Alan Moore has several comics that he wrote that were turned into movies, and he had nothing good to say about any of them. Moore wrote some of the most critically acclaimed books in comic book history. For DC Comics, Moore wrote Batman: The Killing Joke and the iconic Superman story “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow.” His best work might be in his work on Swamp Thing, but it was his original titles that have been made into the most movies. These include From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta, and Watchmen. That last book is still considered one of the most important comic book series ever made, and it has been made into a live-action movie, a two-part animated film, and an HBO series that plays out as a sequel.
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However, Moore refuses to allow his name to be listed in the credits of any of the movies based on anything he wrote, and he has refused to watch any of the movies or TV shows after a very rough start to his adaptations. It all started with the first movie based on one of his stories, the Jack the Ripper tale From Hell. Moore openly dismissed the film and actor Johnny Depp’s performance as real-life detective Frederick Abberline. From Hell came out on October 19, 2001, and it turns 25 this year.
Alan Moore Hated Johnny Depp’s Performance in From Hell
Alan Moore wrote the graphic novel From Hell, first as a serial published from 1989 through 1998, and then as a collected edition in 1999 from Top Shelf Productions. The story took a real-life event and added a fictionalized look at the investigation surrounding it. From Hell focused on the Jack the Ripper murders, known as the Whitechapel Murders, in the Victorian era. While the real identity of Jack the Ripper was never uncovered and remains one of the world’s most notable cold cases, Moore wrote a novel in which he identified the killers while also using real-life people involved in the original case.
Moore studied the Whitechapel Murders case and based his story on the theories by Stephen Knight that the Jack the Ripper murders were part of a conspiracy to conceal the birth of an illegitimate royal baby fathered by the royal heir Prince Albert Victor. While Moore used this theory, he fictionalized the story surrounding the supposed killers, while also using the real detective investigating the case, Frederick Abberline, as the lead character in his story. From Hell won several Eisner Awards and two Harvey Awards.
Two years after the book was published as a collected edition, it was released as a movie. The Hughes Brothers, who made their name with crime films like Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, directed the movie and cast Johnny Depp as Frederick Abberline and Heather Graham as young prostitute Mary Kelly. While they loosely adapted the graphic novel into a film, Moore was not happy with what he saw of it. Moore said that some things should not be made into a movie, and he hated how Depp portrayed Abberline in the movie.
In an interview with MTV, Moore spoke openly about his distaste for the movie. “I mean the police inspector in From Hell, Fred Abberline, was based on real life. He was an unassuming man in middle age who was not a heavy drinker and who, as far as I know, remained faithful to his wife throughout his entire life. Johnny Depp saw fit to play this character as an absinthe-swilling, opium-den-frequenting dandy with a haircut that, in the Metropolitan Police force in 1888, would have gotten him beaten up by the other officers.”
Alan Moore Refuses to Endorse Any of His Movie Adaptations
This wasn’t the only time that Moore has dismissed the movies based on his stories. In fact, after The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he demanded his name be removed from future films and lashed out at legendary actor Sean Connery. In the same MTV interview, he said, “On the other hand, when I have got an opium-addicted character, in Allan Quatermain [in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen], this was true to the [original] character — he showed a fondness for drugs on several occasions. But Sean Connery didn’t want to play him as a drug-addled individual. So the main part of Quatermain’s character was thrown out the window on the whim of an actor. I don’t have these problems in comics.”
Moore then said he used to not mind selling the rights to his stories because the movies and original books will always remain separate and different things. However, he now worries that if people see the movie and it is bad, they have no reason to want to go back and read the book, which hurts him. He wants his stories to be read, and the movies hurt them, in his mind. It is a big reason he refuses to allow his name to be added to the credits to distance himself from the films. He said that DC “tricked” him out of books like V for Vendetta and Watchmen, so he has no choice but to let them be made, but he doesn’t have to let his name be used on them.
Alan Moore has disowned both Zack Snyder’s Watchmen and the HBO series that served as its sequel, saying he refused to watch either of them. He disowned V for Vendetta and also refused to watch that movie. For his credit, Moore also said he didn’t want to be paid royalties for the movie because he didn’t approve of it being made and felt his graphic novel should stand on its own. He did know what the movie was about, and Moore was disappointed that V for Vendetta went away from his core theme of anarchy and was instead more about American neoconservatism vs. liberalism. That is when he also cut ties with DC Comics and began to write clauses into his contracts barrng the sale of any of his works to movie studios.
What are your thoughts on the From Hell adaptation? Let us know what you think about Alan Moore’s stance on movies based on his works in the comments below.
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