‘Watchmen’ Creator Alan Moore to Make Some Movies

Alan Moore is a madman…and by madman, we mean genius, of course. One of the most important people in the history of the comic book medium, Moore revolutionized his field with ‘Watchmen,’ ‘Swamp Thing,’ ‘The Killing Joke’ and ‘V For Vendetta’ before flipping the bird to the major publishers and going down his own bizarre route. No matter how far down his personal creative rabbit hole he travels (and if you’ve read ‘Lost Girls, his attempt transform pornography into a legitimate genre, you know how far he’s gone), Moore cannot escape Hollywood, who continues to adapt his work despite his protests.

Knowing that makes the news that Moore is going to enter the filmmaking realm himself pretty delicious, no?

Rather than a traditional feature film, Moore’s project will be a series of short films under the umbrella title of ‘Show Pieces.’ The first film, titled ‘Act of Faith’ has been completed and the second, ‘Jimmy’s End,’ will go before the cameras soon. Moore is teaming up with Northampton-based filmmaker Mitch Jenkins for the project. The pair (both of them longtime friends) have previously brought Moore’s ‘Unearthing’ to the stage and it looks like the two of them have decided that this is a collaboration worth preserving. ‘Show Pieces’ will be the first project Moore has written directly for the screen and it is being described as “occult” and “noir flecked,” two adjectives that describe much of his work.

Moore’s body of work is amazingly sophisticated, intelligent and adult, so it’s no surprise that Hollywood has botched so much of his work in the process of bringing it to the screen. Although the film versions of ‘Watchmen’ and ‘V For Vendetta’ certainly aren’t bad, they pale in comparison to the originals. The less said about the atrocities that are the ‘From Hell’ and ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ adaptations, the better. With Moore at the creative helm, can his distinct voice make the translation to film? As a notorious perfectionist, his comic scripts showcase a Kubrickian level of attention to detail, so it’s hard to imagine Moore’s films not being exactly what he sets out to make.

The films are set to debut at The Creator’s Project this October, after which they’ll be available on online. We’ll keep you posted!