The Screengrab

This Watchmen obsession of ours!  When will it ever end?  Well, March 6th of next years, at which we'll hitch our irrationally high hopes to some other wagon.  But in the meantime, that still leaves us six more months to slavishly pore over every detail that comes down the pike!  (By the way, we won't say this is a Screengrab exclusive or anything, but has anyone noticed the Full Cast and Crew notes for the movie?  Apparently, John McLaughlin, Eleanor Clift, Andy Warhol and Annie Liebowitz are in the movie as characters (thankfully not playing themselves).  Will Rorschach party at the Factory?  Will the Comedian be grilled on his foreign policy expertise on The McLaughlin Group?  We certainly hope so... 

Meanwhile, in the wake of the San Diego ComicCon, almost everyone involved in the movie has been doing publicity interviews.  Collider managed to speak to actors Billy Crudup (who's playing Dr. Manhattan) and Matthew Goode (who's appearing as Ozymandias), and Good is -- surprisingly and pleasingly -- very circumspect about the whole thing.  "We haven't seen the scenes yet," he cautions fans who are going buggy about the trailer; "We haven't seen how people interact, we haven't seen the full flesh of their characters.  And obviously we saw them on set, because of the interations that we had, but I want to see that world; I want to see if it all totally makes sense.  Because sometimes things can get left a little flat.  So let's not start sucking each other off just yet."  Wise words, and the interview also drops hints that the film will remain very true to the book's original ending -- but in the bad news department, Goode also claims his character's outfit has nipples on the suit as part of Zack Snyder's 'homage' to Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin movie.  This, combined with the use in the trailer for Watchmen of a song from the same film, makes us very nervous; if you want to make the best superhero movie ever made, you want to do as little as possible to remind viewers of the worst.

Collider likewise gets a chance to sit down with Carla Gugino (Silk Spectre), Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre II) and Patrick Wilson (Night Owl), all of whom mention how closely the script adheres to the comic (a situation which is certainly a double-edged sword; stray too far from the original, and fans will eat you alive, but stick to it too closely and many will wonder why you bothered to make a movie).  Akerman notes that when the movie comes out, it will take fans a long time to come to terms with its complexity and density, just as is the case with the book.  "Someone else who's read the novel for 10 years straight now has so many different views and insights.  It'll take me another 10 years to figure out because you have to read it about 20 times to get every single piece, and every single moment because it's so dense.  But I think we can all come out of it and just give you our opinion about how it feels for us and how we can relate to it."

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Now YOU can watch the Watchmen!

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Now that Dark Knight is finally going to be opening nationwide, we can finally return to the natural occupation of the comic book fan:  deranged obsession over Zack Snyder's upcoming movie adaptation of Watchmen.

As we've discussed before, one of the problems with the recent wave of successful motion picture adaptations of comic book properties is that while they've made tons of money for the producers of the movies, it hasn't worked the other way around. Comic book companies have slavered to get their properties on screen in recent years, in the hopes that audiences turned on by the big-screen adventures of Batman or the X-Men will follow those characters into their local comic book shop.  This is especially important in these days of direct sales, when comic book sales are at a historical low, and people speak in non-hysterical terms about the demise of the industry.  So it's worth noting that the millions in profit made my comic book movies hasn't generally been matched by a notable increase in comic book sales, one comic is bucking that trend:  Watchmen. 

One of the earliest comic book mini-series to take advantage of the 'graphic novel collection' format in the 1980s, Watchmen was already one of the most successful titles in DC's history, despite its indie sensibilities, adult storytelling, and complex, morally difficult story.  But with the movie adaptation getting ever closer, its sales have shot way up -- and DC plans to capitalize on the interest in spades.  They'll be promoting an aggressive three-pronged marketing attack to ensure that anyone sucked in by the movie to the degree that they absolutely must have the comic will be able to get one with not trouble.  The triple attack includes a retailer discount for any shops that wish to carry the original softcover graphic novel; a new hardbound edition for collectors; and a deluxe edition featuring making-of material, rare artwork, and other bonus materials, the comic book equivalent of a fancy Criterion Collection disc.

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As we've said pretty much every week for the last, oh, say, year and a half, we intend to bring you every single bit of news we possibly can about Zack Snyder's forthcoming adaptation of Watchmen, widely held to be the best superhero comic ever written.  (By the way, this is approximately the nine billionth article I've written about the guy, and I still have to check to see if his first name is spelled 'Zack' or 'Zach'.)  And, as we will probably continue to say for the next, oh, say, year and a half until the movie actually opens, we don't really expect it to be any good.  We could be wrong -- in fact, we're practically praying we are -- but given Snyder's previous track record, our hopes aren't exactly sky-high.

But one thing's for sure:  Snyder is unqualified in his love for the original source material, and at the very least, he seems to be dedicated to making the Watchmen movie as faithful to the graphic novel as the format of the film will possibly allow.  This could in and of itself be a big problem, leading fans to wonder why, if he's just going to film the panels verbatim, why anyone had to bother making the movie in the first place, but we do know this:  no matter how bad Watchmen turns out to be, it could have been worse.  Much, much, much worse.  

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In our ongoing quest to bring you every single solitary detail of the production of Zack Snyder's upcoming adaptation of The Watchmen until your head falls off, we are pleased to report an interesting development in the filming of the comic book masterpiece -- and one that has repercussions, as amazing as it may seem, to peope other than the hardcore geeks who are even at this moment salivating over the prospect of more Watchmen news.

One of the questions that has long nagged Watchmen fans (other than "will Snyder suddenly become much more talented when he begins work on this film?" and "are they kidding with that cast, or what?") is how the filmmakers can possibly cram the entire story of the comic into a two-hour movie.  Alan Moore's Watchmen is one of the most complex comic series in history, full of dense symbolism, intricate reference, and tons of backstory -- much of it vital to the main plot -- told in supplemental materials that appeared in the back pages of the comic.  No standard-length feature film could possibly capture all of that intricacy, and without it, many feared that the overall quality of the project would suffer.

Now, in an interesting piece in the New York Times, comes word that Snyder is not making one film, but two, simultaneously:  The Watchmen itself, and Tales of the Black Freighter, an animated feature-length adaptation of the metafictional comic-within-a-comic read by a minor character in the Watchmen, which served to both illuminate and amplify some of the themes and symbols of the main story.  Tales of the Black Freighter will not be included in the Watchmen movie -- but it will be released, on its own, as a separate DVD, only five days after the film is released in theatres. 

As the Times article makes clear, this is the first step in a new strategy by Warner Brothers of producing value-added DVDs designed, in an era of cable television 'video on demand', to boost DVD sales when they're beginning to falter for the first time in their history.  Warner has already had considerable success with this tactic in direct-to-video releases set in the DC Animated universe (such as Superman:  Doomsday and Justice League:  New Frontier), and the company claims this is about much more than just piling on extra junk for completists:  it allows Snyder to tell a more complete story than the time limitations of the Watchmen movie will allow, and it allows the company to essentially profit three times off the the DVD market for the movie:  first, with this supplemental release, which they anticipate selling in huge numbers on release; second, with the DVD release, months later, of the actual Watchmen movie; and third, with a deluxe package containing both, as well as other supplemental materials (including, it's rumored, a faux-documentary short film of Hollis Mason's Under the Hood -- another book-within-the-book featured in the Watchmen comic that likewise gave vital background information on the characters and their relationships).

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In case you’ve slept through this past weekend, the summer movie season got off to a roaring start with the big-budget adaptation of Iron Man. With many more comic book movies in store this summer, and even more after that, I figured it was about time to catch up with former Screengrab contributor and all around good dude Kent M. Beeson. As a comic-book fan and movie buff of long standing, Kent recently secured a position with the Web site comiXology, writing a bi-weekly column entitled The Watchman. Kent was gracious enough to take time out of his busy schedule- which also includes numerous freelance jobs as well as a wife and 14-month-old daughter- to conduct this interview via e-Mail.

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One of the niftiest features of Alan Moore's brilliant Watchmen comic was its fully realized fictional world:  every aspect of the near-future alternate-reality America was fleshed out, from the names of the newspapers to the look of the pop fashion trends of the moment to the fast food joints and retail stores.  Even the televisions were populated by cleverly thought-out commercials, many of them for products manufactured by Veidt Enterprises, the monolithic corporate giant run by ex-superhero Ozymandias.

Director Zack Snyder is determined to recreate this depth of field as much as possible, but he can't be bothered to actually make the commercials himself, since he is busy filming the movie and blogging endlessly about filming the movie.  So he's making you do it!  Or, more specifically, YouTube.  Snyder is running a contest on the video-hosting site, inviting fans to create their own Veidt Enterprises commercials.  If yours gets picked, you'll get thousands of dollars from the makers of this hugely expensive Hollywood blockbuster film! 

Ha ha, no, just kidding. But you do have a chance to get your commercial featured in the movie -- for free!  It's not exploitation if you enjoy it!  Me, I'm picturing an ad for Veidt's "Nostalgia" cologne featuring an 80-year-old Wilford Brimley muttering, "You can smell like it's 1956 again."

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To celebrate one-year-and-counting-down to the release of Watchmen, Zack Snyder has released some comicbookalicious images of the tights clad titular team. The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Silk Spectre (Malin Ackerman), Ozymanidas (Matthew Goode), and Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) are straight from the page. Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl, however, isn’t screaming authenticity.

More after the jump.

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One of our favorite features over at Comics2Film, aside from their constant Watchmen movie updates that we plunder on a weekly basis to feed our sick obsession with the doomed Zack Snyder adaptation, is "The Elevator." Essentially, it's the online version of a pitch meeting: they invite small-press comics creators onto the site to explain why their particular property is worthy of being greenlit for a big-screen adaptation. Of course, since Comics2Film is just a glorified fansite and not an actual Hollywood studio, nothing ever comes of the Elevator pitches, but it's a fun little distraction (this week's features. . .

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Boy, it seems like forever since we've had any Watchmen news, doesn't it? Well, don't worry, fellow slavering comic book fans: we fully intend to completely suck every tiny bit of magic out of the movie by relentlessly cramming every bit of Watchmen-related insider gossip down your gullets until, by the time the movie finally comes out sometime around the crack of doom, you will feel like you have already seen it eighteen times and be utterly sick of it. You're welcome.

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Honestly, folks, we don't know why we're so obsessed with Watchmen news lately.  We'll stop as soon as the movie comes out and is terrible, we promise.  In the meantime, we're obviously not the only people who can't get enough of the hype, because when Jeffrey Dean Morgan was at a press junket promoting P.S. I Love You, all anyone wanted to talk to him about was his role as the Comedian in the upcoming comic adaptation.  Morgan reports that the sets, which have only been seen in a few photos released by director Zack Snyder, are "so true to the book it's insane", discussed the challenge of playing a morally reprehensible character like the Comedian, and vows that the film is "going to change the way people look at movies".  Meanwhile, artist Dave Gibbons, who drew the original Watchmen graphic novel (and who, because author Alan Moore maintains a policy of having nothing to do with film adaptations of his work, is the only creator involved in the movie), visited the set for the first time, describing the sensation of seeing the characters he helped bring into existence walking around and talking as "the most surreal experience of my life".  Gibbons, who Morgan reports was tearing up at seeing the sets, keeps mum about the specifics of the film, as have most people working on the set, but claims that among the cast and crew there is a "palpable commitment to do this right".  Only 15 months to go...

The productions of perhaps the two most anticipated comic book adaptations of all time — Watchmen and The Dark Knight — have both kicked into high gear, and there’s plenty of geeky content to go around before the movies actually end up in the can.  (Try not to think too hard about the fact that Dark Knight draws only its title, and nothing else, from Frank Miller’s stunning Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, or that Watchmen is being directed by a guy who turned another, far lesser Frank Miller book into a homoerotic big-screen video game.) In the Guardian, film blogger Sean Dodson provides a handy rundown of the astonishingly large number of Dark Knight teaser websites that have sprung up in the last few weeks (including ones for the Gotham Police Department, the local newspaper and a creepily amusing recruitment site for the Joker’s henchmen). Meanwhile, Zack Snyder himself provides some photos from the back lot of Watchmen, which contain lots of goodies for longtime fans of the comic (lots of characters, locations, companies, and other cultural references to the book are present in the background of the shots), although the set designer doesn’t seem to realize that Grain Belt beer has never been a big seller in New York.
— Leonard Pierce

More Trek news: Simon Pegg — Shaun of the Dead himself — to play Scotty. Awesome.

Zack Snyder will direct The Last Photograph, an Afghanistan-set drama "based on an original idea by Snyder." (Snyder has original ideas?)

Frank Langella joins Cameron Diaz in The Box, Richard Kelly's intended follow-up to Southland Tales — assuming anyone lets the guy direct after that thing comes out.

— Peter Smith

PZ Myers, the invaluable science blogger, reports that physicist Jim Kakalios, author of The Science of Superheroes, has been brought in as a consultant for Zack Snyder’s Watchmen movie.  It seems like a curious decision; the comic features only one character with superhuman powers, after all, and he is essentially godlike and not bound by any sort of physics.  And it’s not as if they needed to bring in a historian to keep 300 on an even keel, if the box office numbers rather than the critical reactions are anything to go by.  May we suggest saving the money they’d spend on a physics consultant and putting it towards a script doctor instead?

— Leonard Pierce