Nicole Kassell will direct and executive produce the “Watchmen” pilot currently in the works at HBO from Damon Lindelof.
Kassell is no stranger to HBO. She previously helmed multiple episodes of “The Leftovers,” which was created by Lindelof. She also directed an episode of the Martin Scorsese-Mick Jagger HBO drama “Vinyl.” Her other TV directing credits include the TNT drama “Claws,” FX’s “The Americans,” AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” and ABC’s “American Crime.” Kassell’s first feature film, “The Woodsman” starring Kevin Bacon, premiered in competition at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by Newmarket Films. The screenplay was co-written by Kassell and Steven Fechter.
She is repped by WME, Management 360, and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.
“Watchmen” was ordered to pilot at HBO back in September. The project is an adaptation of the DC graphic novel from Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins. Set in a universe in which the appearance of costumed heroes in the mid-20th Century had altered the course of history — leading to U.S. victory in Vietnam and a Nixon presidency that stretched into the mid-1980s — “Watchmen” followed a group of crimefighters investigating the murder of one of their own. In the process, those characters — including Doctor Manhattan, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, and Rorschach — uncover a conspiracy with enormous implications.
Lindelof will write and executive produce. “Watchmen” is produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television.
