AH on the big screen -The Watchmen coming !

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/news/sfw_news_20070730.html


Snyder Confirms Watchmen News

Zack Snyder, director of the upcoming film version of Alan Moore's Watchmen, told fans that the movie will aim for an R rating and confirmed previous casting news in a panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 27. Snyder also unveiled the first image of the movie's poster, featuring a fist smashing the face of President Nixon, along with the iconic image of the smiley face in the style of the graphic novel's cover.

Snyder confirmed the casting of Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan), Patrick Wilson (Night Owl) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian) in the iconic roles of from the seminal superhero graphic novel. "The cast is basically perfect in the sense that we have real actors," Snyder told an audience of more than 6,000 at the San Diego Convention Center. As for the R rating, Snyder (300) said, "We're not going to make it accessible to teeny boppers [just] for marketing reasons."

Snyder added that the film will not be set in the present day and joked that he was disappointed the movie would not actually shoot a key scene on Mars because of budget concerns. He also confirmed that had spoken at one point to Keanu Reeves about the project (he passed).

As for the film's storyline, Snyder said: "Pretty much everyone's backstory is going to be in the movie." Watchmen is slated for release on March 6, 2009. —Gordon Holmes

Watchmen Cast Confirmed

Confirming weeks of Internet rumors and reports, The Hollywood Reporter said that Warner Brothers has settled on its cast for Zack Snyder's upcoming Watchmen, based on Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel.

Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Malin Akerman have been cast in the film, which Snyder (300) is directing. Larry Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Deborah Snyder are producing.

Set in an alternate America, Watchmen follows the costumed hero Rorschach, who is living a vigilante lifestyle because most masked heroes have retired or been outlawed. While investigating a murder, Rorschach learns that a former masked-hero colleague has been killed, prompting him to begin investigating a possible conspiracy.

Haley will play Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach, who ignores the ban on costumed vigilantes.

Crudup will play Dr. Manhattan, a superpowered being with godlike powers and temperament.

Akerman will play Laurie Juspeczyk/the Silk Spectre, who is involved with Dr. Manhattan. Their relationship begins to fall apart as he becomes more disconnected from humanity.

Goode will play Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, a costumed adventurer who retired voluntarily, disclosed his identity and built a large fortune. He hatches a plot to avert a global catastrophe he believes will be caused by Dr. Manhattan.

Wilson will play the Nite-Owl, a crime-fighter who uses technical wizardry and has an owl-shaped flying vehicle.

Morgan will play the Comedian, a cigar-chomping, gun-toting vigilante-turned-paramilitary agent.

Watchmen, created by Moore and Dave Gibbons, is one of the most critically acclaimed series in the genre.

Shooting is set to start in the fall in Vancouver, Canada, with Snyder employing many of the filming techniques he used for his box-office success 300.

Hmm...

Good to know that the film "has real actors."

I mean, imagine using pretend ones...

Apart from that:

WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Dr. Manhattan? ... maybe. I imagine you can do quite a bit with makeup, but I'll hold off until it hits the screen.

Awesome Watchman news from same site.

Watchmen Shot Like 300

Zack Snyder, who is directing a movie based on Alan Moore's Watchmen, told SCI FI Wire that he will shoot the film with some of the techniques developed in making 300, but will also make use of real sets for the story's alternate-universe New York City.

"We've got some sets built," Snyder said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend. "We are about to break ground on the backlot [in Vancouver, Canada]. The New York City backlot. So they laid the streets."

In other scenes, Snyder will shoot on simple stages and lay in virtual backgrounds and environments, as he did with ancient Greece in 300.

"Only for, like, Mars and Antarctica," Snyder said. "Because it's Mars. ... I mean, look, there's a sequence in the movie where you have, like, a [computer-generated] guy [Dr. Manhattan, played by Billy Crudup,] on Mars, looking at a giant glass palace that just grows out of the earth. OK, there's like something to shoot." Watchmen is slated for release on March 6, 2009. —Patrick Lee, News Editor

If, and I mean if they pull this off right, it will be a helluva success. If they fail, it will be a besmirchment on the most powerful graphic novel ever written. I hope they succeed.




Then again, I hoped the Democrats would grow a spine and demand the end of the war now.





So, who knows?

I've been looking forward to and worrying about this for years.

There's a tremendous potential here, but that hasn't prevented the creation of some truly awful films in the past. I hope they can manage it, but I'm ready to be disappointed.

Well they should tone down the 300 aspect of it because sometime watchmen scene are not that phantasmagoric

I am wondering whether or not they're going to keep the original ending from the novel. It is pretty upsetting, and it looks like one of those things that could be written out very easily, regardles of how important it is to the story.

After all, blowing up skyscrapers is one thing, but slaughtering the entire population of Manhattan Island, and having them lie in pools of their own blood might be a bit much on the big screen.

I'd also like to know who they'll get to play Nixon.

Maybe they'll use cgi on stock footage and just mention that he is there

Well we don't see them actually die but we see their dead corpse

Snyder is going to try and put the Pirate sub text in the film some way but he may leave it for the DVD when that comes out.There is a lot of stuff that may have to be cut.BTW according to Comics 2Film or other sources Snyder is trying to get impersonators of Nixon and others who look like the real persons to be in the film.

Ivan:I understand from various sources that they will keep the 1985 cold war era in but as for the big ending I do not know.They will not deal with 9/11 however.It will be a 1985 film.

edvader said:

Ivan:I understand from various sources that they will keep the 1985 cold war era in but as for the big ending I do not know.They will not deal with 9/11 however.It will be a 1985 film.

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Surely, what Ozymandias did to New York is (apart from the much higher deathtoll) pretty much 9/11 in emotional terms. It's a shame there was no sequel. I'd love to see what happened when people found out.

Alcuin said:

Surely, what Ozymandias did to New York is (apart from the much higher deathtoll) pretty much 9/11 in emotional terms. It's a shame there was no sequel. I'd love to see what happened when people found out.

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Oh people might end up thinking it's a movie supporting 911 conspirarcy theory

Snake Featherston said:

If, and I mean if they pull this off right, it will be a helluva success. If they fail, it will be a besmirchment on the most powerful graphic novel ever written. I hope they succeed.

Then again, I hoped the Democrats would grow a spine and demand the end of the war now.

So, who knows?

Click to expand...

Admiral Matt said:

I've been looking forward to and worrying about this for years.

There's a tremendous potential here, but that hasn't prevented the creation of some truly awful films in the past. I hope they can manage it, but I'm ready to be disappointed.

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Well, yeah.

I mean, look what Hollywood managed to do to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
If you've read it, you'll know what I mean. I'm not going to say any more. It's still too painful...

alt_historian said:

Well, yeah.

I mean, look what Hollywood managed to do to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
If you've read it, you'll know what I mean. I'm not going to say any more. It's still too painful...

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My eyes are still recovering from that flick.

But this is a different director, with a different script. At least one version of the Watchmen script managed to get the Alan Moore Seal of Approval, although I don't know if it's the one being used for production.

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/news/sfw_news_20070813.html

Gugino Is Watchmen's Spectre

Carla Gugino has joined the cast of Watchmen, the upcoming film based on Alan Moore's seminal DC Comics series, as Sally Jupiter aka The Silk Spectre, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She joins Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Malin Akerman in the film, 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.

Sally Jupiter is a burlesque dancer turned costumed heroine and sex symbol who was once a part of the Minutemen, a group of heroes who preceded the Watchmen. She is also the mother of Laurie Juspeczyk (Akerman), who has reluctantly taken on her mantle as The Silk Spectre II. Sources said Gugino will 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.