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Watchmen (movie)

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Watchmen (movie)
Director: Zack Snyder
Writer(s): Screenplay: Alex Tse, David Hayter

Comic book: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

Release date: March 6, 2009
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Watchmen is a 2009 film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' comic book mini series published by DC, directed by Zack Snyder. Set in 1985, the film follows a group of costumed vigilantes as full-scale war threatens to break out between the United States and the Soviet Union. The film began shooting in Vancouver in September 2007 for release on March 6, 2009. Like his previous film 300, Snyder closely modeled his storyboards on the comic, but chose not to shoot all of Watchmen using chroma key.

Following the novel's 1986 publication, the film adaptation was mired in development hell. Producer Lawrence Gordon began developing the project at 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. with producer Joel Silver and director Terry Gilliam, the latter eventually deeming the complex novel 'unfilmable'. During the 2000s, Gordon and Lloyd Levin collaborated with Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures to produce a script by David Hayter (who set it in modern times). Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass were attached to Paramount's project, before it was canceled over budget disputes. The project returned to Warner Bros., with Paramount handling international rights. Fox is now suing Gordon for failing to pay a buy-out in 1991, which enabled him to develop the film at the other studios.

A DVD based on elements of the Watchmen universe will be released; it will include an animated adaptation of the comic Tales of the Black Freighter within the story, starring Gerard Butler, and the autobiography Under the Hood by Hollis Mason, detailing the older generation of superheroes known as the Minutemen from the comic's back-story. An extended edition of the film, with Tales of the Black Freighter interspersed through the main storyline in a manner reminiscent of the comic, is also possible.


Contents

Plot

Main article: Watchmen: Plot summary

Taking place in the year 1985, a peculiar man in an ink-spotted mask investigates the murder of a patriotic war hero, Eddie Blake, who was thrown out the window of his apartment. The masked man, under the alias of Rorschach, finds out that Eddie Blake was the infamous masked adventurer the Comedian. Devising his own theories, he warns all other living costumed vigilantes about the death, and in his attempt to find out who was behind the murder, learns of a dark secret that he, Nite Owl II, and Dr. Manhattan must revive their identities to stop before the clock strikes midnight.


Credits

The Doomsday Clock, created in 1947. The closer the clock stands to midnight, the nearer the world is to Armageddon.
Main article: Watchmen Credits











Director:

Writers:

Producers:

Original music:

Poster

Cast

Development

In August 1986, producer Lawrence Gordon acquired film rights to Watchmen for 20th Century Fox, with fellow producer Joel Silver. Fox asked author Alan Moore to write a screenplay based on his story, though Moore declined, and the studio enlisted screenwriter Sam Hamm to pen the script. Hamm turned in his first draft on September 9, 1988. Hamm found the task of condensing Moore's 338-page, nine-panel-a-page strip into a 128-page script arduous. He took the liberty of re-writing Watchmen's complicated ending into a "more manageable" conclusion involving an assassination and a time paradox. Fox put the project into turnaround in 1991, giving part of the rights to Largo International. When Largo dismantled, producer Gordon agreed to pay-out Fox in order to set up the project with another studio.

Gordon and Silver set up [[Watchmen (aborted Terry Gilliam film)|the project]] at Warner Bros., where Terry Gilliam was attached to direct. Unsatisfied with how Hamm's script fleshed out the characters, Gilliam brought in long-time collaborator Charles McKeown to rewrite it. The second draft, which was credited to Gilliam, Warren Skaaren, and Hamm, used the character Rorschach's journal as a voice-over and restored scenes from the comic book that Hamm had removed and filming took place at Pinewood Studios. According to Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons, Silver wanted to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as Doctor Manhattan. Because both Gilliam and Silver's previous films, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Die Hard 2 respectively, went over budget, they were only able to raise $25 million for the film (a quarter of the necessary budget). Gilliam abandoned the project due to these funding problems, and also decided that Watchmen would have been 'unfilmable'. "Reducing [the story] to a two or two-and-a-half hour film [...] seemed to me to take away the essence of what Watchmen is about," Gilliam said. After Warner Bros. dropped the project, Gordon invited Gilliam back to helm the film independently. The director again declined, believing that the comic book would be better directed as a five-hour miniseries.

In October 2001, Gordon and Universal Studios signed screenwriter David Hayter to write and direct [[Watchmen (aborted David Hayter film)|Watchmen]] in a "seven-figure deal". Hayter stated his intent to begin filming in early 2002, and in July 2002, Hayter completed his first draft. In May 2003, Hayter said he had Alan Moore's blessing on the film, despite Moore's disagreement with the project since its first incarnation. In July 2003, Watchmen producer Lloyd Levin announced the completion of Hayter's script, which he called "a great adaptation [...] that absolutely celebrates the book". Hayter and the producers left Universal due to creative differences, and in October 2003, Gordon and Levin expressed interest in setting up Watchmen at Revolution Studios. They had completed Hellboy at Revolution, and were intending to shoot in Prague. The project did not hold together at Revolution Studios and subsequently fell apart.

In July 2004, it was announced Paramount Pictures would produce Watchmen, and they attached Darren Aronofsky to direct Hayter's script. Producers Gordon and Levin remained attached, collaborating with Aronofsky's producing partner, Eric Watson. But Aronofsky left to focus on The Fountain. Paramount replaced him with Paul Greengrass and set up a target summer 2006 release date. Simon Pegg was involved in negotiations to portray Rorschach, while Daniel Craig, Jude Law and Sigourney Weaver were interested in the film. To publicize the film, Paramount launched a now-defunct Watchmen teaser website that had a message board as well as computer wallpaper available to download. Graphic artist Tristan Schane drew designs of Dr. Manhattan for the film, which would have depicted him with visible intestines. In March 2005, Paramount's CEO Donald De Line was rumored to depart from the studio, endangering high-profile projects including Watchmen. Earlier that week, De Line was in London, urging a reduction in Watchmen's budget so the film could get the greenlight. As a result of the potential budget cut with the new CEO Brad Grey, Levin planned to move the project from Pinewood Studios (where it was going to be shot), hoping to curb the budget by filming outside the UK. Ultimately, Paramount placed Watchmen in turnaround.

In October 2005, Gordon and Levin were in talks with Warner Bros., originally the second studio to be attached to Watchmen. In December 2005, the producers were confirmed to have set up the project at Warner Bros., but Greengrass was no longer attached to the project. In addition, the film was marked an "open writing assignment", which meant David Hayter's script would be put aside. Despite this change, Hayter expressed his hope that his script would be used by Warner Bros. and that he would be attached to direct his "dream project".


Production

Impressed with Zack Snyder's work on 300, an adaptation of Frank Miller's comic book of the same name, Warner Bros. approached him to direct an adaptation of Watchmen. On June 23, 2006, Warner Bros. announced that Zack Snyder would direct Watchmen with Alex Tse attached to write the script. For the new script, Tse drew "the best elements" from two of the project's previous drafts written by screenwriter David Hayter. The script did not keep the contemporary atmosphere that Hayter created, but instead returned to the original Cold War setting of the Watchmen comic. Warner Bros. was amenable to the 1980s setting, and the director also added a title montage sequence to introduce the audience to the events of alternate history United States in that time period.

Snyder said of his plans for filming Watchmen: "There are so many easter eggs in the frames (of the comic) so you want that level of detail in the movie itself." Similar to his approach to 300, Snyder used the comic book as a storyboard, traveling with a copy and annotating its pages. As well as the novel, Snyder cited Taxi Driver and Seven as visual influences. Snyder said his February 2007 revision of the script would require 2 1/2 hours of screen time. Snyder wanted a $150 million budget, but Warner Bros. preferred the budget remain under $100 million. To make the film more topical, Snyder added a subplot about energy resources, but he decided replacing Richard Nixon with Ronald Reagan would alienate American viewers. Throughout filming, Snyder kept adding in dialogue to mention more of the characters' back stories so the film would be as faithful as possible. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman met with Snyder twice during the later stages of pre-production to further revise the script. James Kakalios, author of The Physics of Superheroes, was also hired as scientific consultant.

In December 2006, comic book artists Adam Hughes and John Cassaday were confirmed to work on character and costume design for Watchmen. Costume tests were being done by March 2007. 300 associate producer Wesley Coller played Rorschach in a costume test, which Snyder inserted into an R-rated trailer for 300. Although he intended to stay faithful to the look of the characters in the comic, Snyder intended Nite Owl II to look scarier, and wanted Ozymandias to possess authentic Egyptian attire and artifacts. Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II changed most from the comic, as Snyder felt "audiences might not appreciate the naiveté of the original costumes. So, there has been some effort to give them a [...] modern look — and not modern in the sense of 2007, but modern in terms of the superhero aesthetic". Snyder also wanted the costumes to "comment directly on many of today’s modern masked vigilantes": The Ozymandias costume, with its molded muscles and nipples, parodies the costumes in Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997). Set designers selected four Kansas City sculptors' works for use in the set of Dr. Manhattan's apartment after discovering their works on the Internet.

Snyder hoped to have principal photography take place from June—September 2007, but filming was delayed until September 17, 2007. The production settled in Vancouver, where a New York City backlot was built. Sets were used for apartments and offices, while sequences on Mars and Antarctica were shot against green screens. Filming ended on February 19, 2008. Sony Pictures Imageworks and Intelligent Creatures are among the visual effects companies working on the film.

Composer Tyler Bates began scoring Watchmen in November 2007. He planned to visit the shoot for a week during each month, and view assembly cuts of scenes to begin rough composing. The film will use some of the songs mentioned in the comic, including Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'", which is played over the opening montage; Jimi Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower"; Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence"; the German version of Nena's "99 Luftballons"; and Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable" in an advertisement for Veidt's Nostalgia perfume. Snyder has also met with My Chemical Romance (whose lead singer Gerard Way is a fan of the comic) to discuss covering a Dylan song for the closing credits.

The first cut was three hours long. In keeping the film tight, Snyder dubbed himself "the gatekeeper" of the comic's easter eggs, "while [the studio] conspire to say, 'No. Length, length, length. Playability.' [...] I've lost perspective on that now, because to me, the honest truth is I geek out on little stuff now as much as anybody. Like, people will go, 'We've got to cut. You don't need that shot of Hollis Mason's garage sign.' And I'm like, 'What are you talking about? Of course you do. Are you crazy? How will people enjoy the movie without shit like that in it?' So it's hard for me." Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov indicated a 145-minute theatrical running time was more likely.

For details of the difference, see the List of differences between Theatrical Cut and Director's Cut .

Creator response

Previous developments

In an interview with Variety's Danny Graydon during Warner Bros.' first possession of feature film rights for Watchmen, the comic book's writer Alan Moore adamantly opposed a film adaptation of his comic book, arguing, "You get people saying, 'Oh, yes, Watchmen is very cinematic,' when actually it's not. It's almost the exact opposite of cinematic." Moore said that Terry Gilliam, preparing to direct Watchmen for Warner Bros. at the time, had asked Moore how the writer would film it. Moore told Graydon about his response, "I had to tell him that, frankly, I didn't think it was filmable. I didn't design it to show off the similarities between cinema and comics, which are there, but in my opinion are fairly unremarkable. It was designed to show off the things that comics could do that cinema and literature couldn't."

Moore also told Entertainment Weekly in December 2001, "With a comic, you can take as much time as you want in absorbing that background detail, noticing little things that we might have planted there. You can also flip back a few pages relatively easily to see where a certain image connects with a line of dialogue from a few pages ago. But in a film, by the nature of the medium, you're being dragged through it at 24 frames per second." Moore had opposed the adaptation of Watchmen from the beginning, intending to give any resulting film royalties to Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. According to Moore, David Hayter's script "was as close as [he] could imagine anyone getting to Watchmen." However, Moore added, "I shan't be going to see it. My book is a comic book. Not a movie, not a novel. A comic book. It's been made in a certain way, and designed to be read a certain way: in an armchair, nice and cozy next to a fire, with a steaming cup of coffee."

In an early interview with Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker, Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons said that he thought the time had passed to make a Watchmen movie. At the time, Darren Aronofsky was expressing interest in directing the film under Paramount Pictures. Nevertheless, Gibbons said, "It was most likely to happen when Batman was a big success, but then that window was lost." Gibbons also told Neon, "In a way, I'm glad because it wouldn't have been up to the book."


Production

In November 2006, director Zack Snyder said that he hoped to speak to Alan Moore before filming, though the writer had sworn off involvement with film or television productions after his disagreement with the V for Vendetta film adaptation. In a July 2007 interview, Moore said of Snyder's project, "If they go for some other novelty option like they did with V For Vendetta then I'm in for another year of excoriating them in every interview I do until they remove my name from it." Before shooting, Snyder said "[I] totally respect his wishes to not be involved in the movie." Dave Gibbons enjoyed the script by Alex Tse, and the illustrator also was impressed by Snyder's enthusiasm. Gibbons said, "I do think Zack has got the ability to make a really good movie, and I think Watchmen has the ability to be a really good movie, and hopefully the two things will come together... I'm basically supporting it." Gibbons gave Snyder some script advice which the director accepted.

In January 2008, Alan Moore revealed that he had negotiated to have his name removed from Zack Snyder's film and to have all royalties go to Dave Gibbons. He said that Gibbons had asked him if he was interested in being updated about the film, but the writer declined. Moore said, "I won’t be watching it, obviously. I can at least remain neutral to it as long as they’re taking my name off of it and not playing these silly, ultimately futile games like they were doing last time, which worked out so well for them." Moore also expressed discontent over the choice of the director, saying that he "had a lot of problems" with the comic book, 300 and that, while he had not seen it, he had heard that Snyder's film adaptation was racist, homophobic, and "sublimely stupid".


Release

Marketing

DC Direct will release action figures based on the film in January 2009. Director Zack Snyder also set up a YouTube contest petitioning Watchmen fans to create faux commercials of products made by the fictional Veidt Enterprise. The film's first trailer was attached with The Dark Knight, and used The Smashing Pumpkins' song "The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning", an alternate version of their song "The End Is the Beginning Is the End".

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will publish two downloadable games during the theatrical and DVD releases. Deadline Games is developing the two properties. WB took this low-key approach to adapting the film to avoid rushing the game on this tight schedule, as most film games are panned by critics and gamers. These games are set in the 1970s, and are written by Len Wein, the comic's editor. Dave Gibbons is also an advisor.

DVD releases

Tales of the Black Freighter, a comic within the Watchmen comic, will be adapted as a direct-to-video animated feature, which will be released on March 11, 2009. It was originally included in the script, but was cut due to budget restrictions, because the segment would have added $20 million to the budget, as Zack Snyder wanted to film it in a stylized manner reminiscent of 300. Snyder considered including the animated film in the final cut, but the film was already approaching a three hour running time. Gerard Butler, who starred in 300, voices the Captain in the film, having been promised a role in the film, which never materialized.

The Tales of the Black Freighter DVD will also include Under the Hood, a documentary detailing the characters' backstories, which takes its title from that of Hollis Mason's memoirs in the graphic novel. The film itself is scheduled to be released on DVD four months after Tales of the Black Freighter, and Warner Bros. is thought to be considering releasing an extended version, with the animated film edited back into the main picture. In addition, a dozen short films (each around twenty minutes in length) will be released on the internet, using narration over animated panels of the comic strip to familiarize newcomers to the story. These may also be released on DVD.

Lawsuit

On February 8, 2008 (as filming was finishing), 20th Century Fox launched a lawsuit against Warner Bros., as producer Lawrence Gordon never paid out the studio as he sought a new studio to develop the project. In August, a judge denied Warner Bros.' motion to dismiss the lawsuit, meaning some of the film's gross might have to go to Fox. However, Fox has stated their goal is to see the movie's release blocked.

On January 15, 2009, Fox and Warner Bros. reached an agreement. Warner Bros. will pay Fox back for the $1.5 million it originally spent developing the film, as well as Fox's legal costs for the lawsuit. It is also expected, but not confirmed, that they will pay some percentage of any profits on the film to Fox.[1]

Although further lawsuits on matters surrounding the film are considered possible, the film still made its March 6, 2009 release date.


Trivia

  • On one of Veidt's screens in his video wall can be seen the famous "1984" Apple Macintosh commercial.
  • As Dr. Manhattan is taking Neil Armstrong's picture on the Moon, Armstrong says, "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky." This is a reference to a famous urban legend in which Armstrong makes that comment while walking on the Moon, referring to a childhood neighbor. For a complete description of the legend, see Snopes.com.
  • Veidt's lethal device is called Sub Quantum Unified Intrinsic field Device, or "Squid", a reference to the alien monster absent from the film. The name can be seen in several points, eg. when Dr. Manhattan is talking on the screen showing Veidt's antarctic base, a sign behind him before the device is teleported.
  • A copy of the graphic novel of Watchmen can be seen on Dan's desk when he and Laurie first make love.
  • There are several references to Zack Snyder's prior film 300. The door number of the Comedian's apartment is changed from 3001 to 300 by flying debris, and the combination of the psychiatrist's briefcase is seen to be 3-0-0.
  • Unlike Dave Gibbons' careful masking of the phrase "Who Watches the Watchmen?" - never completely seen in the graphic novel - the full phrase appears at least twice in the film.

Quotes

"[Watchmen] was considered too dark, too complex, too 'smart'. But the world has changed [after the September 11, 2001 attacks]. I think that the new global climate has finally caught up with the vision that Alan Moore had in 1986. It is the perfect time to make this movie."

—David Hayter, in October 2001

"I said, 'Is Watchmen better if it's updated? I don't know if Watchmen should go to the people, or the people should go to it.' People said, 'I think Watchmen speaks to our current climate,' and I said that's cool, but I said, 'Isn't it cooler to make a movie that the audience and people who are watching go, "you know what I think?"' I'd much rather do that than tell them what I think."

—Zack Snyder

References

  1. ↑ Fox Wins Battle over 'Watchman' Adaptation Brooks Barnes, NY Times, January 16, 2009


External links

Retrieved from "http://watchmen.wikia.com/wiki/Watchmen_(movie)"