Artist Dave Gibbons Thinks 'Watchmen' Would Work Better As A Miniseries

When it comes to HBO's potential adaptation of Watchmen, artist Dave Gibbons "[knows] as much as the next person." Gibbons was involved with director Zack Snyder's 2009 adaptation, making appearances and promoting the movie and he remains pleased with it. Gibbons fully supported the film, and it sounds like he'd do the same for the miniseries. The project is in very early stages, so the artist doesn't know what the future holds, but he always thought Alan Moore's 12-issue story would work better as a show than a movie.

Below, read what Gibbons had to say about the Watchmen miniseries.

Little information has come out about HBO's plan for Watchmen. Last October, it was reported discussions between HBO, Warner Bros., and Zack Snyder were going on. The miniseries hasn't gotten the greenlight and nothing has been confirmed, but another take on the material is an exciting prospect, especially if Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers) does indeed end up as the miniseries' showrunner.

While speaking with ScreenRant, Gibbons told them he'd be onboard for the miniseries if it's done right:

Well, the thing with Watchmen is that DC has been very courteous to me and are always giving me the opportunity to be involved. There are certain things that I am happy to be involved with and certain things that I haven't been happy to be involved with and I haven't had any particular involvement with it. As far as the movie was concerned, I was happy to have as much input as they would give me. Although by the time of the movie, Alan Moore had long since left the building and I suspect if there is any further dramatizations, I am sure it will be something I will be consulted about and if it was done in the same way as the movie, I would be quite on board. I mean, you have to talk hypotheticals at the moment.

Gibbons added:

I'll tell you something interesting and even Zack Snyder didn't notice until right at the end of us doing publicity and everything for it, when we were first commissioned to do the comic book series, we thought, Alan thought that it was going to be a six issue series and then they said to him, "No. It's got to be 12 issues." And he was like, "Oh, shit." So he had to come up with another six issues worth of material, which is why it's got the shape that it has which, if you look at it, it's got an issue of action, an issue of character, an issue of action, and that is really what gives it its character. We did have space to stretch, and obviously something like a TV show would give you space to expand and explore that you haven't got with a movie, so we always thought it would work better as a TV series than a movie.

For a long time, Moore's story was deemed unfilmable. Snyder proved that belief wrong with his adaptation, especially the director's cut. That cut of the film is terrific and gives the characters and story the required breathing room. It's a great adaptation and a very literal one as well. Not too many departures and liberties were taken (unless you really cared about that squid). Personally, I think that if HBO makes the miniseries, they're less faithful and more experimental.