Alan Moore Cares Not For League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen TV Adaptation
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If you’re anything like me, two thoughts rapidly went through your brain when it was announced that Michael Green was writing a TV pilot based on one of comic mastermind Alan Moore’s most intriguing works, the historical mystery mash-up The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: what internationally famed actor is going to be inspired to retire after starring in the pilot, and how big of a shit is Moore going to take on the project?
It turns out there’s no reason to bring out the four-ply toilet paper, as Moore’s response was far more humdrum than rage-addled. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Moore talks about a Kickstarter project (which we’ll get to in a bit) more than he does about the League pilot. And why wouldn’t he, since the adaptation-discouraging author clearly won’t have anything to do with it?
When asked if he or co-creator/series artist Kevin O’Neill will be involved at all, Moore surprisingly didn’t rear his head back and shoot flames out of his ears while chortling madly. Instead, he said:
Me and Kevin have been chuckling about that one; we only heard about it the other day. When [DC Comics] did the recent Watchmen prequel comics, I said all sorts of deeply offensive things about the modern entertainment industry clearly having no ideas of its own and having to go through dust bins and spittoons in the dead of night to recycle things.
I’ve read a lot of people ripping Moore up for this kind of thought, given that League‘s central cast of characters is pulled from other literary works, but he isn’t the kind of person who creates his products with billion-dollar box office appeal in mind. And I love the visual of studio execs digging around in the dark for movie ideas.
“The announcement that there is a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen TV series hasn’t caused me to drastically alter my opinions,” he continues. “Now it seems they are recycling things that have already proven not to work.” When was it proven not to work? Back in 2003, when director Stephen Norrington effectively ended Sean Connery’s career with his completely misguided, over-the-top-yet-still-boring-as-shit adaptation for 20th Century Fox.
Before getting into the successful crowdfunding for the fifth installment of the Jimmy’s End short film series, titled His Heavy Heart, Moore offers his working philosophy:
If I am going to do something in any medium, then I am certainly temperamental and abrasive enough to insist that it’s going to be done the way that I want to do it. This is pretty much the way I insist upon working. There really wouldn’t be any point in me doing something that I didn’t want to do. But since that entails not wanting to work for a large company — [due to the] editorial interference that would come with that sort of arrangement — that pretty much only leaves me with unconventional approaches.
Like ripping the shit out of everyone.
Here’s the preview video for His Heavy Heart, which is surprisingly not the only Kickstarter project Moore has lent his name to recently.
