Alan Moore Told HBO’s Watchmen Showrunner to Never Bother Him Again

In the time that HBO’s Watchmen TV series, a live-action follow-up to the original comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, was both released and later awarded several Primetime Emmys, word had spread that the original writer of the text “wasn’t thrilled” with it all. Series showrunner Damon Lindelof didn’t let it bother him though, noting that despite Alan’s disapproval he would go through with the show anyway; Later still, Lindelof would reveal that he was “absolutely convinced” that Moore had placed “a magical curse placed upon” him. Seldom one to speak in public or the press however, Moore has opened up about his side of the exchange in a new interview. 

Speaking with GQ, Moore recounted what he called “a concluding incident” with regard to the adaptations of his previous comic book work. Moore revealed that he was sent a package ahead of the TV show’s debut that included a letter from Lindelof but also “a powder blue barbecue apron with a hydrogen symbol on the front” (referencing Doctor Manhattan). According to the scribe, the letter began, “Dear Mr. Moore, I am one of the bastards currently destroying Watchmen,” something he said “wasn’t the best opener.”

Moore adds, “It went on through a lot of, what seemed to me to be, neurotic rambling. ‘Can you at least tell us how to pronounce ‘Ozymandias’?’ I got back with a very abrupt and probably hostile reply telling him that I’d thought that Warner Brothers were aware that they, nor any of their employees, shouldn’t contact me again for any reason. I explained that I had disowned the work in question, and partly that was because the film industry and the comics industry seemed to have created things that had nothing to do with my work, but which would be associated with it in the public mind. I said, ‘Look, this is embarrassing to me. I don’t want anything to do with you or your show. Please don’t bother me again.’”

The writer went on to respond as well to when he learned that Watchmen had been given a host of Primetime Emmy awards (the series won four including Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for Regina King).

“When I saw the television industry awards that the Watchmen television show had apparently won, I thought, ‘Oh, god, perhaps a large part of the public, this is what they think Watchmen was?’ They think that it was a dark, gritty, dystopian superhero franchise that was something to do with white supremacism,” more added. “Did they not understand Watchmen? Watchmen was nearly 40 years ago and was relatively simple in comparison with a lot of my later work. What are the chances that they broadly understood anything since? This tends to make me feel less than fond of those works. They mean a bit less in my heart.”

Moore previously announced his retirement form writing in the comics medium, making the final volume of his creator-owned series The League of Extraordinary Gentleman his last published comic work. To bring it all full circle, and make his words feel even more resonate, 20th Century Studios reportedly plan to reboot the property as a feature film yet again.