watchmen, the movie

[chantheman]

from the previews it looks good. no idea what the story is about though

[FUCK]

from the previews it looks good. no idea what the story is about though

something to whet your palette (wiki brief synopsis)

Watchmen is set in 1985, in an alternate history United States where costumed adventurers are real and the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union (the Doomsday Clock is at five minutes to midnight). It tells the story of a group of past and present superheroes and the events surrounding the mysterious murder of one of their own. Watchmen depicts superheroes as real people who must confront ethical and personal issues, who struggle with neuroses and failings, and who—with one notable exception—lack anything recognizable as super powers.

[spacemanvt]

im hopeful but....

it will prob come out like League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. which was horrible.

it will be cool seeing a live adaptation of watchmen tho, even if the plot is horribly cut up.

[riskyrukus]

I actually enjoyed the trailer preview, though ive never seen or heard of watchmen before till now but i will take a look into it. As for anyone looking for the song title to the trailer its by

the smashing pumpkins - the beginning is the end is the beginning

*there's 2 versions and both are in the batman and robin soundtrack* fitting as i saw this before the TDK movie

[AstroWolf]

Its funny to me how many people are shouting out thoughts and opinions about this, while many seem to have never heard of, or cared about the GN at all. This is a huge deal to people that have been waiting though a better part of thier lives for someone to take it far enough, that this could get made. if he pulled it off right, if he made the right moves, were talking about a movie that could really fuck shit up in a huge huge way, change the whole game, just because the story itself is so out there, and so warped in its view of the world that it could do what pulp fiction did back in the day, redefining the boundary's of what storys people can tell while still working for the studios.

[Charlie Delta]

Trailer looks promising,

funny thing was that one of things I worried about most was Rorshach's mask, and that looks good from that small glimpse we get.

Also Dr. Manhattan looks believable, well as believable as a blue, glowing naked guy gets...

And AW, while I partially agree with what you're saying, you shouldn't forget that the GN is actually from a whole other era than we currently live in. People these days have no realisation of what it must've been like living under the constant thread of possible atomic war, etc etc. It might end up being just another superhero movie, simply having lost its significance over time. (Though it might be right on point (for the second time) when it comes to the markets saturation of SuperHeroes...)

Though I surely hope not...

I feel this has been discussed before though, but am too lazy to go back through the thread...

[jsn]

Agreed, trailer does look promising. I just hope the actual feel of the book still can be reflected somehow.

I admit I didn't get it that much during my first few reads, it really took a while before I really got into, perhaps that being from another era that CottonDuck mentioned could be one of the reasons.

[AstroWolf]

Trailer looks promising,

funny thing was that one of things I worried about most was Rorshach's mask, and that looks good from that small glimpse we get.

Also Dr. Manhattan looks believable, well as believable as a blue, glowing naked guy gets...

And AW, while I partially agree with what you're saying, you shouldn't forget that the GN is actually from a whole other era than we currently live in. People these days have no realization of what it must've been like living under the constant thread of possible atomic war, etc etc. It might end up being just another superhero movie, simply having lost its significance over time. (Though it might be right on point (for the second time) when it comes to the markets saturation of SuperHeroes...)

Though I surely hope not...

I think that Dr Manhattan looks as good as he can. im psyched to see the nam shit in there. he is a big glowing man, so, i guess i can deal with the jar jar binks vibe some and not get annoyed. he is energy after all, and not some gungan fake ass Germacian ass prick (still bitter about new star wars, sue me).

i agree with you that the content and vibe of this film will be lost on most of its target demographic, people have no idea what the cold war hysteria was like, shit i only half remember it... but what i do remember is buying each issue fresh off the racks, first printings, of the watchmen when it first came out... Shit man, i was Rorschach for Halloween in 6th grade... im old i guess. but i really feel this is a huge property, something that could do a lot for film and story telling in general, taking action, and excitement, but in a context that is so fake its more real than anything. If he can keep 70% of the vibe of the GN its going to be good.

oh, i and i agree about his mask, it had to be perfect, and it looks like it might be even better than that... only gripe i really have so far is that night owl does not look as haggered by life as he should, looks too young and in shape, i always saw him as such a defeated person. i guess some things need to change... whatever, im waiting and hoping for the best.

And i would + rep ya for that pic if i could dude, it proves that this all might end up working to me!

[Leonard Leroy]

i didn't like the trailer much.

and i'm normally optimistic about movie adaptations for stuff i'm a fan of.

[FUCK]

i mean, the actual comic was masterful and expansive, especially in terms of story, perspective and character development; the trailer didn't give us any insight as to how they would approach these things. Some of it looks visually stunning, but I'm interested in seeing how much they are going to try to cream into 2 hours and what will be cut. Does anyone know if this is going to be a one shot deal or are they possibly looking at a series of films (obviously this will largely be left of to the success of this film).

Also, for those who are interested.... Akira is being made into a semi-americanized live action film due out in 2009. Now that could seriously go either way.

[spacemanvt]

i want a watchmen t shirt!

where to kop!?

[AstroWolf]

Akira has been in the works for Years. Imdb has it listed that Leo decaptio as kaneda. Yuk.

[FUCK]

Akira has been in the works for Years. Imdb has it listed that Leo decaptio as kaneda. Yuk.

Yeah, I recall hearing about it a year or so ago, but didn't think much of it and I actually thought it got shelved. With all the Watchmen hype though, it seams to have made a resurgence in terms of fans getting excited again.

Anyway, probably will suk morr

[Mastamind89]

Yeah, I recall hearing about it a year or so ago, but didn't think much of it and I actually thought it got shelved. With all the Watchmen hype though, it seams to have made a resurgence in terms of fans getting excited again.

Anyway, probably will suk morr

I'm pretty sure Akira is still coming out

But I will still check out The Watchmen regardless.

[fadingblue]

i bought the comic so i can read before shit comes out but amazon is so fucking stupid and i ordered a week ago and it still hasnt shipped

[DüM]

Honestly, no matter how much shit sucks I enjoy watching movie adaptations of comics/games I like about 98% of the time.

[AstroWolf]

Having a night to mull things over,

i think that a lot of people who are going to see this are obviously not aware of the tension that the cold war brought on the world, what we brought on ourselves, whatever. At first when CottonDuck brought this up, that it would be something that hurts the film, i agreed. no one can understand that tension or place in time. but being so far away from it, and not having to deal with that drama so one to one with the feelings of current events could end up helping this film very much. This is not "fail-safe" its a movie about fucked up super hero type people in the time of this tension, so, now the story might be able to be told, now it might be the time that it ends up working, causse it has been long enough since NAM to show a 300 foot tall blue glowing man explode a Vietnamese soldier on screen. so, maybe its lack of context might end up helping?

i just smoked a huge blunt, but think this might make sense... but i think it might just be amazing timing, this could be what MASH was to Vietnam. This could be great. I hope, i hope...

[Charlie Delta]

Some quotes in relation to the movie:

ZACK SNYDER (director):

On deciding to do Watchmen:

Watchmen has been knocking around Hollywood for quite awhile. There's been a bunch of directors, as you know. I was in post on 300 and got a call from Warner Bros., and they asked me if I wanted to make it and I was like, nah. But then I figured if I passed on it and someone else made it, and it failed, it would be my fault.

DAVE GIBBONS (illustrator of the GN):

On seeing the sets:

At any moment I expected I was going to be pinched and I was going to wake up. It's just the stuff of dreams.

The thing that really did it for me was to stand inside the Owl Ship, and to smell the Comedian's cigar... to have the Comedian slap me on the back and show off his guns. I was completely thrilled. It was like being a kid at Christmas, and I wanted it to just go on.

Snyder:

On the movie's era, message, and politics:

There's a lot of things in the graphic novel that comment on mass culture and how the world is evolved now. And I just think that making the movie about the War on Terror, and... trying to jam these guys into a our modern politics seemed kind of wrong to me. It's cooler if people go, "You know what that makes me think?", rather than me telling them what to think. That's what the book does; it asks a lot of moral questions and in the end you have to answer them for yourselves.

SnyderOn adapting:

Adapting is a challenge. There is all the supplemental material in the book, which has no images that come along with it, but i wanted to try and get some of that in the movie as well. [.....] In the adaptation of this graphic novel to script you kind of have a basic structure. It was about, for me, you're going to end up with some stuff that's not in there. I wanted to get at character. I wanted to get at the why of Watchmen. We had to get rid of some bits that some people might consider more action-y and less about the inhabitants of Watchman and the big picture.

Zack also confirmed that there will characters who are in the graphic novel but not in the film, and vice versa.

I think that all sounds good, apart from that last thing, and that's actually something I never understood about movie adaptations.

I think leaving characters out is one thing, but coming up with new ones is a whole other...

Also interesting to note that, as with all of the movies made of his work, Alan Moore doesn't want anything to do with it.

Don't you have the slightest curiosity about what Watchmen director Zack Snyder is doing with your work?

ALAN MOORE: I would rather not know.

He's supposed to be a very nice guy.

He may very well be, but the thing is that he's also the person who made 300. I've not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn't particularly like the book 300. I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them

Alan Moore:

I talked to [director] Terry Gilliam in the '80s, and he asked me how I would make Watchmen into a film. I said, ''Well actually, Terry, if anybody asked me, I would have said, 'I wouldn't.''' And I think that Terry [who aborted his attempted adaptation of the book] eventually came to agree with me. There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can't.

[RFKorp]

I think that all sounds good, apart from that last thing, and that's actually something I never understood about movie adaptations.

I think leaving characters out is one thing, but coming up with new ones is a whole other...

The way I see it, the Watchmen story in all its glory WON'T translate to film if they try to duplicate it exactly. Like many adaptations, when you change the medium other things must be changed in order to keep the art as strong. Just a question of whether they change it in ways that support the point of the story or not.

[weidna]

Alan Moore:

I talked to [director] Terry Gilliam in the '80s, and he asked me how I would make Watchmen into a film. I said, ''Well actually, Terry, if anybody asked me, I would have said, 'I wouldn't.''' And I think that Terry [who aborted his attempted adaptation of the book] eventually came to agree with me. There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can't.

there's no potentially broader word available to use than "things", but could he be talking about a film adaptation's inability to recreate visual components featured in the comic? he was asked this question in the 80's and his response made perfect sense in the age of Tron and The Neverending Story, but i'm pretty sure the CGI capabilites, computers, graphs and graphic graphs, charts, algebra and overall beep boop bops of the futuretronetic millennium can handle just about anything they threw into comic books of his generation.

[Charlie Delta]

^I can imagine him talking not so much about the visual effects but more with regards to storytelling.

And RFK, while I tend to agree with you it all has to do with the extent they do it in. But I still think that coming up with new characters hasn't got anything to do with that...

[AstroWolf]

did it say there would be new characters? or just that some would be ommited. lets be honest, there is a lot of FAT on this GN. and perhaps its needed, if not impossible to capture it all. its about hitting the core moments and needs of the story, and not throwing in ALL the little side issues, even though it seems like most of those are in there. i mean shit, even moth man is listed in the credits, and wasent he just a fucked up pervert who liked getting beaten up or something? or was he a fake hero? i forget, shit, i need to reread the copy i have that i just bought my GF... haha.

i recently read that the pirate story will be released as a side venture, animatrix style, its own animated feature to go along with this, anyone else hear this?

[Charlie Delta]

So far what I read about the "Tales of the Black Freighter", is that it indeed will be some sort of animated movie and that it will be released alongside the dvd release...

So it looks like it won't make it to big screen...

Zack also confirmed that there will characters who are in the graphic novel but not in the film, and vice versa.

This was taken from an article about Comic con where Snyder along with some members of the cast answered q's I'd say that the vice versa implies that not only are they going to let characters out, but also introduce new ones, no?

[AstroWolf]

I'd say that the vice versa implies that not only are they going to let characters out, but also introduce new ones, no?

It really does, it reads like he is saying that he will introduce new things, and thats scary bad to me. Perhaps he just means some referenced characters will show up, like flashback scenes of what storys they are sharing about the "old days"... if its anything more than that i worry that he might have lost the balance, introducing something new has to be balanced and accounted for, throwing the entire thing out of wack, perhaps Alan is worried with good cause.

no matter what its still gonna rock to hear Rorschach say, "I'm not locked up in here with you, your all locked up in here with me".

PS- i even heard the kid from the bad news bears that plays R actually made some short films of himself being him and sent them to Zach, he wanted the role that bad, he and his friends put a reel together for him, and he got the part that way! if he cares that much, i think this shows hope that the entire crew know what they have to deal with, and are putting in that love it needs.

[readytoignite]

i don't think it's unusual for adaptations to include new characters that are composites or stand-ins and is probably a necessary evil as i would guess 99% of the audience is learning about the characters for the first time.

they actually made watchmen t-shirts - i had this one, wonder if it's in a box somewhere at my parents' place cos i could use $100:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WATCHMEN-T-SHIRT-VINTAGE-OFFICIAL-ALAN-MOORE-GIBBONS_W0QQitemZ280245409189QQihZ018QQcategoryZ28022QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

the one movie adaptation i thought was a total longshot was the original elfquest series which was always a rumor but now there's apparently a treatment under development which is a little nutty. the one i would totally piss my pants over (though truthfully would be horribly outdated) would be matt wagner's mage (and another t-shirt i need to go hunting for), this one seems to have dropped back into a black hole.

at any rate, i haven't read the watchmen since it originally came out so i'm looking forward to seeing the movie unencumbered by expectation then reading the gn to pick up on everything i missed out on as a teen.

[Sais]

I picked up the story at the local comic book store cuz of this thread and this story was so gripping made my subway rides feel so short while I wished they were longer. It seems like they captured a lot of the scenes spot on in the trailer. I know Comedian will be downlplayed the hell out of... well everyone will its just too much for a movie. I'll see it anyway

[Charlie Delta]

Some interesting thought on the hype being build up around the movie, here.

[Leeacto]

I picked up the story at the local comic book store cuz of this thread and this story was so gripping made my subway rides feel so short while I wished they were longer. It seems like they captured a lot of the scenes spot on in the trailer. I know Comedian will be downlplayed the hell out of... well everyone will its just too much for a movie. I'll see it anyway

I agree. Unless they completely ruin the book (which I doubt), I assume I'll like it still. I agree about the Comedian comment.

Chance they show him killing his baby-mama/unborn: like 10%

[bbaquiran]

I agree. Unless they completely ruin the book (which I doubt), I assume I'll like it still. I agree about the Comedian comment.

Chance they show him killing his baby-mama/unborn: like 10%

Supposedly it's 100%:

http://io9.com/5029362/io9-talks-to-zack-snyder-dave-gibbons-and-the-stars-of-watchmen

Someone asked about the infamous bar scene involving the Comedian and a pregnant woman, and Haley confirmed it's still in the movie. "That scene, and the scene I do with Carla, were two things that I'll forever remember as an actor... I wasn't prepared for it, as much as I tried to prepare. I wasn't ready to put a gun into a pregnant woman's head and blow her head off." The conversation afterwards is also in there. "It's a big defining moment for my character. It has to be there. The history of the scar, the whole deal. You can't take that away."

[sushijerk]

Fuuuuuck the posters for this thing look good. I'm pretty blown away by all the details.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37736