Superhero Filmmakers: Where's Our Watchmen?

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.

“[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.”

I think this fanboyish total devotion to the original source material is kinda worrysome. In every Snyder interview I've read he seems to repeat that he just wants to bring Moore & Gibbon's vision to the screen as faithfully as possible, to do justice to this great piece of art, etc. I think that's kind of a sheepish attitude; as a movie director you're supposed to be an artist yourself, and give us your take of the subject. I don't think a comic book movie should be like exactly like the original comic, only set in motion. It should at least have a fresh interpretation of the source material. I think one of the problems with the Sin City movie was exactly that it tried to slavishly copy Miller's comic books as they were, right down to the reduced, cartoonish visual style, without realizing that what looks good in the pages of comic book might look silly in a movie (the Yellow Bastard, for example). At least the folks who did V for Vendetta added their own ideas and interpretations to the original story.

^^^arguably not a good thing though

v for vendetta was a shitty, shitty movie

so true

oddly the people I knew who really liked it were people who had never read the book

(okay perhaps not so oddly)

This week’s Watchmen festival is finally wrapping up for me. I’m done. How much Watchmen can one guy take? Upon arriving, I thought this was a Comic Book Festival, but I was sadly mistaken. This was an awesome Watchmen commercial that I actually got to walk around in. How exciting is that?

As soon as I got off the train, I saw every person on the street was carrying a big Watchmen bag. They had Watchmen posters, and Watchmen toys and photos with their favorite Watchmen characters. Not everyone who wanted to see the Watchmen panel were able to get it, but the creators of the movie and the entire cast were there. And they talked about the movie!!!!

I found all the money the studio spent promoting Watchmen at Comic Con to be ridiculous. These are nerds. It is like trying to sell guns to the NRA. You know how the studio could market The Watchmen to nerds? Go to a remote town in Alaska and find a nerd. Then just walk up to him and whisper, “There’s going to be a Watchmen movie.” At that point, every nerd in the world will know. They have some sort of communication device.

It is like trying to sell guns to the NRA.

BAHAHAHA

They have some sort of communication device.

I gather they've heard of those tubes up in Alaska.

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).

tbh I get just as annoyed by music fans that do this too.

Really, I'm just happy that my friends are now getting into this book and I have people to discuss it with.

as a movie director you're supposed to be an artist yourself, and give us your take of the subject.

Normally I would agree, but I really don't think I want to see Zach Snyder's interpretation of anything.

cool posters

A little something from the bald one. (Not Dr. Manhattan.)

with this, and Oliver Stone's W. trailer, and all those scary goose-bumps-inducing Veidt commercials slated to come with the movie, and their glaringly unmistakable collective vibe just points to one exact thing: the 80's IS coming back. Neither a remake, nor pastiche, and not just in a mere period sense, it's simply returning something fierce. That is the looming zeitgeist.

The '80s

is how it is

My sister-in-law gave me a shirt that said:

I (clip art of a fake Pat Benetar)
80's

It was comfy & fit well, but I'm not all that <3 of 80's..the minor and common style issue in abbreviating that decade was what really kept me from wearing the shirt, ever.

Asshole message end.

can a zeitgeist really "loom"?

it is simply returning something fierce

A zeitgeist is, translated extremely literally, a 'time ghost,' so I think it can't do anything but loom.

i've always been partial to the idea of a leering zeitgeist

like damn 2008 is durnk and keeps licking its teeth at me wtf

i think geist means 'spirit' more than ghost as in the 'spirit of the age'

Imagine Boo-berry in a tardis, and somehow he is wicked looming with some American Psycho-throwback regeneration brought about by a trailer for a movie about the 21st century's president. Fuck!

im not saying that it can't loom

abbott you have destroyed my mind

Yeah, it is 'spirit of the times' but geist can also mean ghost. I find it amusing to be way too literal in any language. Plz ignore.

Srsly how is a trailer w/a young 'Dubya' proving it is now THE '80s.

yeah I don't get the Dubya connection at all. When I think 80s I don't think Dubya. (W will be way better than this, btw!)

he was young(er) in the 80s. IT MAKES THE SENSE.

i guess we all were

I was reading a "Weekly Reader" about the 1988 Olympics in that looming zeitgeist.

"booberry in a tardis" MEANS something to me.

How can I avoid this looming zeitgeist? Is there an antidote?

Lemme guess - I'm supposed to BUY something.

Knock booberry out of tardis, vote Obama.

i re-read my copy of watchmen last nite, just 4 tha hell of it

it kinda... isn't that good

challops!