davywavy: (Default)
davywavy ([personal profile] davywavy) wrote2011-08-23 10:30 am

[Alan Moore] Spaced:1969

Gosh, Alan Moore hasn't half lost it, hasn't he?

It’s been well over a year since The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910 appeared, so it’s been a fair old wait for part 2 (1969), which has finally appeared in shops as a disappointingly slim volume both in terms of content and narrative. What story there is appears to have been ‘inspired’ by Nick Roeg’s film Performance in the same way that Gus van Sant’s Psycho was ‘inspired’ by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, with Moore - who, let's not forget, got himself a saucy new girlfriend a year or two ago and seems to desperately want everyone to know he's getting lots of action these days - concentrating more on showing off that he's immersed himself into the pop culture of the sixties so he can reference it and show off how clever he is, and showing lots of nuddie people because HE'S GOT A GIRLFRIEND NOW YOU KNOW.

Yes, Alan, we know.

It seems to be that artists with a devoted and loyal fanbase enter a phase where they feel they can do pretty much anything and get away with it and Century: 1969 is Alan Moore hitting that point. I’d compare it to Robbie Williams producing Rudebox, but a better comparison is Guns 'n' Roses producing Chinese Democracy: a heck of a long wait for a dense, richly layered, and utterly self-indulgent piece of work of the sort which was interesting and exciting in about 1998 but which now just feels uninspired and samey. At the start of every League book there’s a picture of Moore drawn by Kev O’Neill in the style of the era of that book. To remain true to this theme I can only expect that the portrait of the author at the start of Century: 2009 will show him wearing a KFC bucket on his head.

Possibly the portrait will show him WITH A GIRLFRIEND. In case you hadn't figured that one out yet.

Still, reading the latest iteration of the League gave me an idea for my latest pitch at writing fame: An Alan Moore sitcom! Given Moore's famous hatred for DC/Time Warner and what they've done to his work in their cinematic adaptations, it really writes itself.

The Moores Next door
When middle-ranking Time Warner executive John Smith, his wife and teenage son (a keen member of Anonymous) move to suburban Northampton, hilarious consequences ensue when they learn their next door neighbour is Alan Moore!

EPISODE 1: Don't Mention the Watchmen!
When Alan invites Dave Gibbons round for dinner, hilarity ensues when it turns out his neighbour, John Smith, will be watching the Watchmen movie on his outdoor cinema that same night. Can Dave find a decent excuse to sneak off and join him without mortally offending his notoriously prickly and sensitive host?

(Anonymous) 2011-08-23 10:09 am (UTC)(link)
You'd have to see if you could get John Cleese to play Alan Moore, in a wig and false beard.

H

Or how about...

(Anonymous) 2011-08-23 10:50 am (UTC)(link)
EPISODE 2: The Curse

When movie John Smith persuades the Time Warner studios to greenlight an origins reboot of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen franchise (directed by George Lucas and starring the Extraordinary Gentlemen as cute kids) he thinks his new neighbour Mr Moore will be as thrilled as he is! But will this latest news really help patch up relations between the Smiths and the Moores? Or will hilarity ensue as practising occultist Mr Moore be driven to new lengths to step up the feuding between the mismatched neighbours?

H

Re: Or how about...

[identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com 2011-08-23 11:06 am (UTC)(link)
Actually, the Young League Adventures sounds like a cracking idea. Possibly as a Saturday Morning cartoon?

Re: Or how about...

[identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com 2011-08-24 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
I had seen that, but completely forgotten about it until now...

(Anonymous) 2011-08-23 11:12 am (UTC)(link)
And possibly with the kids as Americans, so Mina is a moody high school gothlet, Eddie Jekyll is a bright nerdy kid with a chemistry set ("Most of the time he's a well behaved kid who just wants to go to medical school, but at times he can be a little monster!") etc.

It just writes itself

H

[identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com 2011-08-23 11:17 am (UTC)(link)
The League of Extraordinary Kids? No!

Extraordinary High. Where *every* kid is someone who'll grow up to be a famous literary character. Swotty Holmes, Mowgli the glowering wild kid like a werewolf out of Twilight, Clarke Savage Jr the football jock, Mary Poppins the caring mumsy one...

By God, this is a license to print money.

(Anonymous) 2011-08-23 11:27 am (UTC)(link)
I don't see how Alan Moore could possibly object

H

[identity profile] davywavy.livejournal.com 2011-08-23 11:37 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, he'd probably whine about it, but what's he know?
(deleted comment)

"other, better movies"

(Anonymous) 2011-08-23 02:53 pm (UTC)(link)
In this case, Eddie, I don't think the source material is exactly going to rank as Citizen Kane

H

[identity profile] twicedead.livejournal.com 2011-08-24 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
There is a hole in the British Boarding School literary genre with the end of Harry Potter.

[identity profile] zenicurean.livejournal.com 2011-08-25 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
Where *every* kid is someone who'll grow up to be a famous literary character.

Surely this would've gone without saying in anything even remotely based on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.