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Damon Lindelof May Bring a 'Watchmen' TV Series to HBO

Zack Snyder reportedly won't have any role in the project.
Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof is in talks to develop a new series for HBO based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's seminal Watchmen comics, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Lindelof—who just wrapped up the final season of a different book adaptation, the brain-bleedingly under-appreciated series The Leftovers—has been a fan of Watchmen since age 13. "From [Watchmen's] flashbacks to the nonlinear storytelling to the deeply flawed heroes, these are all elements that I try to put into everything I write," he said in a 2009 interview. Now, if the deal goes through, Lindelof will have a chance to put his unique spin on the source material.

The Watchmen story is set in an alternative universe where superheroes helped the US win the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president in 1984, and diners somehow have the budget to advertise their restaurant with giant floating pink elephant balloons. Despite those deviations, it's not far off from our present-day reality.

The comic was previously adapted into a feature film eight years ago by Zack Snyder, the guy behind the worst of the DC cinematic universe missteps. Snyder's Watchmen was self-consciously beholden to the source material, but failed to capture the richness of the comics.

HBO reportedly tried to get Snyder onboard for a Watchmen TV series back in 2014, but it fell apart in the early stages. If Lindelof inks a deal to lead this new adaptation, Synder won't have any role in its development, Variety reports.

Alan Moore has previously called Watchmen "unfilmable" and that an adaptation would inevitably "lose an awful lot of what made the comic special in the first place." He might be right, but if anyone can prove him wrong, Lindelof's the guy to do it.