In a conversation with the Los Angeles Times, renowned comics writer Alan Moore, the delightfully twisted mind behind works such as From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V For Vendetta, and Watchmen, has declared his expected dislike of the upcoming big-screen adaptation of his groundbreaking graphic novel which deals with troubled former superheroes grappling with their own psyches as well as the end of the world.

“There are three or four companies now that exist for the sole purpose of creating not comics, but storyboards for films,” he said to the Times’ Geoff Bucher. “It may be true that the only reason the comic book industry now exists is for this purpose, to create characters for movies, board games and other types of merchandise. Comics are just a sort of pumpkin patch growing franchises that might be profitable for the ailing movie industry.”

The enigmatic Moore, who began in comics in the 1970’s and has penned now-classics in the field including a run on Marvel’s Swamp Thing, the much-lauded Watchmen, and the directly political anarchist story V For Vendetta, has been very vocal about his antagonistic attitudes towards not only the face of the current comic book industry but more importantly on the film industry and their adaptations of his work. Moore’s From Hell and V For Vendetta have both been adapted for the big screen, the former starring Johnny Depp and the latter Natalie Portman.

Watchmen, directed by Zack Snyder and starring Patrick Wilson and Billy Crudup, is slated for release on March 2, 2009 from Warner Bros Studios, though the film is currently tied up due to outstanding legal problems of rights issues between Warner Bros and Fox.

Picture courtesy of The Los Angeles Times blog & Graham Barklay circa 2001

Stay tuned to Toxic Shock TV for more Watchmen news.

By Costa Koutsoutis, source; (The LA Times)