Alan Moore rejects DC offer for sequels to Watchmen

[Einzige]

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/20 ... hmen-back/

Alan Moore, whose tumultuous relationship with DC Comics is legendary, claims the publisher offered this week to return the rights to his most famous creation -- in exchange for a concession.

“They offered me the rights to Watchmen back, if I would agree to some dopey prequels and sequels,” Moore told Underwire today. "So I just told them that if they said that 10 years ago, when I asked them for that, then yeah it might have worked. But these days I don’t want Watchmen back. Certainly, I don’t want it back under those kinds of terms."

Rumors circulated earlier this year that the departure of Paul Levitz as president and publisher of DC cleared any in-house obstacles to further use of the Watchmen characters. However, Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee tell Underwire the company "would only revisit these iconic characters if the creative vision of any proposed new stories matched the quality set by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons nearly 25 years ago, and our first discussion on any of this would naturally be with the creators themselves."

Good for him. DC has an... unpleasant history of fucking Moore over; and now, for once, the tables have been turned.

[Anguirus]

Well isn't that something.

"We don't want to cheapen the nonexistent Watchmen 'franchise' by having anyone but Moore and Gibbons work on it...so we'll offer them money in hopes that greed will motivate them to write authentic twaddle!"

It's just this sort of thing that led Moore to write you off in the first place. My god, how does this kind of irony get through high level meetings?

[Ghost Rider]

Well isn't that something.

"We don't want to cheapen the nonexistent Watchmen 'franchise' by having anyone but Moore and Gibbons work on it...so we'll offer them money in hopes that greed will motivate them to write authentic twaddle!"

It's just this sort of thing that led Moore to write you off in the first place. My god, how does this kind of irony get through high level meetings?

Given the sheer amount of shit over the years? Please, I'm amazed this hasn't happened earlier, really.

[Zixinus]

To be frank, I also think that the story is complete. We saw everything we needed to see. There are no real unanswered questions or hanging threads. As it is now, Watchmen is complete and I think it is good for Alan Moore to move on and do other projects.

[adam_grif]

Yeah. Honestly, if a prequel came out for it I'd be going in expecting it to suck, and a sequel would be even worse.

[Big Orange]

The Watchmen movie was slavishly faithful in a lot of respects but irritatingly deviated in a few places, like the LotR movies, only Watchmen felt oddly hollow in comparison despite the almost pitch perfect visual presentation of the original graphic novel. I don't see why they should make another movie when Watchmen only needed one novel. The movie adaption of V for Vendetta was cheesier and deviated more from its original source but it proportionately made more money back.

[Vendetta]

To be frank, I also think that the story is complete. We saw everything we needed to see. There are no real unanswered questions or hanging threads. As it is now, Watchmen is complete and I think it is good for Alan Moore to move on and do other projects.

Alan Moore "moved on" over twenty years ago. It's only DC's executives that have stalked him since.

[Srelex]

Who wants sequels to Watchmen anyway? Oh, right, DC's shareholders.

[Temujin]

The conundrum with Watchmen and other great pieces of fiction is that you want more, but often times the story is complete, and there's no value in adding to it. That's one reason why so many sequels and extended universes usually suck so hard, especially if someone else is doing the adding.

[Tsyroc]

Didn't they learn from The Dark Knight Strikes Back?

Oh wait. They probably made money from it even though it blew.

[Tsyroc]

To be frank, I also think that the story is complete. We saw everything we needed to see. There are no real unanswered questions or hanging threads. As it is now, Watchmen is complete and I think it is good for Alan Moore to move on and do other projects.

I suppose he could write the aftermath of the "alien attack" and the revelation of Rorschach's journal.
Whether people believe the journal.
Veidt & Co. trying to suppress the journal by painting it as a conspiracy theory crock or even more proof the Rorschach was nuts.
Maybe a combination of the two?
Plus the new adventures of Nite Owl and the Comedian (Silk Spectre II).

Hopefully they wouldn't have Doctor Manhattan come back at all but you know that he'd at least show up in flashbacks and would probably be around in the present. Especially when he can split himself off into multiple bodies. Why not have one that checks in to see what's going on with planet Earth and his old girlfriend. More flashbacks to the other deceased characters too. Maybe they can get Dr. M to reassemble Rorschach like nothing had happened.

Hopefully DC will just let things go and not try to do a sequel without Moore. I can't think of anyone being dumb enough to be willing to take Moore's place. The amount of money they'd have to spend to rope someone in would pretty much kill any chance of a sequel making enough money to even bother risking it without Moore.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Ugh, no. The ambiguity of the ending of the original story is one of the best parts. To then go "And then Rorschach undoes everything, making the whole thing useless" would just reek of cash cow syndrome. Like this does already.

[Shroom Man 777]

A more awesomer alternative would be a chronicle of Rorschach's adventures as he is disintegrated, and then reintegrated to find himself in various entirely new and different randome altarnate realties, before he disintegrates and reintegrates into another alternate universe, and then another, and another...!

All while monologuing himself and continuing his journal!

[DPDarkPrimus]

I know that back in the day Moore and Gibson had pondered the idea of an Original Watchman mini-series with the tone of Golden Age comics, but of course those days are long past.

[aieeegrunt]

No, for the love of God. All was said that needed to be said, the story is complete. For fuck's sake, for once can we think of something beyond trying to milk something for profit?

[Havok]

What's this? People want continuing story lines for comic book characters they love? I am shocked, SHOCKED I say, at this greed driven turn of events in the comic book industry. Clearly, doing just 12 issues for characters and then never using them again is the way to go and should be the status quo that the industry maintains.



Uh newsflash people. This was Moore's idea in the first place. Moore is just a douche. Let's be honest.
There are a million different ways he could approach the Watchmen UNIVERSE to make new stories, and there is nothing set in stone that dictates it must be a direct sequel to the original story using all the original characters, AND he gets the rights to his story back, but no, 'fuck DC those rat bastards!! they screwed me 25 years ago and I will hate them forever!!!'

[Big Orange]

Alan Moore certainly has a chip on his shoulder and could easily be mistaken for a mad hippie.

[JME2]

Uh newsflash people. This was Moore's idea in the first place. Moore is just a douche. Let's be honest.
There are a million different ways he could approach the Watchmen UNIVERSE to make new stories, and there is nothing set in stone that dictates it must be a direct sequel to the original story using all the original characters, AND he gets the rights to his story back, but no, 'fuck DC those rat bastards!! they screwed me 25 years ago and I will hate them forever!!!'

Moore's a double edged sword. On one hand, he has made big contributions to the medium. At the same time, yeah he doesn't help his case by portraying himself as a bitter curmudgeon.

[Havok]

Uh newsflash people. This was Moore's idea in the first place. Moore is just a douche. Let's be honest.
There are a million different ways he could approach the Watchmen UNIVERSE to make new stories, and there is nothing set in stone that dictates it must be a direct sequel to the original story using all the original characters, AND he gets the rights to his story back, but no, 'fuck DC those rat bastards!! they screwed me 25 years ago and I will hate them forever!!!'

Moore's a double edged sword. On one hand, he has made big contributions to the medium. At the same time, yeah he doesn't help his case by portraying himself as a bitter curmudgeon.

And he hasn't done anything note worthy since Watchmen. I mean yeah, he did that garbage with Liefeld, until he figured out what 10 year olds already knew... the guy is an unreliable hack. Wow, way to go Moore.

And he doesn't portray himself that way... he IS that way.

[Tornado Ninja Fan]

I would say that his whole ABC comics line (Tom Strong, Promethea, Top Ten) was pretty noteworthy.

And League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

And From Hell.

[Havok]

I would say that his whole ABC comics line (Tom Strong, Promethea, Top Ten) was pretty noteworthy.

And League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

And From Hell.

Never even heard of the first one. Didn't know he had anything to do with the second two. I'm not the be all end all of comic book knowledge or anything, but if those were more than mediocre hits, I would have known about them and Moore's connection to them.

[Ghost Rider]

One, Hav...the guy may be weird, but he's literally done what no other comic book writer did. And likely never will. The fucker could literally have retired in 1985, laughed his insane ass off, and never care again.

And From Hell did get made into a movie. Your mileage will vary on whether one likes it or not, especially compared to the source. But it's beyond what 99% of comics ever do.

[Simon_Jester]

Hav, if you don't know Moore was involved in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, given how much hype it got with the movies coming out... I think you weren't paying attention very hard. It's like saying "Oh, well Jane Austen can't have done anything good because I've never heard of her." I mean sure, you could be a reasonably intelligent person and never have heard of Jane Austen, but that doesn't mean her books were bad.

What's this? People want continuing story lines for comic book characters they love? I am shocked, SHOCKED I say, at this greed driven turn of events in the comic book industry. Clearly, doing just 12 issues for characters and then never using them again is the way to go and should be the status quo that the industry maintains.

A lot of really good ideas can get run into the ground if you keep generating new material for them. Think of all the long-running TV series that went to crap, and all the comic characters that got 'reinvented' over and over by new artists because doing the same old thing would get boring.

There's something to be said for a story that has a real ending, even if it ends on a giant question mark.

[Havok]

One, Hav...the guy may be weird, but he's literally done what no other comic book writer did. And likely never will. The fucker could literally have retired in 1985, laughed his insane ass off, and never care again.

And From Hell did get made into a movie. Your mileage will vary on whether one likes it or not, especially compared to the source. But it's beyond what 99% of comics ever do.

Oh I know that, and I know From Hell was made into a movie... I saw the damned thing. I still had no idea it was Moore. And c'mon GR... they made fucking Howard the Duck into a fucking movie... it isn't that great of a feat. The point is, he has been living off Watchmen, and to a lesser extent The Killing Joke, since 1985. Nothing has done has even approached the latter, let alone the former. So for him to be all 'I don't even want that stupid story anymore' is just him being a douche.

It would be like da Vinci not wanting the Mona Lisa back because he was pissed that the museum that had it wanted him to paint more paintings. "Those bastards! Wanting me to do what I do for a living and make some money off it! How dare they!'

[Havok]

Hav, if you don't know Moore was involved in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, given how much hype it got with the movies coming out... I think you weren't paying attention very hard. It's like saying "Oh, well Jane Austen can't have done anything good because I've never heard of her." I mean sure, you could be a reasonably intelligent person and never have heard of Jane Austen, but that doesn't mean her books were bad.

First I didn't say what he has been doing was bad, I just said it wasn't note worthy, especially compared to Watchmen. And I remember LOEG being hyped when it came out, I even remember the comic when it was running, but I still had no idea Moore was writing it. No one said 'Dude, Hav, you have GOT to read Moore's new book!'. Not like everyone and their mother says about Watchmen and KJ.

What's this? People want continuing story lines for comic book characters they love? I am shocked, SHOCKED I say, at this greed driven turn of events in the comic book industry. Clearly, doing just 12 issues for characters and then never using them again is the way to go and should be the status quo that the industry maintains.

A lot of really good ideas can get run into the ground if you keep generating new material for them. Think of all the long-running TV series that went to crap, and all the comic characters that got 'reinvented' over and over by new artists because doing the same old thing would get boring.

There's something to be said for a story that has a real ending, even if it ends on a giant question mark.

Sure there is, but that isn't what comic book fans want. And again, Moore was down with the sequel/prequel idea... it was HIS idea. Now... he is just being a douche.