Legendary graphic novel writer Alan Moore (Watchmen, V For Vendetta) has called for fans to boycott the forthcoming Hercules movie directed by Brett Ratner (X:Men The Last Stand, Rush Hour), produced by Paramount/MGM and starring Dwayne Johnson. The latest adaptation of the Greek demigod is based on Radical Comics Hercules: The Thracian Wars written by longtime friend Scott Moore (no relation to Alan).
Alan Moore’s issue has nothing to do with the quality of the final piece or even how faithful it’s been to the original source material – like his similar qualms with his own graphic novel adaptations – it is simply to do with how his friend’s name – following his untimely death in March of this year – has been used to help promote the movie. Speaking to Bleeding Cool, Alan Moore explains that following unsuccessful negotiations regarding the rights of the comic books Scott Moore received zero payment and thus demanded that his name not be attached to the movie. A demand that was promised to be adhered to by the studio. However after Scott Moore passed away his name began being used by the company behind the movie to help promote it.
Moore says: “In one of the several newspaper obituaries for Steve that we had over here… it was a very, very good obituary, but for me it was only really marred by one thing. It was saying that it was the money that Steve had received from this Hercules movie that was being made of his work that had enabled Steve to work upon personal projects… in the final years of his life. Now, Steve didn’t get a penny from those bastards for the film.”
He then went on to say:
“I then found out that regarding the film company, there were amongst the condolences for Steve, a couple of plugs for that film. They had not, before Steve’s death, seen fit to mention his involvement with the original story. Like I say, that was his only consolation, that his name was not going to be linked to this ignorant dreck. However, after Steve’s death, you could see that someone had thought, ‘Oh, there’ve been a couple of obituaries in the press and there’s quite a lot of talk about this. We could perhaps get some publicity for our film. It’s not like we’re going to have to pay him any money’. So they started to put Steve’s name upon the credits. It was a little bit of free advertizing. The publicity surrounding a man’s death. Now I’d have to look at my thesaurus and see if there are any words other than “vile” which I could use for that. But even in the low estimation in which I hold the greater part of the comic industry, that is a new low.”
This isn’t the first time that Alan Moore has spoken out against graphic novel adaptations. He famously had very harsh words to say about the Hollywood renditions of his work including From Hell, Watchmen, V For Vendetta and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The latter was so bad in fact that Sean Connery – starring in the lead role as Allan Quatermain – retired from acting altogether shortly after its release. The revered writer has backed up his claims by refusing large payouts from Hollywood studios in protest of their awful and unfaithful adaptations.
Hercules hits U.S. theatres July 25t and U.K. on August 8th, and stars Dwayne Johnson (Pain & Gain), Ian McShane (Snow White & the Huntsman), John Hurt (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) and Peter Mullan (Tyrannosaur)
Gavin Logan – Follow me on Twitter
Originally published July 20, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
