"THE WATCHMEN" MOVIE - FINALLY?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Six conspire in casting of 'Watchmen'By Borys Kit
July 26, 2007


"Watchmen," the long-gestating big-screen adaptation of the seminal DC Comics limited series, has finally found its superheroes.

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

Set in an alternate America, "Watchmen" follows 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 -- but that relationship begins to fall apart as he becomes more disconnected from humanity.

Goode will play Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, a costume 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-figher 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 Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is one of the most critically acclaimed series in the genre. The comic is credited for redefining the superhero genre and often is referred to as the "War and Peace" of comic books. It is a crime-conspiracy story that provided the first realistic look at the behind-the-heroics lives of superhero archetypes. "Watchmen" appeared as the only graphic novel on Time magazine's list of the 100 best novels since 1923.

A feature adaptation was in preproduction at Paramount with director Paul Greengrass at the helm. Casting was under way when the studio pulled the plug in June 2005 and let go of the project.

Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves and Jude Law were interested in the Snyder incarnation, though they balked when it became clear that the studio was holding the line on the budget.

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

Legendary is co-financing the picture.

The cast is rumored to make an appearance at Warners' Comic-Con presentation Friday.

Haley, repped by Gersh and Leslie Allan-Rice Management, was nominated for a best supporting Oscar for his performance in "Little Children."

Morgan is best known for his run on "Grey's Anatomy" as Katherine Heigl's love interest. He is repped by WMA.

Crudup's credits include "Almost Famous," "Big Fish" and "The Good Shepherd." He is repped by CAA.

Goode, repped by CAA, gained notice for his appearances in "Match Point" and "The Lookout."

CAA-repped Wilson also appeared in "Little Children" and is shooting Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie" opposite Tom Cruise.

Akerman, repped by Endeavor, appeared in "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" and appears in "27 Dresses" with Katherine Heigl

[mothman]

Rorschach?



Dr. Manhattan?



Silk Spectre? (and, on a personal note, hubba hubba)



Ozymandias?



Nite Owl?



The Comedian?

[Famous Mortimer]

Let's start a book on when Alan Moore will piss and moan about his vision being stolen and demand his name be taken off the film altogether. Check those fucking contracts a bit better next time, Alan.

[Fry]

They better not fuck it up?

Do you reckon they'll fuck it up?

Yeah, they're probably going to fuck it up.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

None of those pictures are working, Mothman.

Why isn't David Thewlis playing Rorschach? Why, I asks ye!

[Jemble Fred]

It's a shame that Heroes has sort of trumped any adaptation of Watchmen in a way, because a graphic novel as dense as this deserves a proper, well-paced TV series if it's going to be done any real justice on screen. A 90-120 minute version is going to generate a lot of rabid fan-frothing, no doubt.

[4 arses]

None of those pictures are working, Mothman.

Why isn't David Thewlis playing Rorschach? Why, I asks ye!

I heard that Paddy Considine was in the running at one point, I'd have liked to have seen that.

[surreal]

here's the pics:


Jackie Earle Haley is Walter Kovacs / Rorschach


Billy Crudup is Dr. Manhattan


Malin Akerman is Juspeczyk / The Silk Spectre


Matthew Goode is Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias


Patrick Wilson is Nite Owl


Jeffrey Dean Morgan will play The Comedian

More details
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ie88dcf13294612e0d5010ddce2a351f1

[Mister Six]

Why won't it just die?

[mothman]

Ah, thanks, surreal - was a bit of a rushed job, went to see what these people looked like and thought I'd post 'em here for others, but didn't have time to really do it properly.

My thoughts. . . I don't think any movie will do the book justice. Wilson and Morgan look the part, as does (allowing for a change of hair colour) Goode. Any reasonably-hot actress would do, and the pic I found of Akermann is even better than the one above. Haley could probably do it if he grew hair and lost the beard. Crudup's the weird one. I'd guess based on some of his previous roles, maybe he's the only person they could find who's willing to spend a whole film naked and painted blue!

[Mister Six]

The thing is, even if they recreate the story perfectly (the director wants to film the pirate bits as well, which is a stupid idea), they've still got the problem that what makes Watchmen so special is all the stuff you can't do outside of comics. So what's the point?

[mothman]

all the stuff you can't do outside of comics.

Like what?

[Mister Six]

Like what?

Like putting vast amounts of detail into single scenes and encouraging the reader to pore over them, or go back and compare the panels on previous pages. Like throwing in an entire comic that is a fiction-within-fiction but works as a commentary on the actions of the main characters. Like having the subtle scene transitions that bleed into one another via caption boxes. Like the issue "Fearful Symmetry", in which the action on the first page is replicated exactly on the last page and so on and so on until the middle, when you have a double-page splash, creating an issue that is a mirror image of itself. Like showing the same scene from several different angles at different points in the narrative and being able to work it smoothly into the story without having to laboriously explain it and so on and so on.

The joy of Watchmen isn't so much its story, but its crystilline structure, which allows and encourages the viewer to take their time with the story and notice all of the different ways it is being told - something that you can't do if the film is rushing ever onwards at 25fps.

[mothman]

OK. Essentially, Watchmen tells its story in a certain way, using the way it's been drawn, and to try to re-create that would be nearly impossible, yes? Because I'm not disagreeing with you, I just wanted to hear you expand on your statement.

[Regular Chicken]

Am I the only one who has never heard of any of those people? This is probably a good thing as we don't want an Arnie as Manhattan situation going on.

[Slaaaaabs]

Morgan/Comedian is the dad in Supernatural, seems to be a good choice.

Everyone else is a big question mark at the moment.

[Mister Six]

OK. Essentially, Watchmen tells its story in a certain way, using the way it's been drawn, and to try to re-create that would be nearly impossible, yes? Because I'm not disagreeing with you, I just wanted to hear you expand on your statement.

Yes, that's what I'm saying (although it's also the way it's written as well). The reason that Watchmen was so influential was not just because of the superhero revision thing that it helped kickstart, but because Moore used it as an exercise in toying with the comic format and finding new ways to tell a story - ways that were completely unique to the medium.

It's like making a film of James Joyce's Ulysses. You certainly could translate the story and maybe some of the magic realist stuff, but most of the elements that make it interesting are possible only in the novel format. so anyone watching the movie but not reading the book is only experiencing one sliver of the original work.

[Jemble Fred]

so anyone watching the movie but not reading the book is only experiencing one sliver of the original work.

Is that in itself a reason never to attempt an adaptation though? It's possible to construct a pleasing piece of entertainment from only 'one sliver', and whether it fails or succeeds, it's still likely to lead a significant proportion of the audience back to the original version.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

That bloke playing Rorschach looks suitably weird, but he'll be no Lee Evans that's for sure.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

The actor that plays the performance artist in Spaced was born to play Rorschach!

[waste of chops]

The actor that plays the performance artist in Spaced was born to play Rorschach!

What, David Walliams?



Hmm, maybe.

[Mister Six]

The actor that plays the performance artist in Spaced was born to play Rorschach!

Eh? Vulva is the exact opposite in every way of Rorschach.

[Still Not George]

I've said it before and here it is again - if they fuck up the ending I will hunt down and kill everyone involved in this movie (except Moore).

[Mister Six]

I've said it before and here it is again - if they fuck up the ending I will hunt down and kill everyone involved in this movie (except Moore).

Poor Dave Gibbons. :(

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Mark Heap I was thinking of.



Although I know Simon Pegg wanted to play him at one point.

[surreal]

There is a documentary on Alan Moore up at The Other Place at the moment, if anyone is interested...

[bill hicks]

I agree that Watchmen simply can't be made as a film as it exists in the comic for the exact same reasons already mentioned...but I do think it could work as a film as long as Snyder isn't afraid of retelling the story in a way that can be filmed. Similar to how Michael Winterbottom made Tristram Shandy.

By that I'm not saying that Snyder should make a film about making a film about a comic using the equivalent film techniques...just that he should take the central idea of the work and use the things that cinema can do and comics can't to make something different. The fanboys would be up in arms but it's the only it's possible as I see it.

Or just not make it obviously.

[surreal]

Or just not make it obviously.

yeah, who will watch The Watchmen anyway?








Well, someone had to say it....

[Sheldon Finklestein]

Yeah, me, in the tags...

Anyway, I pray, pray, pray this will be good. Alan Moore has had ridiculously bad luck when it comes to film adaptations, V for Vendetta coming closest to being good. And even that was rubbish. I'm fairly confident they might do something interesting with Watchmen. Rorshach so should have gone to Paddy Considine, though.

[The Widow of Brid]

Let's start a book on when Alan Moore will piss and moan about his vision being stolen and demand his name be taken off the film altogether. Check those fucking contracts a bit better next time, Alan.

To be fair to him, his attitude prior to V for Vendetta seemed very much to be that once the contract was signed he washed his hands of it and they could do what they wanted. (There's a quote out there from when the film of 'From Hell' was made where he  says pretty much literally that I believe).
I'm not an expert on it, but everything I'd heard about his reaction to V for vendetta was that it came about because of the makers telling outright lies about his - non-existant - involvement with the making of the film, and aproval of its content. That his breaking his policy of silence in that case sprang from others falsely breaking it on his behalf.