Damon Lindelof has found the first members of his HBO “Watchmen” series pilot, which includes his old “The Leftovers” buddy and new leading lady, Regina King.
The cast also includes Don Johnson (“Miami Vice”), Tim Blake Nelson (“O Brother, Where Art Thou?”), Louis Gossett Jr. (“An Officer and a Gentleman”), Adelaide Clemens (“Rectify”) and Andrew Howard (“Hatfields and McCoys”), an individual with knowledge of production tells TheWrap.
Details on their specific roles in Lindelof’s take on Alan Moore’s beloved comic series are being kept under wraps.
Here’s 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.
The casting news comes one day after Lindelof took to Instagram to explain to fans that he didn’t actually intend for his series to 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.”
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.