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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 19 OctOber 2019
New HBO series 'Watchmen' hopes to match original's ambition

By MARK KENNEDY aptation didn't come with- As a result, the new series
Associated Press out a bout or two of nerves. paints a bleak portrait of
NEW YORK (AP) — Damon "There was immense trepi- race relations in America,
Lindelof didn't take lightly dation and it was never with well-intentioned good
the challenge of adapt- overcome," he told The As- guys fighting an endless
ing the most acclaimed sociated Press. "Trepidation wave of white supremacy.
graphic novel of all time. is actually our greatest as- Its carefully crafted scripts
The "Lost" and "The Left- set." explore vigilantism, torture
overs" co-creator was a fan Lindelof will see how he's and even eugenics.
of the revered "Watchmen" done when the first of his "It had to be bold and it
book ever since his father nine-episode "Watchmen" had to take risks and it had
handed him the first few is- follow-up debuts Sunday to be surprising and it had
sues when he was 13 in the and the fanboys and fan- to be a little bit unsafe,"
mid-1980s. So agreeing to girls weigh in. They will find Lindelof said. "And so if we
spearhead HBO's new ad- many things created in were feeling unsafe writing
it, that was sort of an essen-
his image released by HBO shows Regina King in a scene from tial emotional component
"Watchmen," premiering on Oct. 20. of the storytelling."
Associated Press The look of the show
their honor. Lindelof and his writers took matches the mood, with a
"The end result is something all that and expanded it sense of dread punctuated
that is hopefully accessible to a new universe. The se- by action sequences. Ni-
to people who don't have ries begins with Redford as cole Kassell, who directed
an intimate familiarity with president, and adds Henry the pilot and episodes two
'Watchmen,' but there's Louis Gates Jr. as Trea- and eight, was led by Gib-
constant love letters and sury secretary and John bons' original vertical com-
acknowledgments that we Grisham serving on the Su- ic panes.
are building upon the foun- preme Court. "It was absolutely inspiring
dation of this masterpiece," The main plot is set in Tulsa, to look at the framing of
said Lindelof. Oklahoma, where it's hard the comic and knowing
The creators have man- to tell the bad guys from that if I could pay homage
aged to lure an eclectic list the good guys because to that as often as possible,
of actors, including Regina police also wear masks. it would really delight the
King, Jeremy Irons, Louis Some of the original char- fans," she said.
Gossett Jr., Jean Smart, acters have made the leap There are so-called Easter
Tim Blake Nelson and Don 30 years and some are eggs throughout. In one
Johnson. brand-new. The internet scene, King's character is
It proved a formidable isn't a thing in this version in a kitchen and the script
task to build on writer Alan of 2019 — newspapers and calls for her to crack sev-
Moore's and illustrator Dave radio are the main means eral eggs in a bowl and,
Gibbons' dark superhero of mass communication. for a millisecond, make a
tale, which follows a group "We treated the original smile from the yolks. That's
of masked vigilantes who 12 issues as canon, as an a nod to an iconic image
uncover a vast conspiracy Old Testament, as it were," from the comic — the yel-
after one of their own is Lindelof said. "The Old Tes- low smiley face.
killed in an alternate-history tament has given us some The original comics also
America. Superheroes are clues as to what direction were bursting with social
banned and have gone to head in but we also want and historical references,
underground. to land in a place that's a with plenty of varied musi-
Before they wrote a line direct commentary on our cal allusions. Lindelof and
of script for the new series, time." his team have matched
Lindelof and his team of The original "Watchmen" that ambition, with refer-
12 writers carefully plotted was built around the dread ences to everything from
over 10 weeks what hap- of the Cold War and so the Greek tragedies to Rodgers
pened to that alternate creators of the HBO series & Hammerstein musicals.
world in the decades until also looked for a unifying The soundtrack includes
2019. "It's a history that's just theme. While they worked, the Bee Gees, Beastie
adjacent to our own with the culture was wracked Boys, Eartha Kitt, Devo and
some significant major ab- by images of white nation- Tchaikovsky.
errations," he said. alists rallying in Charlottes- It's a challenging work and
In the original series, Amer- ville, Virginia, and black complex to watch. No
ica won the Vietnam War men being shot by police. wonder adapting "Watch-
and turned that country "When we started talking men" well has long eluded
into a state. President John about moving the story into Hollywood. But Lindelof
F. Kennedy is still assassi- 2019, we wanted to say, and his team have avoid-
nated on Nov. 22, 1963, but 'What is the cultural anxiety ed one pitfall of director
Richard Nixon remained that we are now facing?' Zack Snyder's "Watchmen"
president until 1988 after Obviously, there is danger movie of a decade ago
successfully abolishing term out there in the world, but — being too reverential to
limits. Actor Robert Redford all around us was this idea the source material. This
was running for president of a reckoning with race in new series isn't scared by its
against Nixon. America," Lindelof said. legacy.q