HBO has only greenlit Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen series for a pilot order at this point, but it isn’t stopping the Lost and Leftovers scribe from building the anticipation for the series and what it could mean for the network and television as a whole. While speaking publicly about the series and the work he’s put in up to this point, “danger” seemed to be his go to term for the series and why television needs a “dangerous” show in the current moment. According to Vulture, Lindelof tackled how he’d handle superheroes in a real world situation and the consequences they bring with them:
“Watchmen – it was dangerous,” said Lindelof. “And you can’t be dangerous for dangerous’ sake, but the reason that I’m doing this is these are dangerous times, and we need dangerous shows.”
As for his aim in bringing the classic Alan Moore graphic novel to television, Lindelof sees it as a counter punch to the Marvel and DC formula for superheroes. While we haven’t had a shortage of dark and gritty comic books films in the past, sometimes to their detriment, it would seem that the man behind The Leftovers wants to create THE gritty take on superheroes for HBO:
“What we think about superheroes is wrong,” he said. “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, but we should not trust people who put on masks and say that they are looking out for us. If you hide your face, you are up to no good.”
Lindelof professionally has a history with comics with his Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine series for Marvel — though it might not be one he wants to promote too much given the delays that hit the series. It was great once it was released in full, though, and Lindelof tells the audience at Vulture Fest LA that it is about time he did a comic film or television project.
Watchmen would likely be far better as a television series given its scope. Lindelof also has a bit more to draw from thanks to the prequels that were released by DC Comics after Zack Snyder’s film and whatever might be revealed by the current combination of the main DC Comics universe and the characters from Watchmen — though hopefully they ignore the latter bits.
(Via Vulture)