Watchmen

The screenwriter is the same guy who is or was doing Mann's revised 'Frankie Machine' script, so the writing seems on point (so he says looking at his crystal ball of hope).

Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) seems absurdly young for the role but he is a very good actor. The guys playing Rorschach, Hollis Mason, and Moloch seem a bit more age appropriate, and Ozymandias always strikes me as a young buck every time I read the book.

Snyder wanted younger actors to ease the flashback scenes. That seems like b.s. to me, but whatever; at least they didn't go with a Dawson's Creek cast like Miller was/is for Justice League.

Be nice if Black Freighter would've made it into the film, but ah well.

Have you seen the character pics released thus far? Pretty badass.

I think Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a fanatastic choice, going on voice alone. Have you heard the man speak? I say that's how The Comedian should sound. I'm not too familiar with the other actors, except Billy Crudup...

... but I'm excited as hell about this movie. I hope it turns out half as good as I want it to be.

Oh, and don't worry Toothpaste. I only read it last summer myself. Go check out some of the photos at http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/.

I had no idea they were making Watchmen into a movie. I read it in the late 80s. I still love it; I think it's one of the best books I've ever read. But wouldn't a movie be, like, twenty hours long?

allen

bumpety bump

Here's a brief report on the final plans for the movie. It's not much but it's something. I'm not familiar with this comic book at all, but it looks like it could be interesting. I love superhero movies.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/05/27...ical-cut-4-12-hour-directors-cut-dvd-planned/

Explodes!

I JUST READ THIS BOOK.

I litterally blew through it in three hours and...


It sucked.

























Just kidding. No, actually, it was one of the best books I've ever read. Now...movie wise...I'm actually REALLY excited. Cause a three hour long movie? FUCK YES!

And I want the Under the Hood documentery so much...not so much with the Tales of the Black Freighter, but still!

I also remember hearing some rumors that Simon Pegg might have been Roscharch.

Now THAT I'd have wanted to see, just becuase comedic actors are actually way better at doing drama than you'd think and I just...love Simon Pegg.

But this other guy is cool...I have no idea who he is though.

The library has the book in their adult graphix section. Which I didn't know they had. lol I shall put it on hold and read it.

I got mine from my American lit teacher.

Yes, he's that awesome: He lets his kids do their book reports on Watchmen!

it looks like it may be absolutely faboo...

... or totally exploitive of the fans. I've already heard rumblings about changes made to the script that go against the original novel and things coming out that just make my anti-corporate hairs bristle on the back of my neck.

I don't mind seeing a great movie but if I'm going to be forced to buy all and sundry and the merchandizing is out the wazoo...



now if they had put all this work into promoting Speed Racer, well...

Rorschach is the bad boy rocker guy from the Bad News Bears. He'll be great.

Dun dun dun ...

Can someone explain to me why Watchmen is so awesome? I've never really 'gotten' Alan Moore... his stuff just doesn't do it for me. I'm a huuuge fan of comics both superhero and not, and I thought Watchmen was all right, but not mind-blowing. I think Dark Knight Returns and Identity Crisis were both far superior.

I loved Watchmen, but sort of fear the movie ruining it. It seems like it'd be hard to do it justice in two hours.

Oh, and in case you haven't seen this...

JoNightshade said:

Can someone explain to me why Watchmen is so awesome? I've never really 'gotten' Alan Moore... his stuff just doesn't do it for me. I'm a huuuge fan of comics both superhero and not, and I thought Watchmen was all right, but not mind-blowing. I think Dark Knight Returns and Identity Crisis were both far superior.

Click to expand...

Cause it is ^_^

I'm sure there's a better explanation, but that's mine

JoNightshade said:

Can someone explain to me why Watchmen is so awesome? I've never really 'gotten' Alan Moore... his stuff just doesn't do it for me. I'm a huuuge fan of comics both superhero and not, and I thought Watchmen was all right, but not mind-blowing. I think Dark Knight Returns and Identity Crisis were both far superior.

Click to expand...

Identity Crisis? Really? I hated Identity Crisis.

I can see Dark Knight Returns (though I feel about Frank Miller how you seem to feel about Alan Moore), being placed above Watchmen by some.

To be honest, out of Moore's work, I like V for Vendetta more than Watchment, but I also enjoyed Watchmen, for many of the same reasons. The layers, for one. Moore is so meticulous. Every panel counts. Every page counts. Every little thing in the background counts. I tend to find many comics have, unfortunately, little to offer on a second & third reading, but Watchmen is like a DVD with easter eggs. The "Tales of the Black Freighter" comic book within the comic book, the relationship to actual history, the ensemble of interesting, memorable characters, the moral conflicts and ambiguity, the unanswered questions. It covers a spectrum from intimate thought to cosmic consequence.

I just love the layers of it. And that's why I think, while it can be made into a good movie, it can't be made into a really satisfying movie for anyone who loves the graphic novel. Much like V for Vendetta. Which is one thing I love about Moore's best work. It maximizes the medium in such a way that it's almost impossible for an adaptation to do it justice.

I'm about 95% sure I read somewhere that they're doing the Black Freighter stuff as an extra for the DVD release. I think it's going to be animated, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Slightly off-topic:

I just read a couple of books called Supreme Power in the Marvel MAX series, and loved them about as much as anything else I've read in the genre. I mention it here because I probably wouldn't have noticed them if a buddy of mine hadn't rec'd them to me.

Marvel puts them out, but they're basically a really dark take on the DC mainstays. Superman Hyperion lands on a farm, Jon & Martha adopt him, but the next day the pentagon takes him away and raises him to be a secret weapon. Batman Nighthawk's parents were killed by racist rednecks, and he's not, um, unduly PC in his outlook on race relations. Wonder Woman Zarda would kill you as soon as look at you. And so forth.

If you like Watchmen / Dark Knight / Sandman type stuff I'd highly recommend the Supreme Power series.

Are these by Ellis or Busiek?

J. Michael Straczynski -- I'm told he's the Babylon 5 guy. B5 never rocked my world, but, again, loved this stuff.

Amazon link here

JoNightshade said:

Can someone explain to me why Watchmen is so awesome? I've never really 'gotten' Alan Moore... his stuff just doesn't do it for me. I'm a huuuge fan of comics both superhero and not, and I thought Watchmen was all right, but not mind-blowing. I think Dark Knight Returns and Identity Crisis were both far superior.

Click to expand...

Part of what made -- and makes -- Watchmen so wonderful is it uses the comics medium about as perfectly as it can be used. It was incredibly far ahead of it's time in the way it used words and images to tell a story, its use of flashbacks, supportive text materials, and so on. (Even Moore's work on Saga of the Swamp Thing at the time wasn't quite as sophisticated as Watchmen.) I was working in a comics store at the time Watchmen (and Dark Knight, for that matter) was coming out, and I can tell you, there was nothing else being done at the time that was even close. It was unlike anything we'd ever seen.

Watchmen proved comics could be sophisticated and serious -- and for the last 20 years, comics have improved significantly, paving the way for lots of great titles that wouldn't have existed (though there are still countless titles that suffer from overwriting, in the name of trying to look Serious and Sophisiticated) and writers (and readers) who would never have given comics a second look. For the same reason that Peanuts started to appear to lose its sheen in the out years -- namely, it had been so far ahead of its time for so long that when everything else finally caught up to it, it was easy to sneer at Schulz as "having lost it" -- so, too, do some readers look at Watchmen and go, "Meh, it's been done." Well, yes, it has. Over and over again. But still nowhere nearly as well.

Anyway, there are lots of other reasons why Watchmen is so awesome. That's just one of them (though I, too, am partial to the "it just is!" response as well....)