HBO has cast Jeremy Irons in a leading role for Damon Lindelof’s upcoming pilot for his adaptation of Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” graphic novel series.
Details on Irons’ role, aside from the fact it’s a lead, are being kept under wraps.
Irons joins a cast that includes Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Adelaide Clemens and Andrew Howard.
Not much is known about HBO’s take on the famed comic series, except that it will be separate from Zack Snyder’s 2009 “Watchmen” film. Last month, Lindelof took to instagram to share his early ideas for his take, explaining the HBO series won’t be an adaptation or a sequel, but a “remix.”
“We have no desire to ‘adapt’ the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. [Dave] Gibbons created thirty years ago,” wrote Lindelof, in a five-page letter he shared on Instagram. “Those issues are sacred ground and they will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted. They will, however, be remixed.”
The “Lost” co-creator described the original 1986 comic as “our Old Testament” and likened his HBO series to when the New Testament came along. “It did not erase what came before it… To be clear. ‘Watchmen’ is canon.”
Here is the official logline for the project: Set in an alternate history where “superheroes” are treated as outlaws, “Watchmen” embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own.
Lindelof penned the script and will executive produce, along with pilot director Nicole Kassell and Tom Spezialy. The project is produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television.