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By now, it's been well-documented that the brilliant comic-book author Alan Moore wants nothing to do with the upcoming big-screen version of his most famous work, Watchmen. Just last month, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said he would be "spitting venom all over it for months to come." He also expressed disgust at the film industry in general: "They take an idea, bowdlerize it, blow it up, make it infantile and spend $100 million to give people a brief escape from their boring and often demeaning lives at work. It's obscene and it's offensive. This is not the culture I signed up for." Moore's principled stance (he refuses both screen credit and payment for new films based on his work) stems from years of enduring what he considers shoddy, unethical treatment by both Hollywood and his former publisher, DC Comics.
But as the excitement for the Watchmen movie continues to build, we thought it might be of historical interest to look back at a time when Moore not only supported a film version of his ground-breaking graphic novel, but also endorsed the screenwriter attached to it -- a writer whose adaptation would bowdlerize, blow up and infantalize Moore's work in ways that still offend fans to this day.
In 1987, in a Q&A published in Comics Interview magazine (an excellent, but sadly long-defunct, print publication), issue 48, Moore told interviewer Darrel Boatz about the recently-optioned Watchmen movie:
Alan: I have got as much confidence as it is possible to have in the people who are handling the Watchmen film. Sam Hamm is an excellent screenwriter, he's been signed to write the Watchmen film. I think that it's got, therefore, as good a chance as any of being a good film [snip]
Darrel: I hadn't known there was a film in the works.
Alan: Yeah, 20th Century Fox have optioned Watchmen as a film. The producers are Joel Silver and Larry Gordon, who were the producers of 48 Hours. [snip] I've spoken to Joel Silver, he seems very enthusiastic and has a good track record of getting films actually made. That said, of course, we've been hearing about Silver Surfer and X-Men films for the past 200 years to my certain knowledge. (Laughter.) Whether the film is actually made or not is completely in the air, and how it turns out is beyond my control. But, you know, they've got Sam Hamm as writer of it, who is a very good, promising, new screenwriter, and has also got a good background and interest in comics and is the screenwriter, I believe, upon [sic] the new Batman film, as well. [snip] I've spoken to Sam, I went out to lunch with him -- he came to Northampton and had lunch with me -- and I've got complete faith in him. I believe that he will try his best to make the film as faithful to the experience of reading Watchmen as he can. I believe he's got a lot of respect for the material, and that's all that I can ask for, really, and I'm prepared to sort of stand by what he does.
What did Moore's sincerely expressed faith in Hamm get him? A screenplay that systematically removed all of the poetry, complexity and beauty of the graphic novel and replaced it with a dumbed-down plot, execrable '80s action-movie dialogue and a radically different ending that makes little logical sense and negates the dreadful power of the original. No summary can do justice to this script's awfulness, so you can check out the entire first draft here. But for those with weak stomachs, here are but some of the lowlights:
--The script begins with a prologue about terrorists taking hostages at the Statue of Liberty during the 1976 bicentennial celebrations. Adrian Veidt (never referred to as Ozymandias) leads a superhero team actually called "The Watchmen" to stop them. During the rescue attempt, the Comedian intentionally kills a hostage that's being used as shield by a terrorist. He quips, "The joke's on you."
--Almost all of the comic's back story is gone except for flashbacks to Dr. Manhattan's origin and the night that Rorschach splits the dog's head. Also gone is the sense of a rich alternate history so painstakingly established in the book.
--Speaking of Rorschach, his dialogue -- some of the most memorable passages in the comic -- has been replaced with out-of-character utterances like, "Hiya pardner, long time no see." And, "A doggy. A big old floppy-eared dog." And, "Two things I hate: street mimes... users of recreational drugs." Street mimes? After dispatching Big Figure (needlessly renamed Little Bigger in the script), Rorschach gets into the quip game by telling Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, "Toilet clogged. Big fat turd." Zing!
--Hamm's script ultimately hinges upon the revelation that Veidt's plan all along was to essentially create a hole in time through which he can assassinate Jon Osterman before his transformation into Dr. Manhattan, thereby altering the course of history to prevent a potential World War III and also eliminate superheroes from existence. (This makes little sense, since costumed adventurers existed decades before Manhattan and would presumably have gone on influencing events even if the good doctor ceased to be.)
--After some more ballyhoo, Veidt is foiled, but Dr. Manhattan is able to save his younger self from the fateful radiation blast, so time is indeed changed and Nite Owl, Rorschach and Silk Spectre find themselves -- inexplicably, since they were just in Antarctica -- in the New York City of our mundane, superhero-less reality. The kid by the newsstand is now reading a comic book called -- wait for it -- The Watchmen. And to add final insult to injury, Nite Owl sees a mounted policeman and exclaims, "Oh my God, they still ride around on horses!"
In the final analysis, could anyone blame Alan Moore for swearing off Hollywood?
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I just punched myself in the face.
No surprise. Hamm butchered "The Dark Knight Returns"-- why not "Watchmen"?
Look, Alan needs to relax. There's a great story about a famous author who invited a newly-minted novelist to his home. The rookie author could not contain himself and asked the elder gentleman, "how can you let Hollywood ruin your books this way?" The elder man smiled and escorted him into his library, which featured every novel the man had ever written. "My novels are not ruined! You see, here they are, exactly as I have written them." Watchmen the movie is not Watchmen the comic book, it never will be and Zack Snyder knows that. So relax Alan, have a Guinness, and cash some big fat checks.
Oh... for the love of god... I actually lost some of my IQ just from reading Hamm's script... It hurts...
At least the David Hayter script was okay. The man can write and has a kick ass voice to boot.
today seems to be like an oxymoron but from 1987 the cinema as changed a lot
Some of those story changes sound painful. But as much as I revere the comic (I hooked more than a few non-comic readers back in the 80s with this title), it's just the movies. Sorry, Alan. If it turns out so unsatisfactory, someone will remake it properly. But it's the entertainment industry, not a holy grail. The Watchmen is already legendary; you've already won. Relax.
I'd have more respect for Allan Moore if he didn't hate [i]every single one[/i] of his comic book adaptions that made it to screen - but still sells them to Hollywood. I guess he likes money more (though the Hamm/Silver version sounds bloody awful).
I'm pretty sure as films go, the Watchmen will be perfectly watch-able (heh). However, the graphic novel is unfilmable and there is no way anyone can do it justice.
Also, Alan Moore works in a specific medium and I don't see why he should just sit back and accept it if his work gets turned into something he dislikes.
By refusing cheques and movie-credit, he's putting his money where his mouth is and I respect him for that.
Hopefully for the last time:
ALAN MOORE DOES NOT SELL HIS BOOKS TO HOLLYWOOD. DC Comics owns the rights to his earlier works. So DC Comics is the entity selling his works. Not him. SO PLEASE STOP BEING SO BLOODY IGNORANT AND GO READ SOMETHING.
http://www.funfilms.in/
Alan is never happy.
WWW.FILTHYRICHMOND.COM is teh taint.
"The joke's on you"??????? Eeeecccchhhhhhh!
Of course, now Moore refuses to even read the current script and reflexively craps all over anybody that has anything to do with it. He's turned into a cranky old bastard.
Nice catch. Will mention you up on my blog, http://www.watchmenfilm.co.uk/, when I get home tonight.
Terry Gilliam's version would have kicked ass.
wow. worst. adaptation. ever.
Am I the only fanboy geek who thinks Hamm's ending is better? (Cue tumbleweed.)
Wow, spazz out over nothing much? I'd hate to see you if you got in a car accident.
That being said, I've never thought much of Hamm after he did a three part story for Detective Comics back in the mid-late 1980's called "Blind Justice. I think it was partly the art, which was truly puketastically awful in places, but re-reading it later the story was far-fetched, even for a comic book, the dialogue was trite and cliched and the ending sucked stale festering cock.
I think we are looking at something quite successful here. Visually and artistically cool as hell. If to not be so analytical, Watchmen was highly entertaining.
I HYPED Watchmen on EverHYPE and scored it 90%, which I think is very accurate.
http://www.everhype.com/hyper/mikeborgia?X=M702
If you get on there, rate me a 5 on it and request friendship.
watchmen Hype
The irony of your statement is hilarious. Moore said precisely that in an interview before the film adaptation of From Hell was released. Keep in mind that, unlike League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell, Moore does not own the rights to Watchmen (and V For Vendetta, for that matter.) DC Comics does. Moore vowed never to work for them again over this, among other reasons, only for DC to buy up Wildstorm while they had Moore under contract. So Moore finished his obligations and walked away. Then Joel Silver started putting words in Moore's mouth about the V For Vendetta film, even after he said he wanted nothing to do with it and just wanted to be left alone.
Given the amount of corporate BS he's been forced to endure over the decades, I think he's entitled to change his attitude.
wow you guys are nerdy as hell
Alan Moore doesn't take any money for his rights to the Film versions, he ordered DC to distribute his money to the artists.