Legendary artist Dave Gibbons approves of the new Damon Lindelof HBO Watchmen TV series that is currently in development.
Dave Gibbons created the Watchmen graphic novel back in 1986 along with writer Alan Moore, which was made into a movie by Zack Snyder in 2009.
While Alan Moore has stayed away from the limelight, Gibbons did visit the movie set when Snyder was filming and offered his thoughts on the script. Likewise, Dave Gibbons reveals he read the script to the pilot episode of the HBO Watchmen series and gives it his approval.
“I do know a little about it. I’ve had conversations with Damon, and I’ve read the screenplay for the pilot,” Gibbons told Ew.com. “I don’t think it’s my place to say too much about it, other than I found Damon’s approach to be really refreshing and exciting and unexpected. I don’t think it’s gonna be what people think it’s going to be. It certainly wasn’t what I imagined it to be. I think it’s extremely fresh. I’m really looking forward to seeing it on the screen.”
Gibbons continues with mention that the HBO series is neither a prequel nor a sequel, which is what Lindelof has described the series as.
“I’ve been resistant to the comic book prequels and sequels, but what Damon’s doing is not that at all, it’s very far away from that,” Gibbons said. “While it’s very reverential and true to the source material (by which I mean the Watchmen graphic novel that Alan and I did), it’s not retreading the same ground, it’s not a reinterpretation of it. It approaches it in a completely unexpected way.”
Watchmen
Regarding what Lindeolf had to say:
“We have no desire to adapt the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago,” Lindelof wrote in a letter to fans. “Those issues are sacred ground and they will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted.”
Lindelof continued: “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. Those original twelve issues are our Old Testament. When the New Testament came along it did not erase what came before it. Creation. The Garden of Eden. Abraham and Isaac. The Flood. It all happened. And so it will be with Watchmen. The Comedian died. Dan and Laurie fell in love. Ozymandias saved the world and Dr. Manhattan left it just after blowing Rorschach to pieces in the bitter cold of Antarctica.”
Watchmen is set to debut in 2019, with HBO chief Casey Bloys also recently stating that the pilot episode is phenomenal: “I have very, very high hopes. They did a great job. Damon [Lindeolf] wrote a phenomenal script, and Nikki Kassell did an amazing job shooting the show.”
The series stars Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Adelaide Clemens, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, Lily Rose Smith, and Adelynn Spoon.
