Alan Moore Says David Bowie Wanted to Play Rorschach on “Watchmen”

In a recent interview with BBC’s Paperback Writers, Alan Moore revealed that if things would have proceeded differently we could have seen David Bowie filling the part of Rorschach in Watchmen. The co-creator of the acclaimed graphic novel (along with Dave Gibbons) said that the legendary singer asked to portray the part of the vigilante.

According to Moore, director Terry Gilliam tried to adapt the graphic novel to the big screen back in the 1980s. Moore said: “I remember he told me that he’d had a number of phone calls from David Bowie asking to play the Rorschach character.”

Unfortunately, the Gilliam version of Watchmen never came to life. The movie got an adaptation in 2009 and was directed by Zack Snider. Jackie Earle Haley portrayed the character of Rorschach. Ironically the character of Bowie himself made an appearance in one scene, played by J.R. Killigrew.

So how would a Terry Gilliam Watchmen movie starring David Bowie would look? As Moore says in the interview: “There’s an alternate world we can only imagine.” 

A new Watchmen TV series premieres on HBO on October 20.