Damon Lindelof: HBO's Watchmen will be an original story, not an adaptation

Entertainment Weekly

Lindelof posted a five-page letter on Instagram explaining why he's not adapting the landmark 1980s comic book series. "We have no desire to 'adapt’ the twelve issues (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons) created thirty years ago,” Lindelof writes. “Those issues are sacred ground and they will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted …they will, however, be remixed. Because the bass lines in those familiar tracks are just too good and we’d be fools not to sample them … This new story must be original. It has to vibrate with the seismic unpredictability of its own tectonic plates. It must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens. Most importantly, it must be contemporary… The tone will be fresh and nasty and electric and absurd… Some of the characters will be unknown. New faces. New masks to cover them. We also intend to revisit the past century of Costumed Adventuring through a surprising, yet familiar set of eyes… and it is here where we’ll be taking our greatest risk.”