Watchmen (Zack Snyder, 2009)

[Fletch F. Fletch]

For those of you who don't have the patience to freeze frame your way through that trailer of 300 for a shot of test footage from the upcoming Watchmen movie, here is a link to a glorious hi-res wallpaper of said image.

[TheGodfather]

For those of you who don't have the patience to freeze frame your way through that trailer of 300 for a shot of test footage from the upcoming Watchmen movie, here is a link to a glorious hi-res wallpaper of said image.

that`s cool
you can only see it when you really freeze-frame the trailer. when played at normal speed it `s not visible

[lord_clyde]

my god, its really happening. after seeing 300 im not so sure Snyder is the right man for the job, with both Dawn of the Dead and 300 he seems much more concerned with overall style and creative ways to decapitate people.

[rs98762001]

my god, its really happening. after seeing 300 im not so sure Snyder is the right man for the job, with both Dawn of the Dead and 300 he seems much more concerned with overall style and creative ways to decapitate people.

Agreed. Having just seen the execrable 300 it pains me to think this guy is the one who won WATCHMEN over the Gilliams of the world.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

my god, its really happening. after seeing 300 im not so sure Snyder is the right man for the job, with both Dawn of the Dead and 300 he seems much more concerned with overall style and creative ways to decapitate people.

Agreed. Having just seen the execrable 300 it pains me to think this guy is the one who won WATCHMEN over the Gilliams of the world.

And 300's phenomenonal opening weekend will only solidify Snyder's position in Hollywood. blech.

[DrewReiber]

Zack Snyder interview

There's a song you can not put in a Vietnam war movie and it's Ride Of the Valkyries which should not be put it in any movie because of Apocalypse Now. But in Watchmen, you can imagine a sequence in Watchmen where Dr. Manhattan is 100 feet tall stomping through the jungles of Vietnam with Hueys all over him, zapping the Vietcong while Ride of the Valkyries is playing. It is transcendent of itself so you can reference Apocalypse Now and that's okay. It is pop culture.

No, Snyder, it's not ok. It's a cheap way of comparing your adaptation to far more accomplished, experienced and thought provoking directors while lowering the source material of someone trying to do the same for comics to a level of near parody.

And 300's phenomenonal opening weekend will only solidify Snyder's position in Hollywood. blech.

Let's here it for marketing and frontloading. More and more the films themselves have little to do with the actual performance.

If Snyder puts any of his homophobic or multi-ethnic paranoia into Watchmen, I hope Alan Moore finds some kind of grounds to sue Warner Bros. At the very least, I hope Moore's departure from DC Comics has not given them the power to market Snyder's version as indicative of his work. Hell, I would have taken Aaronofsky or Greengrass over this horrible turn of events and I don't even like them. This will be just one more reason why people will still be calling Moore's material unfilmable over the next several decades...

[Fletch F. Fletch]

If Snyder puts any of his homophobic or multi-ethnic paranoia into Watchmen, I hope Alan Moore finds some kind of grounds to sue Warner Bros. At the very least, I hope Moore's departure from DC Comics has not given them the power to market Snyder's version as indicative of his work.

It's a shame because I like some of his ideas, like trying to incorporate The Black Freighter comic book but I think you're right, he's going to impart his own sensibilities instead of trying to impart Moore's and Gibbon's.

[Napoleon]

It's a shame because I like some of his ideas, like trying to incorporate The Black Freighter comic book but I think you're right, he's going to impart his own sensibilities instead of trying to impart Moore's and Gibbon's.

This might be a wise move on his part as it will allow him to avoid direct comparisons to the book. Where his wisdom falters is that his sensibilties aren't very sensible.
He'd be well advised to spend a long, long time on the phone consulting with someone who has experience with 'difficult' material in large projects (Cronenberg/Gilliam/Scorcese?), but that never seems to happen does it?

[rs98762001]

Zack Snyde interview

There's a song you can not put in a Vietnam war movie and it's Ride Of the Valkyries which should not be put it in any movie because of Apocalypse Now. But in Watchmen, you can imagine a sequence in Watchmen where Dr. Manhattan is 100 feet tall stomping through the jungles of Vietnam with Hueys all over him, zapping the Vietcong while Ride of the Valkyries is playing. It is transcendent of itself so you can reference Apocalypse Now and that's okay. It is pop culture.

Alan Moore needs to stage an intervention. Now.

[Len]

I assume the Hayter-version of the script hasn't leaked online? Would love to read that, if only to see what could have been, now that it seems Snyder is going in a direction I'll have a hard time accepting.

[DrewReiber]

I assume the Hayter-version of the script hasn't leaked online? Would love to read that, if only to see what could have been, now that it seems Snyder is going in a direction I'll have a hard time accepting.

I don't know about online, but it's pretty easy to find. I haven't read it yet, but I heard that one particular draft was about as close as you could get to a feature-length adaptation. I had a lot of faith in Hayter due to his last minute rewrites on other projects, but deep down I just wanted the movie to remain in development hell forever. Now I wish we could go back to Greengrass' version. It's crazy how this industry works, as the only reason we're here is because Lansing got kicked out of Paramount. Had she been on the job six more months, we wouldn't be hearing names like Joel Silver and Zack Snyder. *SHUDDER*

[Orphic Lycidas]

The idea of the director of "300" directing Moore's masterpiece is disturbing, but the fact that Zach Snyder is intent on locating "Watchmen" in the 1980's (where it belongs!) makes me feel a lot better. Tom Cruise as Ozymandias is an oddly fascinating concept. I have to admit he's my favorite character from the graphic novel and the idea of Tom Cruise playing him doesn't make me recoil in horror. Mr. Scientology would seem to add something to that character's awesome/awful tale. The "Black Freighter" comic is an necessary to the storyline as a Sophoclean chorus is to anyone of his tragedies. It creates and pulls together a thematic unity that comments on the rest of the storyline. Still, I don't know how in the world anyone can do any justice to "the Moby Dick of comic books." I just don't see that happening. It would require a real artist to translate it into a proper screenplay and then film.

That vile pro-terrorist "V for Vendetta" film just confirms for me that Hollywood can't deal with anything 'fantastic' without turning it into something cheap.

[Antoine Doinel]

That vile pro-terrorist "V for Vendetta" film

[Oedipax]

That vile pro-terrorist "V for Vendetta" film

I think the film is too ideologically muddled and focused more on giving the kids the same old tired bullet-time thrills to be considered seriously pro-terrorist, but I did have to scoff at the way the film basically skirts the whole issue by having the various buildings that V blows up completely empty of civilians. It's more like run-of-the mill blockbuster entertainment masquerading as political provocation, that being the particular flavor of the month. As Manohla Dargis wrote in the NYT, "You want radical? Wait for the next Claire Denis film."

[dx23]

In an effort to prove that Hollywood has run out of ideas and loves to plagiarize other people's work, the TV series Heroes has "adapted" without knowledge of it the central plot of Watchmen.

This will probably kaput the Watchmen project in the short term.

[Antoine Doinel]

Oh, please. There is a huge difference between a staged alien invasion and preventing an actual apocalypse. Furthermore, from what I know about Watchmen, thematically it is quite different (and probably "deeper") than Heroes. And as the article mentions - and as anyone who watches the series would know - Heroes owes far more to X-men than to Watchmen. Also, a single person pulling the strings for his own benefit is hardly unique to either series anyway. But regardless, Heroes is an excellent series that stands well on its own.

Also, Hollywood has had two decades to get Watchmen off the ground and with Snyder currently Hollywood's golden boy, I highly doubt this "controversy" is going to stop production on the film.

[The Invunche]

Couldn't agree more. Heroes is very entertaining television. And to think the last TV show inspired by the X-Men was Mutant X

[Poncho Punch]

To be fair, both Heroes' and Watchmen's catastrophic events are the devastation of New York 'for the greater good'. That said, Heroes obviously owes more to X-Men (don't remember Mutant X, unless it was that [extremely] short-lived series about teen mutants, including a Stretch Armstrong rip-off) than to Watchmen. And, after watching the entirety of Heroes over the last week, thanks to the glory of the internet, I have to say that while it may not be as 'deep' as Watchmen the graphic novel, it's certainly a hell of a lot better than Watchmen the film is shaping up to be.

[sevenarts]

In an effort to prove that Hollywood has run out of ideas and loves to plagiarize other people's work, the TV series Heroes has "adapted" without knowledge of it the central plot of Watchmen.

Without knowledge is overstating it. Creator Tim Kring may not know anything about comics, but the actual writing of the show is done by many comics fans and comics writers -- including well-known Batman writer Jeph Loeb, who's one of the primary creative voices behind the show. And the recent episode where Lindemann reveals his plan concerning New York is very clearly an homage to Watchmen, though the show as a whole is more of a pastiche of many different comics tributes and elements. And yes, it's a very entertaining and worthwhile show.

Personally, I have no interest in seeing a great comic in the hands of a hack like Snyder, so I could care less if the movie dies at this point.

[DrewReiber]

Can we take it as a good sign that there's been no news on Snyder's Watchmen in weeks? I sure hope so. Now watch them announce something tomorrow night just to teach me a lesson.

[DrewReiber]

I swear to god, I had no idea I could predict the future. Please forgive me, it's tomorrow night: The Watchmen in Vancouver!

[Schkura]

The buzz around the internets is that Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias, and Night Owl have been cast-- respectively (if not "respectfully" on my part) Keanu Reeves, Jude Law, and Patrick Wilson. Another rumor is that Gerard Butler is slated to play The Comedian. The original source (forgive me) is AICN. I would not post with this as my solitary source, so consider this quote by Z. Snyder from an interview with MTV when asked about these particular rumors:

"Um — you know what? I would say 'No,' but then you'd call me later and go like, 'Dude, what are you doing?'" he replied. "I don't know who's leaking this stuff, but they're good."

Could be he's just egging the buzz on, but I thought this would make for some good discussion-- particularly in regards to Doc.
"Human affairs cannot be my concern. I'm leaving this galaxy for one less complicated, dudes."

EDIT: Yes, I will berate "Ain't it Cool" and then site MTV. I am a complicated man.

[patrick]

Casting actors who are only about 40 years old (give or take) and look younger than that is doing a disservice to the comic - not that I ever expected them to cast age-appropriate actors in this movie, but the fact that the "heroes" of the comic are over the hill is one of the central themes.

About Zack Snyder:

And now, Zack Snyder. It feels like a compromise, doesn't it? I don't think Snyder's a hack -- his Dawn of the Dead remake was underrated -- but there's something of a shoulder shrug about the choice. His only qualification appears to be that he's made a Frank Miller adaptation. (Is 300 an actual movie or just tableaux? It looks like Michael Bay doing Sergei Paradjanov.) ? Incredibly, though, Snyder plans to not only return the film to the eighties, but also shoot the "Black Freighter" comic-within-a-comic. This is folly. This is beautiful. I honestly don't know what Snyder's Watchmen will look like, other than to flip through the pages of the book.

And maybe that's how it should be. — Kent M. Beeson

I agree completely with this - I enjoyed the Dawn of the Dead remake, but nothing he's done really says he's the man for this job, and the Rorschach test footage looks pretty goofy.

In regards to Alan Moore suing Warner Bros., from every interview with the man I've read he really doesn't care if they want to make Ozymandias into a CGI penguin, as long as his name isn't on it and he doesn't get any money from it.

[Orphic Lycidas]

Keanu Reeves as Dr. Manhattan is perhaps the most absurd piece of casting I've ever heard. You might as well have Woody Allan as Ozymandias and make it a parody (I would go see that). Though perhaps I'll hold back my complete and utter condemnation until I see the new character design. I've not seen enough of Jude Law to have a strong opinion but I truly hope they don't turn Ozymandias into a cardboard villain. He is really one of the few characters with some real morals however monstrous the conclusion to which his calculations lead him. Gerard Butler might very well make a good Comedian granted that he look believable in an old man fat-suit. I think casting actors around 40 is ideal since they will be required to play older and younger versions of themselves. The comic book is as much flashbacks as it is 1984/5.

"Human affairs cannot be my concern. I'm leaving this galaxy for one less complicated, dudes."

That was so geekerific I have no words to describe the awe I hold you in.

[Schkura]

Geekerific or not, it looks like the source has a counter-rumor @ Superhero Hype. They've heard Billy Crudup is the pick for Doc Manhatten. I am slightly more enthusiastic about this idea.

BUT, not as enthusiastic as I would be if only...


"The superman exists, and he's American. And he just blue himself."