Aranofsky to direct Watchmen!

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According to Empire online. Although I personally don't think it should be adapted at all, it's pretty much the best choice I can imagine.

Thoughts?

― Wooden, Friday, 23 July 2004 15:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Just as long as it isn't the Wachowski Brothers or Siblings, now, I guess.

― Huck, Friday, 23 July 2004 16:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Is Larry's Change official?

I wouldn't bank on Aranofsky (and maybe even the movie itself) to come to fruition, since the last time he was pegged w/ a comics-related movie (or any movie, for that matter), it got dropped.

― The Dreaded Rear Admiral (Leee), Sunday, 25 July 2004 01:37 (nineteen years ago) link

On the record, I maintain the obstinate stance of It's Terry Gilliam Or It's Nobody.
Off the record, they could do worse than Aronofsky.

― Josh Anomaly (josh_anomaly), Sunday, 25 July 2004 04:03 (nineteen years ago) link

I think Gilliam would do brilliantly visually, but he occaisionally has problems with telling a coherent story, and Watchmen is largely about structure.

― Wooden, Sunday, 25 July 2004 10:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Plus Gilliam already said it'd take 9 (?) hours to tell right, I am not sure how it's possible to tell Watchmen at movie length, obviously the pirates will be dropped, but what else could possibly go?

Any idea on a budget, I imagine they are going to have to CGI the hell out of the Dr Manhatten stuff.

― DFM (DFM), Monday, 26 July 2004 01:40 (nineteen years ago) link

They're probably going to have to drop the whole news vendor/comic kid storyline, which is, as far as I'm concerned, the heart of the book. Lots of the flashbacks could also be cut. But without these things it just wouldn't be Watchmen.

This may, in some ways, be the best time to do a Watchmen film, what with the recent glut of superhero movies. A bold way to do it would be to rework it so that it's a comment on the cliches of superhero films, rather than superhero comics.

― Wooden, Monday, 26 July 2004 02:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Why don't they just make a movie "inspired" by Watchmen instead of smearing Watchmen's mighty legacy with what can only be an extremely truncated version of the original?

― Huck, Monday, 26 July 2004 15:43 (nineteen years ago) link

I suspect they will. One of the reasons people point to for X-Men's success -- not just the success at the box office, but the project's success in getting made and being given a real budget, director, and cast -- is that they have a common origin story you can put across in a fraction of a trailer. You don't need to bring in any backstory that isn't part of the movie's plot, and what you leave out doesn't feel like it's missing. Watchmen has acres of backstory that aren't even explained in the comic, much less shaped to fit in a movie -- that works in a comic because it's a trope of comics, it's a convention Moore was playing with, but it isn't a trope of movies, even superhero movies. It wouldn't work, and I don't think it'd make it through the pipeline.

It makes more sense to do something Watchmen-like -- closer to the spirit of the book than the plot -- than it does to try to condense something that's already incompatible into something both incompatible and resized.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 26 July 2004 17:33 (nineteen years ago) link

It's the whole "Why did they even call it Catwoman?" issue all over again.

― Huck, Monday, 26 July 2004 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Oof, Catwoman. See, you could come closer than that. Catwoman could easily have been about a cat burglar, or about Catwoman's arc in Batman: Year One -- hell, you could mention Batman without throwing a single person in the audience off -- or etc.

I was flipping through channels this weekend and stopped on TRL because Halle Berry was on, and what sealed the "I am so not going to watch this movie" issue for me was when she explained that she didn't see it as a superhero movie: "It's a movie about a woman who dies and is brought back to life as an empowered, strong woman, by a magical Egyptian cat."

What strikes me the most is the fact that, after her bitching about X-Men being silly and confusing and something she did to keep Hollywood happy, I'm pretty sure "... brought back to life as an empowered woman by a magical Egyptian cat" is something they told her to convince her to do the movie.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 26 July 2004 18:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Halle Berry, I love you even more now.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 26 July 2004 18:33 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't know whether to be frightened by her power over you, or to kind of agree.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 26 July 2004 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Halle Berry is...Feline Fatale or Panther Lady or wearing tight pants. Any of these would have sufficed and probably not made a difference at the b.o.

― Huck, Monday, 26 July 2004 19:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Wow, how many times would I see a movie called Wearing Tight Pants? Especially if it were the name of the lead character! As long as the subtitle wasn't like : The Louie Anderson Story.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:06 (nineteen years ago) link

This is the Halle Berry responsible for the most horrible moment of the first X-Men movie ("The same thing that happens to everything else.").

According to my girlfriend, it was a Joss Whedon-written line, but JW insists that it would have worked if it had been delivered properly (i.e. in a funny Buffy way, I assume) rather than with cringe-inducing seriousness.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link

I think she's a good actress who just wasn't into the Storm role at all, and it showed; she was very clear about doing it not for the money exactly but the exposure of doing a big deal summer-type movie.

Catwoman, whatever else is going on with it, at least looks like it's a movie she was into and had fun with.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:23 (nineteen years ago) link

That'll teach her...

― Huck, Monday, 26 July 2004 19:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Seriously, what is there not to love about the sheer absurdity of her Catwoman comment? That's not a cringe-inducing comment, it's a belly-laugh-and-cuddle-inducing comment.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 26 July 2004 23:13 (nineteen years ago) link

I love the absurdity of it! But it makes it sound like a Lifetime movie for furries.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 26 July 2004 23:43 (nineteen years ago) link

I shuddder to think how they pitched _Monster's Ball_ to her.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 01:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Or _Swordfish_!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 01:25 (nineteen years ago) link

The Swordfish pitch was along the lines of US$1 million extra for each breast, I believe.

― DFM (DFM), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 01:33 (nineteen years ago) link

On topic:

The summary of the watchmen movie posted elsewhere is that it follows the investigations of a masked vigilante "Rorschach" into killings of masked heroes past and present (to summarise), which does sound like a movie pitch.

I think it could turn into a pretty sad pseduo-detective story, with masks, in which the twists are that the POV character is a nutter and the bad guy is a superhero. It could very easily suck.

― DFM (DFM), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 01:38 (nineteen years ago) link

And who the hell are they going to cast as Dr. Manhatten? I love how Gibbons draws him. He always looks so sad, and that little smile when he sees Dan and Laurie lying naked together kills me.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 11:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Dr. Manhattan = Justin Theroux?

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 12:18 (nineteen years ago) link

That works! Though I almost think the guy that plays Peter Krause's brother on _Six Feet Under_ would be perfect, too.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 12:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Kyle McLachlan is an expert at cold (fusion) detachment.

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 13:44 (nineteen years ago) link

I think Kenneth Branagh would be quite a good Veidt.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Or maybe that guy who was the Nuclear Man in Superman IV?

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 15:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Rutger Hauer!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 15:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Rutger Hauer should play all of the roles except for the ones covered by Dolph Lundgren.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 15:59 (nineteen years ago) link

And Cindy Crawford as the Silk Spectre?

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 16:01 (nineteen years ago) link

My friend met Rutger Hauer the other evening and spent ten minutes drunkenly chatting with him. Apparently he was incredibly nice.

Lookswise for S.S., I'd go with Emmanuelle Beart. They could dub her with an American actresses' voice.

Roschach: William H. Macy. Defo.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 16:04 (nineteen years ago) link

OTM on Defoe.

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Dafoe's too tall.

I'd say get a time machine and get Mickey Rooney at around 35 or so, beat the heck out of him and scuff him up a bit and you'd be onto something.

Watchmen is such a comic book that it's doubtful that it'll survive the translation at all. Maybe take some of the basic plot and run with it, but it'll be barely be more than that unless someone gets brave and writes a movie in the spirit of the original. Nailing that spirit down will be trickier than everyone thinks, too.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Isn't ILX Mandee friends with Dafoe? She could give a friendly nudge...I keep thinking the underused Paul Bettany for Rorschach, but it may just be his colouring.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Y'know who would be perfect for this? M.Night Shaymalan.

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 17:16 (nineteen years ago) link

I can't see M. Night as Rorschach.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:03 (nineteen years ago) link

But that's the beauty of when he finally takes his mask off. "I can't believe that quasi-fascist isn't white!"

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Dave Chapelle to thread!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:37 (nineteen years ago) link

I think Chappelle may already be booked to play John Stewart to Jack Black's whichever Green Lantern.

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:43 (nineteen years ago) link

Dave Chappelle should play Cindy Crawford playing Silk Spectre.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link

And Ashy Larry as Rorschach!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Louis CK directs!

Wanda Sykes as Ozymandias!

Dave Attell as Owlman!

HELL YEAH!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Mel Brooks presents: Watchmen: Men In Tights
Starring:
Dom DeLuise as Dr. Manhattan
Cloris Leachman as Silk Spectre I
Gene Wilder as Rorshach
etc.

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Teri Garr PHWROAR!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Carry Elwes as Ozymandius! That could actually work.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 27 July 2004 19:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Actually, Pal Joey/Taxi Driver era Peter Boyle coulda made a great Rorschach. He's too old now.

― Huck, Tuesday, 27 July 2004 19:31 (nineteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

http://www.empireonline.co.uk/site/news/newsstory.asp?news_id=16087

He'd not be too bad a choice.

― Wooden (Wooden), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Skipping 20 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

It would be amazing if the posters/trailers just have the smiley face with "Qui custodiet ipsos custodes?" underneath, instead of making it look too flashy or emphasize the actors too much.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 11 February 2005 20:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, a teaser poster that was, in essence, a copy of the cover of the first issue w/ the tagline (in English, preferably) would be really nice. (That'd be similar to the Batman teaser poster, actually, w/ just the logo & the date of release.) Or maybe the main characters in costume surrounding the button w/ their costume showing in some way, so we'd see the button and some distinguishing characteristics (blue feet, wings, fishnets, etc.), but no faces.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 11 February 2005 20:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Or maybe that last idea belongs in the "How to NOT Market The Watchmen Flick" thread.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 11 February 2005 20:41 (nineteen years ago) link

Christ Almighty, it's the goddamned Watchmen!

― what fresh hell, Friday, 11 February 2005 21:18 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...

Part One of what should be a very interesting interview with Greengrass.

http://chud.com/interviews/1914

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 20:00 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=22841

Yawn.

― chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug, yo (chap), Friday, 31 March 2006 13:51 (eighteen years ago) link

yay!

― Yawn (Wintermute), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh dear, what a rubbish choice. Lucky it'll never happen.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:08 (eighteen years ago) link

but nu-Dawn of the Dead is better than the original!

― Yawn (Wintermute), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Like fuck it is! (With politeness.)

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:22 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm firmly with Chuck on this one.

― chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug, yo (chap), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:23 (eighteen years ago) link

It is, like fuck!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:24 (eighteen years ago) link

And so begins the ILCIVIL WAR!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:24 (eighteen years ago) link

And twas not even a disagreement over comics that wrought this terrible thing. Ah, the irony.

― chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug, yo (chap), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:26 (eighteen years ago) link

I shall don the BLACK LEATHER VEST OF NAMOR

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:27 (eighteen years ago) link

I'll go kill Speedball. I mean Namorita. I mean Blount.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:35 (eighteen years ago) link

I stand by my pick for the Mel Brooks version. There have been enough Superhero™ movies now that the market is ripe for a Superhero™ spoof, and Brooks is the master, and Watchmen is the ULTIMATE Superhero™ spoof text (though not actually funny). So, actually, a Brooks-directed Top Ten would be my actual choice IF I RAN THE ZOO.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:37 (eighteen years ago) link

I mean Huk.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:38 (eighteen years ago) link

PLANET HUK BEGINS

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:38 (eighteen years ago) link

Actually, ILC shd probably be retconned & renamed PLANET HUK.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:42 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.atakra.com/pictures/ebaycomics/magazines/green_lantern181.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:43 (eighteen years ago) link

I have caught the discarded power ring and now I AM THE MASTER.

― chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug, yo (chap), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:47 (eighteen years ago) link

DON'T TRY IT

http://www.comicboards.com/gamb/moderator/Green%20Arrow.gif

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:48 (eighteen years ago) link

We should annex Comicboards.com! It will be a mighty display of ILC's superiority among comic book message boards.

― Warlock Magazine (Warlock Magazine), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:51 (eighteen years ago) link

What, or you'll bombard me with a massive volley of broken links?

xpost

― chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug, yo (chap), Friday, 31 March 2006 14:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Two words: LIEFELD CHUNKS

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 31 March 2006 15:11 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.atakra.com/pictures/ebaycomics/magazines/green_lantern123.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 31 March 2006 15:27 (eighteen years ago) link

two months pass...

Good luck with that:
http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74731

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Man lame.

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Friday, 23 June 2006 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link

> not unwatcheable but totally redundant

Newsarama guy OTM

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Friday, 23 June 2006 15:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Like it is - fuck!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 23 June 2006 15:53 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm also applying that to whatever Watchmen movie eventually gets made.

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Friday, 23 June 2006 15:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Fuck like it is!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 23 June 2006 16:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Is it fuck-like?

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Friday, 23 June 2006 16:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Like fuck it is!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 23 June 2006 16:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I fit slick uke!

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Friday, 23 June 2006 16:10 (seventeen years ago) link

But 300 and Watchmen could hardly be more different*! It's like hiring Merchant Ivory to adapt a Chuck Palaniuk novel because they did such a great job on EM Forster.

*I'm assuming here, I haven't read 300.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Friday, 23 June 2006 16:19 (seventeen years ago) link

300 kinda sux. At least that's what I remember. I haven't looked at it for a while.

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Friday, 23 June 2006 16:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Isn't this he what did 2004 Dawn of the Dead?

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Friday, 23 June 2006 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link

300 was good, but when I saw that FM included a "Selected Reading" or bibliography that had all of TWO titles, and when I think about the 3+ pages of biblio in Age of Bronze...

― c(''c) (Leee), Friday, 23 June 2006 18:04 (seventeen years ago) link

eight months pass...

http://www1.filehost.to/files/2007-03-14_03/215211_ro.jpg

― chaki, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:28 (seventeen years ago) link

That picture is very, very silly.

― chap, Sunday, 18 March 2007 00:42 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117961930.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Forest Whitaker in Watchmen? Man! He'd make a great Nite-Owl.

Oh, wait. The Night Watchman.

Never mind.

― Oilyrags, Thursday, 29 March 2007 01:38 (seventeen years ago) link

one year passes...

Watchmen referenced in, er, Slate advice column:

http://www.slate.com/id/2202383/

― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 16 October 2008 22:01 (fifteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Dave Gibbons was interviewed on the last third of today's episode of CBC's "Q": podcast here. Also interviewed: Comic Store Guy.

― Oblivious Lad, Tuesday, 4 November 2008 03:58 (fifteen years ago) link

NOW WITH VOICES!

― Oh Why, Sports Coat? (Dr. Superman), Friday, 14 November 2008 21:57 (fifteen years ago) link

I don't like Rorschach's voice, but then I remembered, oh yeah, he's Batman.

― Oh Why, Sports Coat? (Dr. Superman), Friday, 14 November 2008 21:58 (fifteen years ago) link

It still looks way too polished for my liking, and the potential for sadface silliness looks extremely high, but it'll be nice to see a movie with an actual plot for a change.

― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 15 November 2008 01:44 (fifteen years ago) link

We can sev this weld.

I've made my thoughts about the shitness of this trailer known on the ILE thread.

― chap, Saturday, 15 November 2008 02:09 (fifteen years ago) link

two months pass...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1295071/

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 11:01 (fifteen years ago) link

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