, but some of it definitely deserves a second look for those who may have initially written it off unfairly.)
     
    Raku, GEM37 and carlosonthedrums like this.
  6. GEM37

    She haunts the roads

    Given the enormity and complexity of the source material and how difficult it is to boil any part of it down to one film, my ideal, financially impossible adaptation of Watchmen would have involved just picking three directors and giving them unlimited money to make whatever version of the story they wanted. Haven't given serious thought as to who those would be, but I would have loved to have seen Paul Greengrass' version.

    But, in lieu of reality, a miniseries on HBO sounds like the way to go.
     
  7. GEM37

    She haunts the roads

    Side note: as crummy an adaptation of Watchmen as Snyder's version was, it's still nothing compared to the total misappropriation of From Hell, which is all the more painful considering how amazing Ian Holm is once he finally gets to be Jack the Ripper.

    Now that's a book that could use an HBO miniseries.
     
  8. sawhney[rusted]2

    I'll write you into all of my songs Supporter

    After watching all of the Leftovers, I have faith in Damon. He definitely has the deft touch to place the thematic and emotional touches on the source material. And similar to the comic book, he's much more interested in posing the thematic questions and challenging the audience to in turn question their own attachment to the material, which seems like it'll be great for a deconstruction of the superhero genre.

    I think Fuller is a good choice as well, but American Gods is not something I'm 100% confident in yet.