Alan Moore would rather that moviegoers didn’t go and see the upcoming Hercules, starring Dwayne Johnson. It’s not that he thinks it’s a bad movie; he’s more concerned about the movie’s relationship with its source material.
The Paramount/MGM co-production, directed by Brett Ratner, is an adaptation of the Radical Comics series Hercules: The Thracian Wars, written by Steve Moore (No relation to Alan) with art by Admira Wijaya. With the movie due for release next week, Alan Moore has spoken about the poor treatment he feels Steve Moore, who died earlier this year, suffered at the hands of Radical.
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Talking to the website BleedingCool.com, Moore said that Steve Moore had “quite a few problems with Radical Comics in producing the comic book and there were compromises that he had been assured that he would not have to make which he had, in fact, been told to make,” including the fact that “Steve wouldn’t be getting any money from [the movie, with] the only consolation [being] that his name wouldn’t be going on it.”
Upon Steve Moore’s death, however, that apparently changed. In the interview, Alan Moore alleged that following the his death in March, Steve Moore’s name started appearing in publicity materials for the movie, which he suggests was an attempt to take advantage of any posthumous interest in the writer’s work. “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,” Moore told the website, “but even in the low estimation in which I hold the greater part of the comic industry, that is a new low.”
The writer of Watchmen and V For Vendetta—famously outspoken for his views on creators’ rights in the comics industry, who famously took his own name off the movie adaptation of his own V For Vendetta and From Hell (and the Marvel reprints of his Miracleman work) after conflicts with the publishers involved—called for fans of Steve Moore’s work to boycott the movie.
“I would also ask that anybody out there who gives a damn about Steve Moore or his legacy not go to see this wretched film,” he said. “It is the last thing that Steve would’ve wanted. And I cannot un-recommend it too highly or anybody involved in it.”
When contacted by THR, a spokesperson for MGM issued a statement that read “MGM licensed the feature film rights from Radical Comics and fulfilled all contractual obligations. Steve Moore was a legend within the comics industry, whose work we greatly admire.”
Hercules will be released in theaters July 25.
