Watchmen 2?

[Ian Keldon]

If Moore stuck to adapting the comic version instead of doing his own movie version of the team then it would be sweet...but IIRC, he purposely set out to do his own movie version. I hated LXG because of that. The comics (i haven't read any of the current stuff yet like the Century stuff) are awesome though.

I very much liked that they got rid of the cynical, deconstructionist and dystopian claptrap from the LXG comics and presented the film as a straightforward action/adventure period piece.

I had no problems with the changes the movie made to Moore's League. I didn't even mind the addition of Tom Sawyer (though he really should have been Quatermain's age, if not slightly older, since Huck Finn takes place about 1840). I thought the film captured the spirit of the comic.

The director addresses that in the commentary track. There was a late 1800s Sawyer story published that made him eligible to be depicted as he was in the film.

and from the Wikki article on Sawyer:

Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896).

 

[milo bloom]

Wow, how times change, when people defend huge corporations against the artists they screw over.

I know what you mean, any other issue and I'm all Occupy this or 99% that, but Moore just comes across as pathetic.

You know, sometimes I hear people complaining about their lot in life and they'll occasionally get to a point where they ask "Is it me?" And you have no other choice but to say, "yes, it's you."

I feel like that would be the proper response to Mr. Moore.

I just can't fathom the absolute hypocrisy of him using other people's characters and then complaining about the prequels being done.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wow, how times change, when people defend huge corporations against the artists they screw over.

I know what you mean, any other issue and I'm all Occupy this or 99% that, but Moore just comes across as pathetic.

You know, sometimes I hear people complaining about their lot in life and they'll occasionally get to a point where they ask "Is it me?" And you have no other choice but to say, "yes, it's you."

I feel like that would be the proper response to Mr. Moore.

I just can't fathom the absolute hypocrisy of him using other people's characters and then complaining about the prequels being done.

Funny how he seems to have a different set for rules for himself.

 

[trekkiebaggio]

I still don't really get how they got screwed over though. The contract said that if the book goes out of print the rights revert to Moore & Gibbons. But then it's up to DC if it goes out of print or not surely?

At least read this page of the interview. Was Moore naive? Probably. Was he lied to? Sounds like it.

"It's just business" doesn't mean it's okay to lie. It's clear from the way he relates the story that DC was selling him a "kinder, gentler" image, and he believed them. Graphic novels, as a format, didn't even exist at the time--he had no way to know that Watchmen would be so big a hit that DC would never let it go out of print. It's easy to pass judgment in hindsight, but people who are trying to get you to sign a contract will always play on your naivete and try to act like they're your best pals in the world--until you sign on the dotted line and they start using every trick they can to screw you.

Yes, obviously his take is very one-sided, but I find people blast him less for what he actually says and more for what they think he says, or what others say about him.

Ahhh okay thanks for the link. Sounds like he realises he didn't read the contract closely enough but like you say that's with hindsight and it was an unusual contract at the time.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I don't know why I thought Moore had anything to do with the film, I could have sworn that I read an LXG treatment from him years ago...

 

[Admiral_Young]

Lengthy JMS interview with Newsarama from Wonder Con.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/jms-before-watchmen-details.html

 

[23skidoo]

His position hasn't changed much over the years. And I have to quite admire him actually: they have offered him tons of cash, which he has turned down. Who else would do the same?

I agree. I mean, even as an underperformer, the Watchmen movie would have netted Moore a substantial paycheque if he'd left his name on it. Same with other film adaptations he's stepped away from. He didn't have to - he could have taken the money and run, and certainly the Watchmen movie didn't dishonor him or the graphic novel (indeed it probably helped sell a ton of copies of the original), so there would have been no harm done. But he stuck to his principles (not to mention his understandable gunshy-ness after messes like the LXG movie which I personally liked but now resent as it made Sean Connery decide to stop making movies).

Reading that back it almost seems like a knock against Dave Gibbons, but it isn't. Gibbons has different attitudes and certainly when it came to Watchmen I did get the impression that he was trying to keep "the whole team's end up" on behalf of Moore, so I admired that too.

Alex

 

[Allyn Gibson]

His position hasn't changed much over the years. And I have to quite admire him actually: they have offered him tons of cash, which he has turned down. Who else would do the same?

I agree. I mean, even as an underperformer, the Watchmen movie would have netted Moore a substantial paycheque if he'd left his name on it.

Moore did take the money for Watchmen -- that's how he financed that magazine he published, Dodgem Logic.

 

[Admiral_Young]

C2E2 panel...I don't think we've seen that Comedian cover before...

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=38170

 

[milo bloom]

Just how many stories are they planning on doing? Just these announced sets and then done? I had already planned on waiting for the collected trades before buying, but I wonder if there'll be an even bigger collected set once they're all out.

 

[Admiral_Young]

"Before Watchmen" will consist of seven mini-series plus one one shot for now. DC at this time have not announced anything else. They're most likely waiting to see how these will be received, which is logical.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

But [Alan Moore] stuck to his principles (not to mention his understandable gunshy-ness after messes like the LXG movie which I personally liked but now resent as it made Sean Connery decide to stop making movies).

Didn't he think the V for Vendetta movie washed away the sour taste of LXG? I mean, come on, the V for Vendetta movie was awesome!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

But [Alan Moore] stuck to his principles (not to mention his understandable gunshy-ness after messes like the LXG movie which I personally liked but now resent as it made Sean Connery decide to stop making movies).

Didn't he think the V for Vendetta movie washed away the sour taste of LXG? I mean, come on, the V for Vendetta movie was awesome!

No, Moore has serious problems with the V for Vendetta film. He doesn't feel that his critique of Thatcherism should have been appropriated to make a critique of the Bush era, nor did he like that the anarchism of his V was simplified into a generic freedom fighter character.

He's since come to accept that the film has had a positive impact with the Anonymous movement, but he doesn't approve of it. For what it's worth, David Lloyd thinks that Moore is off his rocker when it comes to the film.

There's only one film adaptation of his work that Moore approves of, and that's a fan animation of his Doctor Who comic book story, "Black Legacy."

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

But [Alan Moore] stuck to his principles (not to mention his understandable gunshy-ness after messes like the LXG movie which I personally liked but now resent as it made Sean Connery decide to stop making movies).

Didn't he think the V for Vendetta movie washed away the sour taste of LXG? I mean, come on, the V for Vendetta movie was awesome!

No, Moore has serious problems with the V for Vendetta film. He doesn't feel that his critique of Thatcherism should have been appropriated to make a critique of the Bush era, nor did he like that the anarchism of his V was simplified into a generic freedom fighter character.

He's since come to accept that the film has had a positive impact with the Anonymous movement, but he doesn't approve of it. For what it's worth, David Lloyd thinks that Moore is off his rocker when it comes to the film.

I think David Lloyd is right-- Moore is nuts. Particularly if he's complaining that his already allegorical critique of the now bygone Thatcher era was understandably and inevitably updated to critique a current, similar conservative movement.

Sadly, it's a shame that there isn't really a similar way to make the Cold War aspects of Watchmen current or relevant. In 1987, Watchmen was an alternate-universe commentary on the present & the possible near future. The movie was made as a period piece. And while period pieces can, in some instances, educate us on where we came from, Watchmen can't even do that because it's not set in our past but the past of some alternate universe that never existed.

 

[Turtletrekker]

^I seem to recall that at one point the studio wanted to update the story to the modern day and replace Vietnam with 9/11. Frankly, I'm glad that they didn't go down that route.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

^I seem to recall that at one point the studio wanted to update the story to the modern day and replace Vietnam with 9/11. Frankly, I'm glad that they didn't go down that route.

That was in the Paul Greengrass script. Greengrass discusses it here.

 

[nvek86]

There's only one film adaptation of his work that Moore approves of, and that's a fan animation of his Doctor Who comic book story, "Black Legacy."

While not a film, I think I read somewhere that he also liked the adaptation of "For the Man who has Everything" that Justice League Unlimited did.

 

[Admiral_Young]

DiDio and Lee discuss the Before Watchmen controversies (mainly Alan Moore) and briefly address the Chris Roberson situation. They also confirm that there will be a running story called "The Crimson Corsair" that will function the same way that "The Black Freighter" did and it will be written by Len Wein.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=38300

 

[23skidoo]

Moore did take the money for Watchmen -- that's how he financed that magazine he published, Dodgem Logic.

I stand corrected. I thought he financed Dodgem with royalties he received from the original Watchmen graphic novel.

Alex

 

[Disruptor]

There's only one film adaptation of his work that Moore approves of, and that's a fan animation of his Doctor Who comic book story, "Black Legacy."

While not a film, I think I read somewhere that he also liked the adaptation of "For the Man who has Everything" that Justice League Unlimited did.

He was wrong to like that. In his original story, ROBIN saves Superman's ass. Give the Boy Wonder his due.