Damon Lindelof Addresses HBO Adaption of 'Watchmen': 'This New Story Must Be Original'

"The tone will be fresh and nasty and electric and absurd."

It's no secret that comic book fans are particularly critical of screen adaptions of the stories they know and love, and the upcoming HBO series Watchmen will likely be no different.

With that in mind, the project's showrunner Damon Lindelof penned a five-page letter to fans of the show, reassuring them the series will be a "remixed" take on the story, rather than a full-out adaptation of the 1986 comic series, Entertainment Weekly reports.

"We have no desire to ‘adapt’ the twelve issues [creators Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons] created thirty years ago,” he writes in the letter. “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." The letter chronicles Lindelof's personal introduction to the comic book series as a teenager to the multiple times he's been offered the chance to bring it to television over the last few years.

The last screen adaptation of the story came in the form of the 2009 film WatchmenSince the comic series was a jab at comic books in the first place, the subtle satire has had a hard time translating to other mediums with the right tone. While it did fairly well at the box office, it received very polarizing reviews. "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."

The show currently has no release date set.

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