Damon Lindelof Thinks 'Watchmen' Comic Writer Alan Moore Cursed Him
This Sunday night, HBO will premiere Watchmen, Damon Lindelof's live-action continuation of a story that began in the pages of a comic written by famed comic writer Alan Moore. Moore, who's one of the biggest names in comics with credits like as Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Batman: The Killing Joke, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to his name, is a practicing occultist and magician who is notoriously unhappy to see any of his work adapted by anyone else, and in a new interview, Lindelof says he's convinced that Moore actually put a "magical curse" on him because he made this new Watchmen show.
In an interview with Vulture, the interviewer essentially asks Lindelof about whether or not this version of Watchmen should even exist; the rights to the comic were initially going to revert back to Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, but they ended up staying with DC Comics instead, and this show was eventually greenlit. "That's something that I think about a lot," Lindelof said, and then he launched into a story about how he thinks Moore used his magic to put a curse on him:
"It wakes me up at night, but much less so now that it's done. I'm about to say something very ridiculous, but in all sincerity, I was absolutely convinced that there was a magical curse placed upon me by Alan. I'm actually feeling the psychological effects of a curse, and I'm okay with it. It's fair that he has placed a curse on me. The basis for this, my twisted logic, was that I heard that he had placed a curse on Zack [Snyder]'s [Watchmen] movie. There is some fundamental degree of hubris and narcissism in saying he even took the time to curse me. But I became increasingly convinced that it had, in fact, happened. So I was like, 'Well, at least I'm completely and totally miserable the entire time.' I should be!
When Zack was making Watchmen — and I only know this because I watched the DVDs — I was like, 'This guy is having the time of his life!' And I did not enjoy any of this. That's the price that I paid. Psychological professionals would probably suggest that I emotionally created the curse as a way of creating balance for the immorality."
That's pretty intense – but then, Watchmen seems like it's dealing with some pretty intense subject matter. Sure, it's the continuation of a comic book set in an alternate universe, but the show tackles real-world elements like racism and white supremacy, something that also weighed heavily on Lindelof in the early days of the writers' room. The good news is it sounds as if wading through that unpleasant research paid off, because the show has received high praise for its first several episodes from critics who have already seen them. But was the whole thing worth being potentially cursed by Alan Moore? Here's hoping someone asks Lindelof that question soon.