Alan Moore on the BBC

[IainC]

He does a longish interview on Hardtalk (available via iPlayer so only for UK based peeps sadly) and there's a snippet available on the main news site.

"I haven't seen any of my films [...]  I prefer to criticise from a position of ignorance."

"I sold the film rights on the understanding that the films probably wouldn't get made which would have been the perfect result."

[Tannhauser]

Step 1:  Make amazing comic stories and sell film rights for extra money.
Step 2:  Bitch about films actually being made and that they suck even though you haven't seen them.
Step 3:  Profit.

[HaemishM]

To be fair, most of the movies based on his work bear only the slightest resemblance to the original work and often suck monkey ass. Though I liked it, LXG was an abomination compared to the book. From Hell was a decent thriller, but in no way remotely close to the very well done comic it was based on. Watchmen was the only one they got even remotely right.

[Khaldun]

Dude is a marvelous writer but he needs to shut his piehole about decisions he's made in the past. You want to retain creative control, retain it, mother fucker. Make that your first and last priority. Don't care so much what happens? Sell the rights. Want to complain that people made a shitty film? Ok, fine. But don't say, "Well, I knew that be definition all films made of my work would be shitty because I am a genius and they are not". At that point, return again to "don't sell the rights, then".

[UnSub]

Moore has been screwed over in the past, just like a lot of comic writers.

But yes, his "old man shakes fist at cloud" routine also gets tiring.

[Sir T]

When you compare this guy's ranting and Bill Waterson who was prepared to quit rather than licence Calvin and Hobbes, despite the fact that doing so would have made him a very rich man, Moore dosent come off well ate all. Bottom line, you sold the rights and made a fuckload of money. You knew that they would be crap when you sold them so you have no excuse for bitching now. ESPECIALLY if you havent even bothered to see the finished product.

Anne Rice bitched like hell about Tom Cruise playing Lestat, but she still had the decency to see Interview with a Vampire, and then took out full page ads praising his performance, therby admitting she was wrong. maybe Moore should take a leaf out of that book.

[Margalis]

He is less likable with each passing year, and less talented as well.

[Merusk]

The latter is the reason for the bitching.  People who continually bitch about how the properties they sold the rights to often did so when they were young and at the height of their creative talent.  It's the realization that they gave up their best work for a song and dance and they'll never be able to create something as good again while the folks they sold it to are making a hell of a lot more money at it. 

Those who /truly/ care about others fucking around with their work don't sell the rights in the first place.

[MuffinMan]

[UnSub]

In some cases Moore didn't have a choice - if he wanted to work, he was doing work-for-hire and got no look at the rights. That was comics for you, where the Big Two thought you should worship at their feet for even letting you write a Spider-Man story.

Watchmen was an exceptional success that DC used a contractual clause to keep the rights (read: ALL THE MONEY) to. Moore's also been bitten by wanting to stay away from DC when writing his own work, only for DC to come along and buy that publisher (Wildstorm).

But... he didn't need to sell the film rights to From Hell or League of Extraordinary Gentlement.

[Simond]

In some cases Moore didn't have a choice - if he wanted to work, he was doing work-for-hire and got no look at the rights. That was comics for you, where the Big Two thought you should worship at their feet for even letting you write a Spider-Man story.

Watchmen was an exceptional success that DC used a contractual clause to keep the rights (read: ALL THE MONEY) to.

IIRC, the rights to Watchmen have a clause which said "Money to DC until the print run stops, then they revert to Moore/Gibbons/etc". Which is one of the reasons why the trade paperback has continually been in print since 1987.

[UnSub]

I think there was also some sort of character use clause, so DC stuck the Watchmen in a dream sequence somewhere and kept the coins rolling in.

[Azazel]

He is less likable with each passing year, and less talented as well.

This seems true for quite a few others as well. Frank Miller immediately comes to mind.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, but Frank Miller actually broke.

[apocrypha]

Comparing a grumpy old man who's bitter about his past mistakes with a raving Islamophobic wingnut seems a tad unfair.

[Azazel]

I can't say that Miller or Gandalf here seem to be people you'd like to spend an evening with. Just because you'd probably also like to shiv Miller in the kidneys doesn't mean that Moore hasn't deteriorated as a functional human over the years.

Fuck, look at Neil Gaiman these days for a contrast. It's a crying shame that something has turned Moore the way he has..

[Sir T]

Gaimen did land with a bunch that didn't treat him worse than a milk cow though. With Moore it was DC or Marvel or a pavement. That were his choices.

[apocrypha]

OK, I got round to actually watching the interview and I have to say that a lot of you are focusing on one tiny part of that interview and character assassinating the guy on that basis.

I thought that was an interesting interview, slightly annoying, as most interviews are, in that he clearly had a lot more to say but got cut short by the interviewer (or by editing) in order to maintain the pace. I found Alan Moore interesting and engaging and it was good to see some difficult, and rarely raised issues such as child sexuality talked about, however briefly.

The things he was saying about the nature of the comics industry were things I've heard many times, from many sources over the years and I don't doubt that he's absolutely right. When talking about his past decisions regarding movie rights he clearly and openly admitted that he was being "a bit precious" and that they didn't read their contracts as well as they should have done in the early days. He wasn't ranting, he accepted a share of personal blame for the mistakes. I don't know what else you want from him? He was answering the questions put to him as best he could in the short time given, honestly and openly.

I'd happily spend an evening with him and we'd probably both get very drunk and have a great laugh and a good moan about the world. And probably some arguments too, his anarchistic tendencies and my socialism would make lots of sparks fly I reckon