The Watchmen cast pics

Wow… it’s hard to imagine that this movie is actually happening. A live action production of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ The Watchmen. The 12 issue maxi-series from 1986 that introduced the post modern comic book to American audience (Moore had already done this with his series Miracle Man).

The comic book was so visually compelling partly because of the sheer skill of artist Dave Gibbons and the terribly detailed scripting by Alan Moore.

Originally intended as a vehicle for newly acquired characters including The Question, Captain Atom, Thunderbolt, Peacemaker and others, DC Comics changed their minds and Moore and Gibbons had to restart the project from scratch. What followed was a comic book that acts as a time capsule for America at the time. Depicting a world where super heroes fought in Vietnam and Nixon has never left office, the reader is both mystified and horrified by each issue.

I can only hope that the feature film by Zak (Frank Miller’s 300) Snyder can catch a little bit of that lightning. He has already vowed to stay as faithful as possible to the original work, including the inclusion of ‘Tales of the Black Freighter,’ a comic within The Watchmen, as a DVD extra.

The film’s release date is almost a full year away (3/9/09).

Until then, enjoy this image of the Comedian in full costume. Part of a set of recently released pics of the characters from the film, I am of two minds about it. The characters look very polished and respectful of their comic book counterparts… however they do look very ‘1989,’ as in super heroes = rubber costumes. I’m not sure why that is, but I’m hoping that the finished product holds up better than these still promotional images.

Click here to see the rest of the cast at Pulp Secret!

Watchmen The Movie is in the can!

Over at the official Watchmen Movie Blog, director Zack (300) Snyder has announced that principle photography has been completed for what could be the biggest comic book film to ever be released… or not.

That’s a wrap!

I promise to refrain from getting too sentimental, but I want to take a moment to say thanks to the Watchmen cast & crew. You have all been phenomenal. It has been quite an experience and I could not have done it without the hard work and determination of each and every one of you. A film adaptation of Watchmen has been in the works for almost 20 years and thanks to you, it is finally in the can. It has been such a pleasure to be surrounded by a team that is so dedicated and that has given 110% each and every day. I am extremely grateful for the level of attention to detail put forth by each department to capture all of the texture that makes Watchmen the incredibly unique property that it is. Although we still have a lot of work to do in post, the shoot has been an experience I will not soon forget!

Thank you,

Zack
P.S. While I’m in the process of thanking people, I figure it’s a good time to say thanks to the Watchmen fans for all of their continued support. Since the crew got wrap gifts, I figured you deserved a little something as well. So, to bring a little closure to the previous “Storyboard” blog, I’ve included a frame from the film that shows what it looks like when it all comes together. Thanks!

I’ve been cynical about many things this year and while I’m usually right when I can smell a bad thing coming… this time I’m going to ignore the warning signs and embrace hope. Snyder made a spectacular adaptation on Frank Miller’s 300. Despite that success, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s The Watchmen is admittedly the Citizen Kane of comic books. It’s often said about the book, but it’s actually true. Watchmen is one of those rare things that actually lives up to its reputation.

Because of the grandeur of the project, Snyder is really going to have to dig deep to find the chutzpah to pull this off. He has been quoted as saying that he totes the Absolute Watchmen around with him and looks upon it as a blueprint for the film he has created. If you look at the storyboard and the inset panel from the comic and compare it to the frame above… he’s telling the truth!

That’s some dedication!

Next March, we’ll see if that dedication pays off. In any case, he created the film no one else managed to create, including Terry Gilliam. That’s gotta be worth something!

Dave Gibbons visits Watchmen movie set

From the Watchmen Blog:

It’s perhaps the most surreal experience of my life.

There they are, in a shadowy clubhouse, standing around a map of the USA, just as we’d imagined them. The smoke of the Comedian’s cigar hangs in the air as I drink in the details of the scene. Framed old copies of The New York Gazette tell stories of past exploits; trophies glint in glass-fronted display cases; Moloch’s solar weapon shines in a dusty corner and over there, on its mannequin stand, the faded costume of the original Nite Owl keeps silent vigil.

Then, a sudden flash of unearthly blue light announces the arrival of Dr. Manhattan and the tableau comes to life. The voices of quarreling heroes rise and fall, a Zippo flares and the map catches fire.

Somewhere, someone shouts “Cut!”

And I’m standing amongst them. Nite Owl shakes my hand. The Comedian slaps me on the back. Silk Spectre smiles a dazzling greeting. I’m overwhelmed by the depth and detail of what I’m seeing.

But more than that. I’m overwhelmed by the commitment, the passion, the palpable desire to do this right.

I’m starting to feel a glow that eclipses even Dr. Manhattan’s…

-Dave Gibbons
December 2007

No other comic book film demands the kind of attention to detail that this project has seen. One needs only to idly flip through the trade paperback collection to see the maddeningly poetic manner in which artist Dave Gibbons draws each panel to play off of the rest, presenting the most breathtaking comic book project of the 2oth Century.

Watchmen remains one of the only super hero comic books deemed worthy of scholarly study. Building on the lessons of Will Eisner’s narrative skills, this series has remained a treat for comic book readers and a testament to the connection between comic books and film.

I mean, the thing reads like a movie!

So if they plan on making this baby into a movie, they’d better not  screw it up!

At least Dave Gibbons is giving it his seal of approval.

Real super hero?

This video has recently surfaced on youtube depicting a ‘real live super hero.’

Personally, the fighting looks all too familiar to yours truly as what you get when you ask friends to help out as ‘angry thugs’ in your low budget movie (lots of anxious/awkward kicking and such). The feeling is that this is a viral marketing tool for the upcoming Watchmen movie (hence the smiley face).

There’s another theory that this is a PR tool for Marvel Comics (hence all the Marvel characters at the end), but… for what? A new comic? A new movie or TV series?

For now, all we have are questions and the film below.

Watchmen movie Blog

The production of Watchmen, possibly the most important comic book movie ever made continues and so far… it looks incredible.

The production team has managed to retain so many visuals from the max-series that I’m beside myself. A comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons that was initially intended to make use of newly acquired characters including Blue Beetle and the Question, Watchmen turned into something  far greater. Moore took his know-how from Swamp Thing and the many UK comics he’d worked on and Dave Gibbons grew 20 creative inches taller in one day. Both creators developed a comic book that is still regarded as one of the most definitive statements on super heroes to this day.

By showing the consequences of super heroes in warfare to the complexities of morality and even romantic relationships, this book tore the lid off of super hero comics and exposed its inner workings. Many fear that the  Zack Snyder (director of 300) film will be a travesty, but the director maintains his love for the original work and swears that he will stick by it.

If you follow the link to the  production blog, it looks like he’s 100% on the level.

Film opens 3.06.09

Watchmen confirmed

The cast for the upcoming adaptation of the Moore and Gibbons classic series The Watchmen has finally been announced (though we knew most of it already)

Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy) as Nite Owl

Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) as Rorschach

Matthew Goode (Match Point) as Ozymandias

Billy Crudup (Almost Famous) as Dr. Manhattan

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Grey’s Anatomy) as The Comedian

Malin Akerman (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) as the Silk Spectre

For more on the film, check out  my previous posts here.

Watchmen Casting News- Dr. Manhattan

The big news is that Billy Crudup has just been cast as the character Dr. Manhattan in the Zak Snyder (300) film production of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ the Watchmen.

More on the Watchmen here.

Doctor Manhattan is the naked blue man from the comic book series the Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. He was, like most atomic-powered super heroes, transformed due to a nuclear accident.

The well-meaning Dr. Osterman was taken outside the physical realm and transformed into a radioactive god-like being Dr. Manhattan. The good doctor has incredible powers such as superhuman strength, telekinesis, the ability to teleport himself or others over great distances, control over matter at a molecular level, and near total clairvoyance… and trouble with women, including his lady friend, the Silk Spectre.

Like the other Watchmen characters, Dr. Manhattan is based on an old Charlton Comics character, Steve Ditko’s Captain Atom.

In contrast, Billy Crudup is a Tony Award winning actor who starred in films such as Sleepers, Inventing The Abbots, Big Fish and Almost Famous. He has, to date, no super human powers aside from his dreamy smile.

Suggested Reading:

Watchmen
Watchmen (Absolute Edition)
Action Heroes Archives, Vol. 1 (DC Archive Editions)
Marvel Visionaries: Steve Ditko

Rorschach’s Journal

As part of the viral marketing campaign building up to the inevitable Watchmen film, a new website has emerged called Rorschach’s Journal.

The character in the comic series is based on Steve Ditko’s the Question, a character who struggles to find the patterns in the world around him. The site offers up rorschach blots with Morse code signals embedded in the page’s code.

Lots of work for a funny book movie, eh?

To get you started, the folks at Comics2Film have decoded the first few phrases:

– .- -.– -… . / -.– — ..- .—-. …- . / ..-. — .-. –. — - - . -. / …. — .– / .– . / -.. — / - …. .. -. –. … .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.-

Actually translates to…

MAYBE YOU’VE FORGOTTEN HOW WE DO THINGS…

-.- .. - - -.– –. . -. — …- . … . .– .- … - …. . … - .- .-. - .-.-.- -

Which translates to…

KITTY GENOVESE WAS THE START.

So the messages so far are:

Thanks for emails.
Will reply soon.
The veidt method is a lie
Maybe you’ve forgotten how we do things…
Kitty Genovese was the start.

Veidt is the character Ozymandias, the perfect man who has sold his life transforming technique to the world and made millions. It’ll be interesting to see this site and its rumors grow.

Kitty Genovese was a New York City woman who was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, New York while her neighbors looked on doing nothing.

This is a reference to the Watchmen comic, directly from Rorshach’s Journal. The statement basically implying that society at large is content to watch horrible things happen, so long as they don’t happen to them.

Recommended reading/viewing:

Action Heroes Archives, The: Volume 2 (featuring Ditko’s the Question)
Justice League Unlimited - Season One (featuring an animated version of the Question)
Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset (Rick Veitch’s homage to the Question)

Watchmen cast line-up?

The Watchmen movie rumor mill turns once again, this time with a full cast list.

This is THE comic book movie, a strong tale about super heroes and American culture, it definitely has potential to be a movie that will bring in comic book fans and those who have never read the series. Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, From Hell, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) and Dave Gibbons began the series as work for hire under DC Comics to use up a desk full of recently acquired characters, but after the situation changed, the Watchmen became an entirely original story.

Currently regarded as one of the most important comic book stories ever printed and taught in universities as part of a growing comic book curriculum, the Watchmen is a property that demands attention.

So… does the rumored cast list measure up to the task?

Kate Winslet as Silk Spectre

Patrick Wilson as Night Owl

Jackie Earle Haley as Rorshach

Jason Patric as Dr. Manhattan

Jude Law as Ozymandias

Thomas Jane as The Comedian

Jeremy Irons as Moloch

Compared to my previous report, there are some big names creeping into the cast now, but still no sign of Keanu or Nic Cage, so we’re still looking good.

To close, I’m including a pic of the never released DC Direct action figures from 2000. To celebrate the success of the comic book series, DC Comics planned to release an oversized hardcover book and a set of action figures. Due to an unrelated disagreement, Alan Moore put his foot down and stopped the plan in its tracks, making many a grown man wishing to play with toys unhappy.

Since then, Moore has divorced himself completely from his work and DC has released the amazing ‘Absolute Watchmen’ collection.

… no word on the action figures yet, but they look quite neat, eh?

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The Watchmen movie

I turn my head and there are three new Watchmen movie rumors!

1. Patrick Wilson (of Angels in America) is set to play Nite Owl.

In a recent interview with Super Hero Hype (SHH!), Wilson stated that he is very familiar with the series and that…

“The material’s phenomenal, let’s put it that way. It’s pretty unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. Just as we were talking about, you know with every huge… and that’s a totally different, when you talk about comic book movies that doesn’t even do an ounce of justice to that script, both the movie script and the original graphic novel is pretty phenomenal writing.”

2. Jackie Earle Haley (last seen by my eyes as the weaselly evil kid in the original Bad News Bears film) has been cast as Rorsharch.

 

Both of these casting rumors are significant because they do not involve Nic Cage, Bruce Willis, Chris O’Donnel, Brad Pitt, or the dreaded Keanu Reeves. Someone somewhere wants to make this film without star power. That, to me, is a very good thing.

You think I’m wrong, go rent Dick Tracy.

3. Zak Snyder is getting closer to his directorial vision.

Rumor has it that Snyder carries the Watchmen Absolute Edition around with him wherever he goes and that he is constantly redrawing the series for film. If nothing else, it’s good for his arms.

Have you seen the size of that book!?

He also seems to have a solid standpoint as a filmmaker on the project. When interviewed by Wizard, he stated…

“With “Watchmen,” from a marketing standpoint and as a filmmaker-the movie and the marketing are the same thing to me-I think, “Okay, what shots are going to be in the trailer? What images can tell people to come to see the movie?” If you don’t look at your movie that way, you’re naïve to the process. Unless you don’t care at all about success and you just say, “You know what? I’m making an art film. If no one goes and sees it then f— them! I don’t care.” On the other hand, if you ever want to make another movie, then you’re in trouble if you don’t look at it from the standpoint of, “What are the images I need here?” Dr. Manhattan walking through Vietnam 200 feet tall, the Comedian riding with the 50-caliber rifle and shooting at the Viet Cong and burning out the village…”

This is just where the project should be.

Between artfilm and DVD boxset extravaganza.

After all, the comic itself was the most talked about mature readers 12 issue series at the time of publication and now it’s a gigantic oversized collection.

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