Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof’s television series adaptation of DC Comics’ acclaimed graphic novel series Watchmen has been picked up HBO, according to reports. Based on the novel by Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins, the series is set in a world where superheros are considered outlaws. According to HBO’s official description, “Watchmen embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own.”
The cast includes Jeremy Irons, Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Frances Fisher and Lily Rose Smith. Nicole Kassell will direct the pilot episode. Watchmen will be aired in 2019.
In a letter posted on Instagram in May, Lindelof said that he would not be directly adapting the comics for the series because they are “sacred ground”. Lindelof added, “This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built…it has to vibrate with the seismic unpredictability of its own tectonic plates.”
A film adaptation in 2009 by Zack Snyder received mixed reviews. Watchmen starred Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Matthew Goode.