In the current febrile environment, I am not 100% sure that a TV show that deals with political anarchism will go quite the way they think it will. Still, it won’t stop them from trying. A TV series adaptation of Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta has been in the pipeline at Warner Bros. for a good while. Pete Jackson (not that one!) was attached to write the series. It would have been delivered via James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios.
Now, according to a report at The InSneider, the project has stalled:
“I’m now told that HBO has passed on Jackson’s script. One source told me that Jackson delivered a period-themed take on the material, while HBO was curious to see what a more modern take on a political anarchist might look like.”
While Jackson’s version is not progressing, HBO may intend to bring in another writer.
The original comic is set in Britain in a dystopian near future, in which the country is controlled by a fascist party stripping individuals of their rights and freedoms. Maybe Starmer’s government found a copy and thought it was an instruction manual?
Into this arena steps an anarchist named V, who wears a distinctive Guy Fawkes mask. He seeks to topple the government with the help of Evey Hammond, a young woman he rescued from the country’s secret police. As they wage war on the tyrannical state, government forces close in and a date with destiny becomes locked.
The property was adapted into a movie directed by James McTeague with the Wachowskis-producing, straight off The Matrix. I re-watched that about a year ago and I was struck by how well it stands up, and how good Natalie Portman is in the role of Evey.
Of course, one downside was the widespread adoption of the Guy Fawkes mask by certain online “movements”, but we can’t have everything.
The 2005 film will be re-released in cinemas in November.
