Watchmen official thread (updated 02/09)

blastmaster · Post by **blastmaster** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:12 pm

http://www.joblo.com/video/joblo/player ... tchmentrlr

No one will be completely happy with this, but it looks promising.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:17 pm

that actually doesn't look bad at all

SuperFeen · Post by **SuperFeen** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:33 pm

ya that looks really promising, the slo-mo might be a problem tho.

Spartan · Post by **Spartan** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:38 pm

I'm still sceptical about the movie but that trailer was fucking dope.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:41 pm

http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/d6/unsec ... filiateId=

link for the high quality trailer.

it's 82megs and you need the newest vlc player to watch it, but it's totally worth the effort

a lot of the stuff that's iffy in the youtube version looks much better here

this shit looks like jesus tastes

citizen · Post by **citizen** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:50 pm

Spartan wrote:I'm still sceptical about the movie but that trailer was fucking dope.

yep, despite how it looks, you would need to make it 4-5 hours long to do service to the story, i dont think anything can be cut from the book

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:52 pm

i'm not really expecting it to hit every single detail of the book, that would obviously be impossible. as long as they do justice to the overall spirit of the thing and the main themes, i'll be happy

Trademark · Post by **Trademark** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:09 pm

anything can be made in to a movie these days, just give them giant eagles and 9 hours.

citizen · Post by **citizen** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:12 pm

Trademark wrote:anything can be made in to a movie these days, just give them giant eagles and 9 hours.

Seiko Flossberg · Post by **Seiko Flossberg** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:28 pm

They took one of the illest comics of all time and turned it into Hollywood garbage. Big surprise.

Kalel · Post by **Kalel** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:34 pm

I'm going to try and stay away from anything revolving around this movie until it's release. No trailers, no pictures, no reviews, nothing. I just want to see if I can do it and if it changes the experience at all.

Kalistoga · Post by **Kalistoga** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:23 pm

trailer looks pretty good.

malpractice · Post by **malpractice** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:27 am

im soooooooo amped for this even though i know it cant possibly do justice to the book, it still looks ill as fuck.

(i coulda done without the smashing pumpkins song though)

None · Post by **None** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:47 am

Surprisingly, I didn't hate this.

SYM · Post by **SYM** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:43 am

the trailer played last night and seeing it on a big screen made it look a whole lot more promising. i'm excited.

Dids · Post by **Dids** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:03 am

My only beef is that I wish this was set in the 80s. Beyond that I love how it looks. There's obviously no way it's going to live up to the comic.

Still rooting for a new ending. Fucka space squid.

Reggie · Post by **Reggie** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:33 pm

Dids wrote:My only beef is that I wish this was set in the 80s. Beyond that I love how it looks. There's obviously no way it's going to live up to the comic.

it is set in the 80's

citizen · Post by **citizen** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:33 pm

Reggie wrote:
Dids wrote:My only beef is that I wish this was set in the 80s. Beyond that I love how it looks. There's obviously no way it's going to live up to the comic.
it is set in the 80's

yeah, why would you think it is not????

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:43 pm

citizen wrote:
Reggie wrote:
Dids wrote:My only beef is that I wish this was set in the 80s. Beyond that I love how it looks. There's obviously no way it's going to live up to the comic.
it is set in the 80's
yeah, why would you think it is not????

when archie rises from the water you can clearly see the WTC behind it, so it's definitely not set in current times. 90's at the worst

B. Ware tha Siniq · Post by **B. Ware tha Siniq** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:02 pm

Wow, nice I'm interested to see how this pans out.

The ILLatino · Post by **The ILLatino** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 3:29 pm

Dids wrote:Still rooting for a new ending. Fucka space squid.

Are you serious? The ending was ill!! You know they'll modify the monster and update, but other than that, it should stay.

varick pyr · Post by **varick pyr** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 3:46 pm

nah, fuck modifying the monster. wanna see a space squid get down. even if it's just quick glimpses.

looked dope in the previews before TDK. can't wait.

FAZER · Post by **FAZER** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:38 pm

I'm highly skeptical, especially after 300, but the trailer was dope. All the slow motion really bothers be though.

Truth. · Post by **Truth.** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:14 pm

never read the comic so i have no idea what this movie is about.

looks cool though so i'll wait to read it after i see the movie.

citizen · Post by **citizen** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:26 pm

Truth. wrote:never read the comic so i have no idea what this movie is about.

looks cool though so i'll wait to read it after i see the movie.

no way, read the book first, i guarantee you will enjoy both of them more if you read it first

Apathwhy · Post by **Apathwhy** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:15 am

citizen wrote:
Truth. wrote:never read the comic so i have no idea what this movie is about.

looks cool though so i'll wait to read it after i see the movie.
no way, read the book first, i guarantee you will enjoy both of them more if you read it first

agreed. just read it all again in one sitting along with this:

http://www.capnwacky.com/rj/watchmen/chapter1.html

shit is

SuperFeen · Post by **SuperFeen** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:16 am

saw the trailer in imax and the scene on mars with the floating tower/clock thing was

Truth. · Post by **Truth.** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:28 am

read the fisrt comic absolutely phenomenal

Karisma · Post by **Karisma** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:37 am

I had never in my life heard of Watchmen before this thread, but the Trailer made me at least wiki it and I can honestly say reading up on how celebrated the graphic novel was, and how the story was set up and unfolded I am officially hyped up for this

Add to that I loved 300...and dude directing said the cgi will only get better from this trailer

I have a feelin dude with the ink blot grill will be my favorite

I aint ever read a comic or graphic novel... Most I dealt wit comic wise was the xmen, spiderman, and batman cartoons would it be a good thing to pick up Who's watchin the watchmen before seeing the movie? or would it ruin the movie for me, either by being wayyyyyyyyy better, or givin away secrets I otherwise wouldnt know???

holla back, thanks in advance

1

None · Post by **None** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:58 am

In his bungalow on the Warner Bros. lot, Zack Snyder keeps a suitcase large enough to hold a rocket launcher. It doesn't. Popping open the lid reveals a set of finely crafted action figures encased in black foam: Dr. Manhattan. Rorschach. Ozymandias. Nite Owl. Silk Spectre. The Comedian. They're based on comic-book superheroes that aren't exactly household names, but if the director of the sword-and-sandals smash 300 has his way, these characters will become icons as explosive as any state-of-the-art weapon. ''In my movie, Superman doesn't care about humanity, Batman can't get it up, and the bad guy wants world peace,'' Snyder says with a smirk. ''Will Watchmen be the end of superhero movies? Probably not. But it sure will kick them in the gut.''

Watchmen won't hit theaters till March 6, 2009, but Snyder and his cast are about to face a trial by fire: On July 25, they're screening special teaser footage for thousands in San Diego at the annual summit of cult pop, Comic-Con. The movie is no kid-safe funny-book flick. It's an R-rated, $100 million adaptation of the smartest, most subversive superhero story ever created. Published by DC Comics in 1986 and routinely hailed by even mainstream critics as a literary masterpiece, Watchmen is many things ג a jittery expression of Cold War anxiety, a chilling meditation on human nature, an intricate murder mystery. But at its heart this sexy, violent, and politically charged 12-issue saga, written by Alan Moore (click to see our Q&A with him) and drawn by Dave Gibbons, is an epic love letter to colorfully clad superpeople and a wicked satire about them. Set in 1985, but in an alternate reality where Richard Nixon is serving his fifth term as president and costumed crime-fighting has been outlawed, the story begins with the brutal murder of a retired superhero named the Comedian. Another ex-superhero, the inkblot-masked Rorschach, believes that someone is trying to assassinate his former colleagues. Is it a serial killer at work, or is there a global conspiracy involved? A twisty plot unfolds, enveloping an array of bizarre, damaged, and bracingly human fantasy people. ''We wanted to explore simple questions with not-so-simple answers,'' Gibbons says. ''What if superheroes really existed? How would they really think? And how would they really affect the world?''

The result was a piercing deconstruction of superhero mythology told with a sophistication unprecedented for the genre. ''At the time, comic books had hit the ceiling,'' Snyder says. ''Superman had done everything he could do; the X-Men and Fantastic Four had faced every possible bad guy and end-of-the-world scenario. And then Watchmen came along and took it to the next level by breaking all the rules.'' Snyder ג who was into naughty sci-fi/fantasy comics like Heavy Metal magazine as a teen and discovered Watchmen during college ג believes the global multiplex is now ripe for a similar revolution. ''The average movie audience has seen so many superhero movies,'' he says. ''And some of this stuff is hard to take seriously. I mean, The Hulk? Come on.'' Snyder remembers screening some Watchmen footage for an unnamed studio executive. Afterward, Snyder says, the exec turned to him and said, ''This makes Superman look stupid.''

Superhero movies have taken a serious turn lately, with The Dark Knight and Hancock. Still, the odds of Snyder making a fantastic, faithful adaptation of Watchmen are against him. Until recently, the director belonged to a school of thought that believed this dense, dark jewel ג the fanboy's Catcher in the Rye, the rite-of-passage text for any serious geek ג couldn't and maybe shouldn't be made into a movie. That school still includes Watchmen creator Moore, who has disavowed the film because of his general disdain for Hollywood, and his long-standing conflicts with DC Comics, a Warner Bros. sister company. ''Watchmen works perfectly fine as a comic,'' says the British scribe, who has scrubbed his name from the film's credits and abdicated his royalty check to Gibbons. ''There are things we did that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off the things that comics can do that other media can't.''
So far, no other media have. Many in Hollywood have tried to get Watchmen on the screen and failed, including directors Terry Gilliam (Brazil), Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain), and, most recently, Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass. In 2005, Greengrass was deep into preproduction on a present-day, war-on-terror-themed adaptation by David Hayter (X-Men), when a regime change at Paramount Pictures led to its demise. Enter Warner Bros., which acquired the rights in late 2005. Snyder was working on 300 for the studio at the time, and he was alarmed when he heard about the deal. After some soul-searching, his fear of seeing a bad Watchmen movie trumped his fear of trying to make a great one. ''They were going to do it anyway,'' he says. ''And that made me nervous.'' Over many months, and many meetings, Snyder persuaded Warner Bros. to abandon the Greengrass/Hayter script and hew as faithfully as possible to the comic. The key battles: retaining the '80s milieu, keeping Richard Nixon (Moore did consider using an era-appropriate Ronald Reagan, but worried it would alienate American readers), and preserving the villain-doesn't-pay-for-his-crimes climax. ''It was clear that Zack felt an intense obligation to the fans and the book,'' says Warner Bros. Picture Group president Jeff Robinov. ''There was definitely a conversation about the best way to make it contemporary and relevant to today. Zack felt the best way was to go back to the roots of the novel.'' It didn't hurt Snyder's case that by then 300 ג another R-rated movie based on a hardcore graphic novel ג was making a killing at the box office. ''Little by little, we got the studio on board,'' says Deborah Snyder, the director's producer, chief collaborator, and wife. ''300 really helped. It created a level of trust in Zack's vision.''

That trust extended to casting. Daniel Craig, Jude Law, and Sigourney Weaver were said to be interested in or attached to the Greengrass production, but Snyder felt celebrity would detract from Watchmen's substance. There's barely a brand-name star among his cast, and none were Watchmen fans when they were hired. Patrick Wilson (Angels in America) came aboard first and immediately started packing on weight to play the potbellied, middle-aged Nite Owl. Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) campaigned for the role of Rorschach ג the comic's most popular character, despite his sociopathic, sadistic vigilantism ג by recruiting 14 friends to help produce a video of himself performing sequences from the comic book. ''It was a little labor of love, man,'' he says. ''Kind of cheesy, but for an audition piece, it sufficed.''

When the six-month shoot commenced in Vancouver last summer, some of the actors struggled with fleshing out their complex, often corrupt characters. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (TV's Supernatural), who plays the Comedian, must carry out repellent acts of violence, but still manage to make the audience care about his death ג and his big secrets. ''Some of the things this guy does, you can't make excuses for, even as an actor,'' Morgan says. ''Your instinct is to just play the guy as a bastard, but you can't.'' For Billy Crudup (Jesus' Son), the challenges were both physical and mental. His CG-rendered Dr. Manhattan is bald, blue, and often buck naked. Not only did he have to play an omniscient embodiment of quantum physics, but he had to do it wearing a white motion-capture suit blinged with tiny blue lights, his face covered with 140 black dots. ''It's really hard to feel like the master of all matter when the other actor can do little more than laugh in your face,'' Crudup says. ''I had to constantly reference the picture of the character, because if I caught the slightest glimpse of myself in any reflective surface, the illusion was crushed.''

Based on footage Snyder screened for EW, at least, the work seems to have been worth it. Multiple scenes ג the Comedian's murder, Rorschach's introduction, Dr. Manhattan's origin, and a hypnotic title sequence that shutter-flies through the history of Watchmen America, set to Bob Dylan's ''The Times They Are A-Changin''' ג suggest a film that may capture more of Watchmen than anyone thought possible. Sure, there have been changes. The catastrophic climax is different. Provocative bits, like a timely subplot about alternative fuels, have been added. And a pirate/horror comic book that was threaded ironically throughout the Moore/Gibbons narrative is set to become a separate animated DVD. But Snyder's film clearly seeks to emulate the comic's arch-yet-dramatic tenor, its time-shifting, perspective-switching storytelling, and its richly realized alterna-New York. The Gunga Diner, the ''Who Watches the Watchmen?'' graffiti, the blood-splashed smiley-face button evoking a doomsday clock ג it's all there.

Now comes the hard part: keeping it there. Snyder's current three-hour cut won't be unspooling in theaters next March. Robinov says two hours and 25 minutes is more realistic. ''Running time is dictated by how you are engaged,'' Robinov says. The studio might be gutsy enough to back Watchmen, but it wants to make a profit too. ''The challenge is to make a movie that can satisfy the fan but engage the typical moviegoer,'' he says. ''I think that's how Zack feels too.''
He does, but it won't be easy. ''I keep telling them, 'Guys, I can't take this out!''' Snyder says. '''Don't you understand?! If I f--- this up, I might as well start making romantic comedies!''' On July 18, Watchmen first trailer's hits theaters, hooked to The Dark Knight. Snyder hopes the fanboys understand that even with these changes, no other version of the film that preceded him dared to be this faithful. And as he spends the next eight months slicing and fine-tuning, he prays his fellow Watchmenphiles will cut him a little slack. ''They have a chance to support something that I think legitimizes the superhero-movie genre for everyone who says superhero movies are stupid, popcorn bulls---,'' he says. ''Hopefully, Watchmen can get in their faces and change their minds.''