WATCHMEN
Son Of Barbel
Posts: 227MI6 Agent
Watchmen film rumored just wanted your views on the film and comic.
Son Of Barbel
Posts: 227MI6 Agent
Comments
However,I remember Sam Hamm's screenplay for Watchmen as being pretty good--it managed to suggest some of the flavor of the Moore/Gibbons book while using a radically different plotline incorporating many of the book's characters.I suspect that if there ever is a Watchmen movie it will(by necessity) bear little resemblance to it's source material.That said,it could still be done--especially if the filmmakers were to use films like Dark City,Blade Runner or Minority Report as general templates.
Who's writing the latest screenplay?
Director Zack Snyder
Got a lot of considerations just bear with me here
Director: David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club)
/Terry Gilliam(Twelve Monkeys, The Brothers Grimm)
Dr Manhattan:Arnold Schwarzenegger/The Rock(Not an acting part just look tough who can look tough and not act at the same time I got it)
Silk Spectre(Old):Susan Sarandon(even in the flashbacks)
Silk Spectre(Young):Uma Thurman
Dan Drieberg/Nite Owl(Young):Sam Niell/Jeff Goldblum/William H Macy
Rorshach/Walter Joseph Kovacs:Ed Norton/Ben Stiller/Simon Pegg
The Comedian/Edward Blake:Jack Nicholson(Evil sly killer yup)
Hollis Masson/Nite Owl(Old):Clint Eastwood
Moloch:Ian Holm(He's been in everything hasn't he, or was he in Lord of the rings, yes actually)
Ozymandias/Adrian Viedt:John Travolta/Jude Law(Evil and full of themselves yup)
Rorshachs Therapist: Paul Winfield
Jon Manhattans Old Girlfriend: Julia Roberts
Well what do ya think guys?
Leave your own dream cast I hope you like mine
In all honesty,I'd much prefer to see Watchmen as an animated film made for an adult audience, perhaps supervised by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini(of Batman:the Animated Series fame)using a style based upon that of Dave Gibbons.No famous actors need supply the voices.This would could be a more faithful adaptation of the Moore/Gibbons story than almost any other attempt I can imagine.IAll told,it'd be a miniseries about 6-10 hours long(and this is with a screenplay editing out some of the extraneous elements in the original story-like the pirate comics),and shown in weekly 2-hour installments on either HBO or Showtime.
But I would love if at the end of the chapter it was like the directors cut of the warriors when it turns in to a comic every now and then it would be genius.
But you're right with a miniseries definitley.
I just hope they would have a massive budget if they did bring all those stars together!
As for dream casting, I wouldn't have a clue, but I would agree that a mini-series would probably work better.
In all honesty.I don't think famous actors could possibly help such a movie.For example,Arnold's a terrible actor and his ego is so enormous,he'd probably demand that Dr.Manhattan be a good guy.Why cast him?Because he's muscular?There are plenty of actors who are physically bigger than he is, who are also closer in age to the character than the almost 60-year-old Arnold and they don't all have heavy accents.Additionally,comic-book based movies never draw the big names unless huge amounts of money are offered and even then the big names usually overact because they don't view comic books as being very important or worthy of their talents.A Watchmen cast solely with big names would probably be impossible to film because there wouldn't be enough money left over after paying their salaries to even make a movie.The biggest actors will also want percentages of the film's gross.This'd kill any chance of ever putting Watchmen on the screen.Film producers and film studios don't like to risk large amounts of money on any film and they always look to cut corners.
Yes,the comic book movies are popular right now,but the popular films are about heroes overcoming villains.Watchmen is more complex.There are no really clear-cut heroes in it and it's not an upbeat story.It's a mystery with a tragic ending.General audiences coming to see Watchmen thinking it'll be another Batman or Superman or X-Men movie would be extremely disappointed.
I'd cast relative unknowns who truly suit their parts rather than try to put actors who are entirely wrong for certain roles into them.C'mon-Travolta?His wife Kelly Preston, would be great as the Silk Spectre however.But there are plenty of great actors who'd be perfect for the characters in Watchmen and all the better for them than famous names because they could "become" the characters without bringing pre-established images to the film.And I'd make it a miniseries--if need be using CGI to help create the city.Or use the kind of modelwork/CGI employed in Dark City and Batman Begins.The miniseries would be about 8-10 hours long and run on cable TV.And of course,it'd later be available on DVD with plenty of extras.;)
And I trust audiences to respond favorably to an intelligent story performed by actors who might not be well-known.The story's the star here--not the actors.No actor was always famous but some of them might be as a result of appearing in this movie.For example,Mark Hammil wasn't famous when he appeared in Star Wars,nor was Harrison Ford.Robert DeNiro was unknown to most audiences when he starred in The Godfather,Part II.Al Pacino wasn't at all famous when he starred in The Godfather.John Wayne wasn't famous when he starred in Stagecoach.Sigourney Weaver was an unknown when she starred in Alien.Kramer Vs.Kramer made a movie star of the then little known Meryl Streep.Errol Flynn was unknown until he starred in Captain Blood.IMO The story should be much more important than the actors.Good actors will always work hard to bring a fine story to life.And they'll be noticed for their efforts.Already famous ones might just sleepwalk through the film knowing that regardless of what happens they'll be well-paid.I've seen too many movies like those.
You are right I do think unknowns is a good idea I think Zack Snyder will mess it up. But i8t is the script definiteley there are plenty of unknowns to play all parts.
PS: that was a dream cast not real.
Be of good cheer.:)
http://movies.ign.com/articles/771/771947p1.html
Snyder seems intent on turning this into a theatrical film. It'll be quite the challenge to distill something as dense as Watchmen into a two hour movie. Personally, I think a limited series on HBO or similar pay channel would be the way to go as it would give him more creative freedom (the studios are already wary of the film getting an "R" rating) and he could take more time to tell the story and explore the characters.
www.scottacademymartialarts.co.uk
There's a blurb about this on the previous page with a link to an article and picture; I'm pretty sure the picture you're referring to is this one:
http://media.movies.ign.com/media/034/034260/img_4385259.html
BTW Agent_M, I read Infinite Crisis a couple of weeks ago. As a Flash fan, you might be interested to know that there is a brief (but very cool) appearance by a very legendary speedster about halfway thru the book.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter August 8, 2007
Carla Gugino (Sin City) has joined the cast of Watchmen, the Warner Bros. adaptation of the DC Comics limited series.
She joins Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Malin Akerman in the Warner Bros. movie, which is set in an alternate America that has passed a law banning costumed crime fighters. When one is murdered, the remaining members set out to solve the mystery.
Gugino will play Sally Jupiter, a burlesque dancer-turned-costumed heroine and sex symbol the Silk Spectre who is part of the Minutemen, a group of heroes who preceded the Watchmen. She also is the mother of the new Silk Spectre (Akerman). Gugino is expected to portray Jupiter in varying eras, playing different ages throughout the movie.
Zack Snyder (300) will direct the film, which is set to start shooting in the fall in Vancouver.
Hot, hot, hot... :x ;%
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
I feel exactly the same way.In the area of comics based movies it's nice to see a director who really seems to respect the material he's working with.And he knows how to pace a story.
With Watchmen,the actors Snyder's casting are all pretty good physical matches to the characters Dave Gibbons drew.No casting against type yet.I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he avoids the urge to reimagine the looks of these characters, and instead replicates their original appearances to the best of his ability.
Even if it has a plotline that departs from Alan Moore's story,I'm looking forward to this film.
Source: WatchmenComicMovie.com September 10, 2007
Filming has begun for Zack Snyder's Watchmen adaptation and WatchmenComicMovie.com has already posted photos from the set. To keep this post spoiler free, we won't mention what was filmed, but if you're willing to find out, you can read about the filming and view the photos here!
Opening March 6, 2009, the Warner Bros. release stars Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino and Stephen McHattie.
http://www.watchmencomicmovie.com/watchmen-movie-photos.php
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Source: Warner Bros. Pictures September 25, 2007
Watchmen director Zack Snyder (300) has sent a message to fans from the set of the anticipated comic book adaptation which you can watch here!
In the video, Snyder talks about what they have done so far, what the experience has been like and what's ahead.
Opening March 6, 2009, the Warner Bros. release stars Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino and Stephen McHattie.
It's Quicktime, guys so I hope you can pull it up:
http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/watchmen/zack_greeting/watchmen_greeting.mov
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Entertainment Weekly,#1003-July 25,2008
(pp 23-27)
Watchmen First Look:
Crazy/ Sexy/ Cruel
by Jeff Jensen
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.Slik 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--a jittery expression of Cold War anxiety,a chilling mediation on human nature,an intricate murder mystery.But at its heart this sexy,violent,and politically charged 12-issue saga,written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbins,is an epic love letter to colorfully clad superpeople and a wicked satire about them.Set in 1985,in an alternate reality where Richard Nixon is serving his fifth term as president and costumed crimefighting has been outlawed,the story begins with the brutal murder of a retired superhero named the Comedian.Another ex-superhero,the ink-blot masked Rorscach,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," Gibbins 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 recalls."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-who was into naughty sci-fi/fantasy comics like Heavy Metal magazine as a teen and discovered Watchmen during college-believes the global multiplex is now ripe for a similar revolution."The average movie audience has seen so many superhero movies,"he says."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 that believed this dense,dark jewel--the fanboy's Catcher in the Rye,the rite-of-passage text for any serious geek--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 Gibbins."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 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 story's original climax."It was clear that Zack felt an 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--another R-rated movie based upon a hardcore graphic novel--was making a killing at the boxoffice."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--the comic's most popular character,despite his sociopathic,sadistic vigilatism--by recruiting 14 friends to help produce a video of him performing sequences from the comic book."It was a 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 reppelent acts of violence,but still manage to make the audience care about his death--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 just to play the guy as a b*stard,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,he had to do it wearing a white motion-capture suit covered with tiny blue lights,his face covered with 150 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 a 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--of the Comedian's murder,Rorscach'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'"--suggest a film that may capture more of Watchmen than anyone thought possible.Sure,there have been some changes.But Snyder's film clearly seeks to emulate the comic's arch-yet-dramatic tenor,its time-shifting,perspective switching storytelling,and the richly realized altern-New York.The Gunga Diner,the "Who Watches the Watchmen?" graffiti,the blood-stained smiley-face button evoking a doomsday closk--it's all there.
Now comes the hard part:keeping it there.Snyder's current three-hour cut won't be unspooling in the 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 want to 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 trypical 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's first trailer 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 that superhero movies are stupid,popcorn bull---."He says."Hopefully,Watchmen can get in their faces and change their minds."
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I'm not too crazy about Jensen's writing, but this article does offer a little more information about what to expect with Watchmen.
And according to a sidebar to this article,EW.Com has interviews with Zack Snyder,Alan Moore and the Watchmen cast.Plus images from The Spirit and the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/
looks good the only thing that gets me is why there's no cape for nite owl? but I guess thats just the geek in me, still cant wait to see the trailer with TDK on the big screen
www.scottacademymartialarts.co.uk
http://movies.ign.com/dor/objects/34260/watchmen/images/watchmen-20080718105122136.html