Update: September 20, 2017
Damon Lindelof's WATCHMEN Gets Official Pilot Order from HBO
HBO is moving forward with
Watchmen. The premium cable network has officially handed out a pilot order and commissioned additional scripts for Damon Lindelof's take on Alan Moore's beloved graphic novel.
The news comes three months after
The Hollywood Reporter broke that the
Leftovers showrunner was developing a take on the DC Comics favorite. Lindelof also revealed on Instagram that the writers room for the potential TV series has officially been opened.
Lindelof originally read the comics as a kid in the 1980s and has said that the series continues to influence his work. "From the flashbacks to the nonlinear storytelling to the deeply flawed heroes, these are all elements that I try to put into everything I write," he told
Comic Book Resources in 2009 ahead of the feature-film take.
Lindelof has read
Watchmen multiple times and, at the time, praised director Zack Snyder's film. "It's the most married-to-the-original-text version of
Watchmen that could've been made," he told
the Observer. "I want to keep it sort of insular," Lindelof said, referring to the multiple translations that have come from trying to translate the source material. "It's OK with me if people don't understand it because they don't
deserve to understand it."
Snyder, who directed the feature-film adaptation of Moore's comic series, is no longer attached to the drama project from Warner Bros. Television, where both DC Entertainment and Lindelof are housed.
First published in 1986 and collected in 1987,
Watchmen was created by Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. The series was named one of the 100 best novels by
Time magazine. Rumors of HBO tackling
Watchmen first surfaced in 2015, when the pay cabler noted it was in preliminary discussions for a TV take on the property.
Snyder, who was briefly attached to the HBO project in 2015, adapted the comic and brought the title's "Minutemen" crime fighters to the big screen in 2009 with Jackie Earle Haley, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Patrick Wilson starring. The film, produced by Warner Bros. with a $130 million production budget, grossed a disappointing $107.5 million domestically and $185.3 million worldwide.
For Lindelof,
Watchmen would arrive after
The Leftovers, based on the book of the same name, recently wrapped its three-season run on HBO. The
Lost alum is repped by CAA and Myman Greenspan.
'Watchmen' Moving Forward at HBO With Pilot Order