Superhero Filmmakers: Where's Our Watchmen?

as long as there's no more corgan jinx

But this is cool:

http://savagecritic.com/2008/07/retail-intelligence-impact-of-watchmen.html

Friend of mine is very interested in it now so I'm going to lend him my copy.

best case scenario I guess

Was in the Comics Dungeon yesterday (no, really), buying a copy of WillWorld, checking to see if Final Crisis 3 is out yet (no luck). While I was there, they sold two copies of Watchmen. If nothing else, a lot more people will read the comic, and AM will make a LOT more money. Which he'll probably wrap in tinfoil and stuff into his sofa cushions, but still...

Should really stick my grafitti edition up on ebay at some point in the near future.

I had TWO random guys come up to me while I was at the Strand last week, assume I worked there and asked me where they kept copies of the watchmen.

otoh this could also be taken as further proof of how stupid the general public is

(a la the "I saw a shitty overproduced trailer - that means the comic book must be cool!" school of deep thinking)

wrong.

it is not stupid at all: a lot of people newly became aware of a decent franchise that has (until now) been something of a niche and underground sensation.

so niche and underground Time magazine rates it as one of the best novels of all time

(also lolz calling a one-shot 12 issue series a "franchise")

MOST PEOPLE DO NOT READ GRAPHIC NOVELS DUH

yes exactly - and yet most people watch shitty hollywood summer blockbusters

instead

lol @ OMG DO NOT LET THE UNWASHED MASSES READ MY BOOK

I would prefer they read the book and skip the movie s'all

augh -- why am i even bothering?

the fact that very few people know / care about 12 issues of a comic book that ran nearly twenty years ago does not make them stupid at all.

the fact that a very average movie trailer brought it to their attention does not make them stupid, it makes them curious.

stupid stupid stupid stupid i am going away, this annoys me.

yes exactly - and yet most people watch shitty hollywood summer blockbusters

They do, do they?

yes exactly - and yet most people watch shitty hollywood summer blockbusters

They do, do they?

Well, most of them saw the Watchman trailer before The Dark Knight, so the answer is yes.

Ned - I liked your write-up about why you liked it much more than the film itself.

plz to describe overlap between groups "people who watch shitty Hollywood blockbusters" and "people who have memorized TIME Magazine's 100 Greatest Novels list which ran three years ago"

vs. people who read the first paragraph of the wikipedia article on the watchmen, which states that same fact.

Ned - I liked your write-up about why you liked it much more than the film itself.

Thanks!

Coverage of the "Watchmen" panel at ComicCon here and here. Apparently there's a red-band trailer coming:

We saw an exclusive red-band trailer that included some more adult-ish scenes from the movie. It started out with a close-up of Rohrshach's mask, then Dr. Manhattan blowing up vietnames people, who were literally exploding into pieces. Then the famous smiley face pin with blood falling on it. Rohrshach walking into flickering neon room, the Comedian's lair, looking at weapons and headlines like "Murderous Rampage Averted," and a picture of the Silk Spectre. We get to see the shapes on hishis mask transform and it looks amazingly cool. And we see some armor in the Comedian's lair. And then it switches to Nite Owl in his headquarters loking downcast and weary. And then the original Silk Specter posing for a photo with other 1940s heroes and rubbing her eyes, and then the Comedian leers at her. And then we saw a sparkling CGI rendering of the pirate ship from the Black Fortress, and a clock flickering. And then Sally unveils the Nite Owl Ship, pulling a big cloth off of it.

And someone is running a magnifying glass over tons of small clock gears, and then we see a clock ticking, and we watch Billy Crudup transform into Dr. Manhattan, with his flesh melting away into a skeleton. And we see Silk Spectre and Nite Owl lean in to kiss each other as a shooting star falls in the background, and then it turns into a nuclear explosion. The President swivels around in his chair and oh my god it's Nixon! And we saw the Nite Owl ship bursting up through the ice, and the Comedian fighting someone and totally fucking him up. And then some 1940s heroes bowling. And Dr. Manhattan obliterating someone who's pulled a gun on him — literally blasting them into pixels. And there's an amazingly sexy shot of Silk Spectre looking badass followed by a closeup of her torso as she pulls her top open, exposing a ton of cleavage. And then there's more Rohrshach, leaning in to intimidate someone, and then the Comedian falling out the window, tumb ling helplessly through the air and blood falling onto that smiley face badge again.

yeah sounds real classy

oh jesus shut the fuck up seriously

Your opinion is whatever but you don't have to divebomb us from the Airship High Horse.

"The same stuff that happens on the comic happens in the trailer except it is moving and is Zak Snyder, therefore it sux. "

the red band trailer is on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoKZhaigLQA

Oh my gosh, wait until this guy writes about the actual MOVIE. This is like reading a four-year-old's attempt to summarzie.

Meaning Comic-Con two paragraph quote trailer talkin' guy.

oh my god it's Nixon!

pulling a big cloth off of it

exposing a ton of cleavage.....exposing a ton of cleavage.....exposing a ton of cleavage....
...

.......

I think you should all read this instead:

While in post on 300, Zack Snyder was offered the gig, and accepted. He says his aim is to be as faithful as possible, and so far it looks like he's done it.

Illustrator Dave Gibbons, on the other hand, told the fans at Con that "It's the stuff of dreams to have something come out of your head and become real." Of Moore, he says, "I wish he could feel what I'm feeling." Gibbons even managed to get his "signature" on the film, in the form of graffiti on a New York street.

A new series of clips was shown, scored to Gregorian chants, which included such things as Rorschach's ever-morphing inkblot mask, Matt Frewer as a retired supervillain, Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson) looking pathetic in his basement, Laurie (Malin Akerman) kissing Dan's alter-ego Nite Owl in front of a mushroom cloud, an aging Richard Nixon, Rorschach as a young red-headed stepchild (literally), and Dr. Manhattan vaporizing foes from the inside out.

The entire principal cast were in the house, including Carla Gugino as Laurie's mom, the original Silk Spectre. Jackie Earle Haley on being Rorschach: "It was a blast, it was challenging, it was mind-numbing." Patrick Wilson as Dan/Nite Owl had to be an out-of-shape superhero, which he says "was pretty cool -- when everyone else had to get all ripped, I could sit back with a pint of Haagen Dasz and a couple beers and call it a day." As Dr. Manhattan, Crudup had to wear a motion capture suit and be covered in dots for reference. He says Akerman was"great about it -- she laughed in my face for the first week; that was cool." Matthew Goode developed a backstory for his character, Ozymandias (the world's smartest man), that involves Nazi parents. Thus you'll hear his accent have a slight German hint in the character's private scenes, though he sounds all-American in public. While researching the character, an American friend told him Ozymandias sounded like a gay pothead.

A fan dressed as Batman asked Snyder who his favorite Watchman is. "Everyone likes Rorschach the best, so that rules him out. The girls are awesome, but that's also a cop-out. Maybe I'll just stick with the girls. You know what? I like the girls best." Another fan dressed as the Joker asked Snyder how he deals with the bleakness of the book. Snyder replies that darknes is relative."SAWis dark because people get their arms sawn off. People get their arms sawn off in our movie too, but it's different! There's a moral lesson." (Um, Zack? The makers of SAW say the same thing.) A fan not dressed as any character says he heard a rumor that the WATCHMEN DVD might have some of the pre-production materials from previous attempts at filming it. Snyder denies that, but also added "I'll look into that."

The footage was screened a second time. Fans cheered even louder. The base is pumped for this movie, but will mainstream audiences follow?

one positive thing I will ever say about this: Frewer as Moloch sounds like good casting!

and AM will make a LOT more money.

Wrong.

Should really stick my grafitti edition up on ebay at some point in the near future

You may have missed your window - the Absolute edition last year used all the Graphitti bonus features, plus enormousness.

Yeah, I was just about to ask, do Moore and Gibbons even get any money from copies of Watchmen sold today? I know these days comic book creators are much more conscious of their rights, but back in the mid-80's, when Moore and Gibbons signed the contract for Watchmen, did it even include some sort of royalty system that would guarantee them money from possible reissues of their work? Even if DC didn't want to deliberately rip them off, I think back then the idea of comic book issues being collected into a "graphic novel" was still a new thing in American comics, let alone the idea that these collected books would still be reissued and selling lots of copies 20 years later. So it could be such things simply weren't considered by either party when signing the contreact.

The President swivels around in his chair and oh my god it's Nixon!

christ almighty it's the goddamn president

They get/got royalties. The big thing not considered was that the contract said rights would revert to them 12 months after publication, which they expected to be in 1988. Because "the idea that these collected books would still be reissued and selling lots of copies 20 years later" didn't exist, 'after publication' has yet to occur. This is the crux of Moore's beef with DC, that they refuse to return the rights as per the intent of the contract and have used this loophole to make Watchmen movies and Watchmen animated comics and Watchmen computer games and so on. (His first burst of beef, which he quit DC forever over, was them selling badges and watches, and claiming he wasn't due royalties on them because they were "promotion" not "merchandise". That they have refused to renegotiate terms and have deliberately fucked him over several other times has led to the current situation, where he has signed over his royalties to Gibbons and requested that his name be removed from the book itself, on the grounds that they will grant him no authorial rights nor consideration, and thus it is inappropriate to continue using his name to sell it.)

yeah moore has always had perfectly sound reasons to be bitter about all of it.

lol @ OMG DO NOT LET THE UNWASHED MASSES READ MY BOOK
I like how you noticed a hint of "don't let them in my secret garden" comic fans.. kinda like when music elitists hate it when scenesters enjoy THEIR music (the elitists music).

Another thing.
Oh my gosh, wait until this guy writes about the actual MOVIE. This is like reading a four-year-old's attempt to summarize.
Actually, for a simple quick description of the entire trailer it's spot on.

Finally, my biggest concern about the movie is Ozymandias just because he looks small and he doesn't have blond hair (or look the part at all). Nipples in the armor isn't as big of a deal to me.

My favorite character is and always has been the Comedian. I think it's funny how even the hardcore fans are split on favorite characters so that "Everyone likes Rorschach the best, so that rules him out" lol. I do think it's awesome that the inkblot will change throughout the movie (like it should) because superheros never having changing masks like that. Not to mention trench coats. Usually though, I'd say after Rorschach popularity comes Ozymandias and Dr. Manhattan in third. I'm just guesstimating from word of mouth here. So basically I rule for picking someone other than the top 3 as my favorite character but god bless the Comedian fans, they get me.

When asked about the running time debacle, Snyder had this to say:

“I want to make the best movie I can. I want to put pressure on myself as a filmmaker and say, “What’s the coolest movie?” And if the coolest movie is 3-hours long then that’s the coolest movie. I understand and respect my partners at Warner Bros. I want them to have financial success with the film. You know, when you look at it that way, they invested a lot of money into it, they want it to be good. But on the other hand, I would tell them that I think the very things they think are too long, or too violent, or too sexy are the very reasons to go to the movie.”

Snyder was also quick to point out a noticeable development since the release of the film’s trailer.

“[The graphic novel] is #1 or #2 on Amazon right now, and that’s awesome. I think that if in the end the movie is a 3-hour advertisement for the book, then so be it. I succeeded.”

That is totally cool.

He has some reason to be angry and suspicious of movie adaptations, too, as anyone unfortunate enough to have seen "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and "From Hell" can attest. I liked "V for Vendetta" pretty well, though.

Yeah, that's what i'm hoping; that no matter the quality of the end product, the flick will vault the book (back?) into a mass consciousness.

xp

I think we might as well give up on the masses ever being as smart as us whether they read the book or not.

Move over X-Men -- here come The Watchmen! Heroic Watchmen team leader Ozymandias, the sarcastic Comedian, sexy Silk Spectre, and grim & gritty Nite Owl come together to stop the evil genius Dr. Manhattan from taking over the world and enslaving the human race. Can they stop him in time? Find out when Watchmen hits theaters June 2009!

^

actual treatment written by Snyder

maybe its purposeful misdirection

I think we might as well give up on the masses ever being as big of smart asses us whether they read the book or not.