Cinematical Watches The 'Watchmen'
Filed under: Action, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Trailers and Clips
"I'm most excited that it's brought people into comics." -- Dave Gibbons, when asked what his favorite part of this Watchmen journey has been.
Last night, Cinematical was lucky enough to attend a private screening of Watchmen footage hosted by director Zack Snyder and Watchmen co-illustrator Dave Gibbons. There was a reception before and after (where they served this really great sushi), and in a separate room off to the side they set up a sort of Watchmen museum, with costumes worn in the film, as well as drawings, set design stuff, character posters -- the works.
Once inside the theater, Snyder introduced the first twelve minutes of the film by giving us a little background on his past with comics (started reading Heavy Metal as a kid, and was immediately turned off when he read other graphic novels because there wasn't enough "f**king or dying"). His work on Watchmen began while they were still finishing up 300, and originally they wanted to update Watchmen to the War on Terror. Eventually, though, Snyder chipped away and convinced the studio to remain faithful to the source material, which meant a film that took place in 1985, included the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon and all the scary realities which make the graphic novel so intriguing to read.
My thoughts on the footage and notes from the post-screening Q&A after the jump ...
The Footage
Note: If you haven't read the graphic novel yet, what I'm about to say might be spoiler-ish ...
The first twelve minutes of the film consisted of:
- The Comedian's murder inside his own apartment at the hands of an unknown assailant
- A very long and detailed opening credit sequence set to Bob Dylan's "The Times, They Are A-Changin'" -- featuring a heavy amount of visual backstory, a lot of which concerns The Minute Men, who were the very first set of masked vigilantes.
Snyder then came out to introduce the next scene:
- If you've read the graphic novel, then this sequence takes place when Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) first arrives on Mars after leaving earth following accusations that he (inadvertently) killed those closest to him.
Snyder then introduced the last piece of footage:
- Following the tenement fire, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre lie naked after a post-rescue, love-making session. Worried Rorschach was right and that someone is trying to get rid of masked heroes, Nite Owl suggests they break Rorschach out of prison. The two then travel to the prison, where there's a full-on riot taking place. Once inside, they battle several prisoners before picking up Rorschach, who has a little unfinished business to take care of in the bathroom before leaving.
Following this last scene, there was a brief montage of scenes from all throughout the film -- most of which are already featured in the current trailer.
Q&A
Snyder was then joined by Dave Gibbons for a Q&A on stage, and here are a few snippets from that:
- Snyder said they did not "puss out" on the ending.
- Snyder wanted the line, "We've discovered God and he's American" on the poster, but the studio wouldn't allow it.
- The scenes that were hardest to shoot were Comedian's funeral (because of all the flashbacks), Manhattan on Mars and Rorschach's flashbacks to his childhood.
- The story of those two detectives, who, in the graphic novel are trying to connect all these murders and disappearances to one another, did not make it into the film. Although they do show up, they don't spend a lot of time on them.
- They turned The Black Freighter comic into an animated tale and it will arrive on a DVD along with a mock doc-type news program chronicling the original Nite Owl's memoirs, Under the Hood. This DVD will hit shelves when the film is released in March.
- On the Watchmen DVD, there will be a longer cut with The Black Freighter animation worked into the film itself. This cut, Snyder believes, will run at about three hours and twenty five minutes.
- When asked whether he thinks Alan Moore will ever watch the film, Dave Gibbons said "it's not my job to convince Alan, and I don't know what he'd think of it."
Watchmen arrives in theaters on March 6th.
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Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. No worries -- thanks. I did know that, but for some reason I wrote the wrong name.
Posted at 12:32PM on Oct 7th 2008 by Erik Davis
3. "Rorschach, who, conveniently, is all dressed up in full Rorschach gear."
That will bother me, since I think the whole being unmasked and then the "bathroom business" is essential to his character. *shrug*
"Snyder said they did not "puss out" on the ending."
**** ENDING spoilers from graphic novel ****
This is the only thing I have been worried about ... in the trailer, there is obviously a scene with Owl outside the Antarctic screaming "NOOOO!" ... I am guessing this is him seeing the twist after the "big reveal". In the GN, Owl is off with Spectre doing some "business" of their own, unawares of that twist. If he does see it, I am sure that would crush his spirit and not lead to a happy-ish ending for him.
Posted at 4:20PM on Oct 7th 2008 by George McBain
4. How jealous am I? This film is looking really good.
Posted at 5:24PM on Oct 7th 2008 by 4outof10.com
5. AWESOME review, thanks Erik. I've been pretty disappointed over at TV Squad about their piss-poor reviewing as of lately. I'm glad to not see this at Cinematical. I can't wait for this damn movie, either to see it in all its glory, or to see Alan Moore's fears come true.
Dan
Posted at 10:01PM on Oct 7th 2008 by dtpollitt
6. I am so worry about this movie, as a hard core fan of Alan Moore I tend to be very afraid of all his movie adaptation (that to the date all the adaptation are extremely bad); I love the Watchmen but I am very afraid to watch it.
Lets see what Snyder does with it... anyway I promise to complain about it
Posted at 10:55PM on Oct 7th 2008 by artshoup
7. I thought V for Vendetta was quite good. Plus Alan Moore is a grumpy elitist who hates all movie adaptions. Great writer, kind of an asshat though.
Posted at 1:00AM on Oct 8th 2008 by Jason H
8. I've been looking for this movie for years, since the proyect was developed by Paul Greengrass. I hope that the final product would be a great movie.
Posted at 1:16AM on Oct 9th 2008 by Javi-LHP
9. I am still totally unconvinced of this movie.
The Comedian's murder being in the style of 300...that does not sound good at all, especially considering that 300 was a terrible movie.
Posted at 10:18AM on Oct 9th 2008 by AJ Wiley
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1. Anal nerd correction: Patrick Wilson plays Nite Owl, Billy Crudup plays Doc Manhattan.
Posted at 12:24PM on Oct 7th 2008 by Peter Hall