Recently in Watchmen Category
Strangelove much? The Japanese trailer for Zack Snyder's Watchmen is now on the tubes, which contains some spoilery-type new footage if you haven't read the graphic novel. (Note also the new Minutemen featurette on the official site.) Interesting that this trailer foregoes all the Dr. Manhattan-exemplifying-American-might stuff in favor of more emphasis on the alternate history and Cold War doomsday clock.
On the occasion of the new year, EW previews some of the more-anticipated films of 2009, including Michael Mann's Public Enemies, Terminator: Salvation, Spike Jonze's' long-awaited Where the Wild Things Are, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Pixar's Up, Harold Ramis' Year One, The Taking of the Pelham 1-2-3 (again), Wolverine, and Watchmen.
"The bottom line: Warner Bros. had absolutely no right to roll film on Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons superhero classic." Forget the watchmen for a sec: Who's watching Larry Gordon? A judge rules that Fox's lawsuit over Watchmen does indeed have merit, and that former Fox, now WB exec Larry Gordon never actually secured all the necessary distribution rights to make Watchmen at his new home studio. "In his ruling, Feess concludes that Gordon never properly presented Fox with the option to produce and distribute the version of Watchmen developed by director Zack Snyder. He also makes it clear that neither Gordon nor Warner Bros. had bought out Fox’s interest before Warner Bros. went into production."
What this means for the movie is still up in the air, although a release delay of several months isn't out of the question. When a similar incident happened with The Dukes of Hazzard, a case that involved the same judge, WB eventually just settled and ponied up before the release date.
Well, here's hoping this gets worked out in short order. I'm guessing Snyder's film is going to have some serious problems, but I'd still like to see it next to immediately. (Watchmen image above via The Nerd of Her.)
"The Superman exists, and he's American." Several months after the fact, the Philip Glass-scored, Comic-Con Watchmen footage finally leaks onto the tubes. This looks more promising than the last trailer...but it's always easier when nobody's talking.
Update: In related news, see also Matt Groening's Watchmen. (Via LMG and mkh.)
Among the bountiful harvest that is the Quantum of Solace trailer crop...
I'm all over the place on this one. There are some real red flags here -- all the Snydery slo-mo shots of Malin Ackerman's hair, for example -- and some of the dialogue feels as stiff and expository as the ponderous take-a-meeting scenes in 300. Then again, as with the first trailer, I'm still having trouble just wrapping my mind around the fact that they finally made a Watchmen movie. So I'm inclined to be charitable, and the little flourishes throughout (Rorschach's mask moves!) appeal to my inner fanboy regardless. (Also, while Jackie Earle Hale's Bale-Batman-growl may be a tad distracting, it's hard to imagine Rorschach with any other kind of voice.) For now, I'll call it a push.
Also out of late:
In anticipation of the second trailer (one of the many coming to theaters with this weekend's Quantum of Solace), six new character posters for Zack Snyder's Watchmen are released. That's right-wing freakshows The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) up top. See also Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) with Bubastis, Silk Spectre II (Malin Ackerman), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), and Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup).
As featured in the Spike awards last night, an extended version of Zack Snyder's Watchmen trailer arrives online. I'm liking the Galactus-y feel of Dr. Manhattan's moments, but the slo-mo Snyderisms here (the doomed flight of the Comedian notwithstanding) still give me pause.
Update: Speaking of which, said flight is now captured in a spiffy new Watchmen teaser poster, above.
"Whatever happened to the American Dream? It came true -- you're looking at it." Quite a bit of new Watchmen material today. AICN get their hands on high-rez versions of the spiffy painted Comicon posters. (Rorschach | The Comedian | Silk Spectre I | Silk Spectre II | Nite-Owl | Dr. Manhattan | Ozymandias.) Very nicely done -- Lots of continuity nods thrown in for the fans, and note the clocks in the top-left corner. Plus, this is the first image of Ozy that I've liked so far. (Bubastis helps.) And Empire Online has a few new stills to share, although they've logo-stamped them in rather irritating fashion (and the characters look a bit stiff.)
The place to be right now, other than Berlin? San Diego, where the 2008 Comic-Con is now under way. There are lots of pictures of the floor here and here -- Note the full-scale version of NIte-Owl's ship (Archimedes) from Zack Snyder's Watchmen.
One of the first stories down the pike: Strangely enough, the recent rumors are true: Darren Aronofsky is signed for a Robocop sequel. I'd buy that for a dollar...But, don't get Murphy out of cold storage just yet: Not many of Aronofsky's projects ever seem to get off the ground. (See also: Batman: Year One, Ronin, Lone Wolf and Cub, Watchmen, Black Swan.)
Meanwhile, Disney brought down the house the first day with a surprise, fully-formed teaser for TR2N, featuring none other than the Dude, in both 1983 and 2008 incarnations. Best of all, as I recently wished in my Iron Man review, they seem to have stuck with the "Col. Kurtz up the datastream" idea. That should be great fun. Everyday, I think I'm going to wake up back on the grid...
Update: Also from Comic-Con Day 1, the trailer for Wolverine airs (ho-hum), Coming Soon has a sit-down with new Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, and Torchwood's Captain Jack is up for Captain America? I don't see that at all.
Update 2: The TR2N trailer is up in really poor Kramervision...and it still looks grand. (A slightly cleaned up version is here.)
"I've not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn't particularly like the book 300. I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them: [that] it was racist, it was homophobic, and above all it was sublimely stupid." As a companion to their Watchmen story, EW has a wide-ranging sit-down with Alan Moore, wherein he discusses Zack Snyder, 300, magic, the afterlife, DC Comics, and his favorite television show: "The absolute pinnacle of anything I've seen recently has got to be The Wire. It's the most stunning piece of television that has ever come out of America, possibly the most stunning piece of television full-stop...So yeah, everything else looks pretty lame next to The Wire."
Speaking of Moore's critique of Snyder, I felt a similar unease after reading Snyder's EW Q&A. Says Snyder of Watchmen: "Everyone says that about [Christopher Nolan's] Batman Begins. 'Batman's dark.' I'm like, okay, 'No, Batman's cool.' He gets to go to a Tibetan monastery and be trained by ninjas. Okay? I want to do that. But he doesn't, like, get raped in prison. That could happen in my movie. If you want to talk about dark, that's how that would go." Hrm. Ok. I'd have more faith in Snyder's Watchmen if he didn't persist in sounding like one of those "Totally Extreme!!" meathead whiteboys from Harold & Kumar.
"The world will look up and shout, 'Save Us!,' and I will whisper, 'No.'" Forget midnight -- the teaser for Zack Snyder's Watchmen has leaked. I must say, Dr. Manhattan looks better than I had anticipated (I like the money shot of him, the American Superpower, in 'Nam), Rorschach looks great, and the Comedian seems ok, but I have quibbles with Ozymandias (too young), Nite-Owl (too buff) and Silk Spectre (too vamp). Still, I'll reserve full judgment until I've watched it a few dozen more times. In the meantime, how weird is it that there's actually a trailer for Watchmen out? We seem to be living in the Golden Age of comic book movies. Update: Like most things in this world, it looks much better in HD.
Update 2: "Based on footage Snyder screened for EW, at least, the work seems to have been worth it. Multiple scenes -- the Comedian's murder, Rorschach's introduction, Dr. Manhattan's origin, and a hypnotic title sequence that shutter-flies through the history of Watchmen America, set to Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin' — suggest a film that may capture more of Watchmen than anyone thought possible." Hrm. Watchmen makes the EW Comicon cover -- see below -- and their story includes the first pic of Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter. Sadly, Ozy's still not looking so hot...maybe they should've gone with Jude Law of the Rorschach tattoo, since he was practically begging for the part. (And is it just me or does Crudup-Manhattan look eerily like Kevin Spacey?)
Update 3: Speaking of Sally Jupiter, AICN scores a pinup of the heroine, in the style of Alberto Vargas and in keeping with the WWII-era aesthetic of The Minutemen.
"This trailer speaks to the fanbase in a huge way. Your friends and neighbors will be damn impressed by what they're seeing, but they'll also be slightly baffled. They'll want to know more - who is that blue guy? Who is flying that ship coming out of the water? Are they on Mars? Why is that guy getting thrown through a window? - so get ready to start lending out your book." One of the CHUD guys takes a spin with the Watchmen trailer, due before The Dark Knight tomorrow night. Sounds great, and while Snyder's 300 turned out to be more than a little ridiculous, it's still boasts a helluva trailer.
Update: The Watchmen trailer officially drops over at Empire Online tomorrow, at -- of course -- the stroke of midnight (EST).
In the fourth installment of their making-of video series, original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons sings the praises of Zack Snyder's art direction, and shows brief glimpses of Hollis Mason's apartment and Rorschach on patrol. All well and good, but as I said before, obsessive art direction will be the easy part.
This is old news at this point, but nevertheless: AICN procures a vintage-era photo of the Minutemen from Zak Snyder's forthcoming version of Watchmen. (Note Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian.) Hrm...They look a bit cosplay, but then again they probably should.
Update: Also in Watchmen news, the NYT reports that Tales of the Black Freighter will first be spun off as its own DVD, five days after the film comes out. "Mr. Snyder said he was eager to head a direct-to-DVD project, in part because it would allow him to use more material from the 'Watchmen' graphic novel. 'I thought the ‘Black Freighter’ story would never see the light of day,' he said. 'The main picture is nearing three hours long and I know I have a fight on my hands just with that.'"
As the first part of a 12-part series (with each episode premiering on the 6th of the month), a new video grants a set tour of Zack Snyder's Watchmen. Looks grand, although after 300 and these stills of a few months ago, art direction is the least of my concerns about this project.
By way of Bitten Tongue, the Peanuts characters take on the mantles of Watchmen. Charlie Brown with the power of Dr. Manhattan is a bit unnerving, and Linus seems like more of a Nite Owl-type, but Lucy as Silk Spectre and Schroeder as Ozy make perfect sense...and Rorschach is really just one bad day away from Joe Cool.
Also, via Quiddity and in keeping with the GitM theme, the plight of Pac Man gets reconfigured as a Tale of the Black Freighter. Game over, yellow fella.
"Now at midnight all the agents, and the superhuman crew, come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do." One year out from its release date, Zack Snyder releases some character stills of the Watchmen. I like the three above quite a bit (particularly the pitch-perfect, G. Gordon Liddyesque gleam to the Comedian.) But, imho, Ozymandias didn't really pan out (Matthew Goode looks way too young), nor did Malin Ackerman's Silk Spectre. (Besides looking rather generic and X-Men-ish, she seems way too tall and modelly for Ms. Juspeczyk.) As yet unseen, Carla Gugino's Mama Spectre and -- perhaps the real make-or-break'er -- Billy Crudup's Dr. Manhattan.
"Exhausted, I slept across the grave...I saw the Black Freighter bearing down on all I loved, but I was powerless to stop it." Zack Snyder alum Gerard Butler reveals his upcoming part in Watchmen: He'll be narrating the Tales of the Black Freighter digression for the DVD version. "'I'm going to do the voice of the captain,' said Butler. 'They're going to do it in the style of a Japanese anime and I'm totally stoked." Anime? Hrm.
Some comic-book cautionary tales for the day: Rorschach sets fire to a would-be pursuer in a new still from Zach Snyder's Watchmen, which has wrapped shooting. And Dark Horizons offers a first glimpse at how Aaron Eckhart will look as Harvey Dent...after the incident.
"This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face." Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) strolls the streets of (Late-Late-Nixon-Era) Manhattan in one of several newly-released stills of sets from Zack Snyder's Watchmen.
Matt Frewer (best known as Max Headroom, of '80s television) joins the cast of Zach Snyder's Watchmen as Moloch the Mystic, the team's formerly satanic, now born-again nemesis. Extra points to Snyder for choosing a fanboy veteran.
Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's previously-announced Tintin trilogy finds a writer in Doctor Who scribe Steven Moffat, of the Season 3 episode "Blink." Speaking of which, I've run hot and cold on BBC's Doctor Who update thus far, and have found showrunner Russell Davies' campy contributions to be mixed at best. But the second half of Season 3 has been exceptionally good Who. From "Blink" to the "Doctor goes Human" two-parter in pre-WWI England ("Human Nature/"The Family of Blood") to Derek Jacobi's turn as a lonely, befuddled scientist at the end of time in "Utopia" to the Master taking Tony Blair's job in "The Sound of Drums," I'd say this most-recent run can hold its own with the best of the Pertwee-Baker years. (I haven't seen "Last of the Time Lords," the Season 3 finale, yet, but I dig John Simm as the Master, and his evil companion is a real kick.)
Off-topic, but also on the television front, I've recently boarded the 5:23 Mad Men commuter train. It's a show I've been shying away from despite the good reviews, mainly because I feared it'd be 85% Rat Pack kitsch, i.e. its raison d'etre would be primarily to wallow in the unregenerate un-PCness of the early Sixties. But, while I'm still living a few episodes behind present-time, Mad Men makes for pretty solid television, even if, as with Miller's Crossing, it can be hard to watch without a glass of Jamesons and clinking ice in hand. Jon Hamm's Don Draper and John Slattery's Roger Sterling are particularly good, and, as someone noted on The House Next Door, Michael Gladis' Paul Kinsey is an eerie facsimile of the young Orson Welles. Plus, with all due respect to Officers Bunk and McNulty, it's a nice change of pace to watch smart, well-written characters in a TV drama that aren't cops, doctors, or mobsters.
Finally, I never much cottoned to it anyway, but after the Season 2 premiere, NBC's Heroes is getting kicked off the DVR. As I said last Spring, the blatant, unattributed ripping off of Watchmen and the X-Men's "Days of Future Past" in Season 1 was already hard to swallow. And, judging from the first week's installment, Kring & co. have decided to go back to the well, and have stolen the Comedian storyline straight out of Watchmen too. Given that their poorly-written, overstuffed show is usually as artless as their theft here, count me out.
The lovely Carla Gugino (Sin City, Spy Kids, late of Entourage) joins Zach Snyder's Watchmen as Sally Jupiter, a.k.a. the original Silk Spectre. A solid choice (although she doesn't really look related to Malin Ackerman.)
Also, some casting news that emerged on the eve of Comic-Con: First, the Watchmen cast is now official -- yes, it's finally happening -- and it is as rumored (along with Jeffrey Dean Morgan of Grey's Anatomy -- um, ok -- as The Comedian.) And, for the trekkies out there, it seems Matthew Quinto, a.k.a. Heroes Big Bad Sylar, has been cast as Starfleet Academy-era Spock for J.J. Abrams' Trek movie. (Also, strange to discover from this article that Abrams and Greg Grunberg, the mind-reading cop of Heroes, are childhood best friends.) Now, Quinto is a good physical match...a highly logical choice. But Sam Rockwell as James T. Kirk? That's genius. (Spock pic not official -- I found it here.) Update: Another casting note: Tim Blake Nelson joins Louis Leterrier's Incredible Hulk revamp as Dr. Samuel Sterns (a.k.a. The Leader), further swelling an already ridiculously tricked-out cast for a remake of a movie made less than five years ago. But, hey, gift horses and all that.
More casting for Zach Snyder's take on Watchmen: Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson (both of Little Children) now seems all but confirmed as Rorschach and Nite-Owl respectively. As Dr. Manhattan, Billy Crudup. As Silk Spectre, Malin Ackerman of Harold and Kumar. And as Ozymandias, Matthew Goode of Match Point. Well, no egregious misfires in that bunch (and not much star power either, which may make the suits nervous. Fine by me.) Now, it'll all come down to Snyder.
Also in comic-to-film news, there's more rumors of close-to-official casting for Zach Snyder's Watchmen happening. Keanu Reeves apparently passed on Dr. Manhattan, so now they're looking for, um, Jason Patric in that role. (I'm not seeing it, frankly, but he's no better or worse than Keanu, I guess.) Also rumored, Thomas Jane as the Comedian, and, as Rorschach, Little Children's Jackie Earle Haley. That's actually not half bad.
Breaking a few weeks ago now, AICN claims to have the skinny on the initial casting of Zach Snyder's version of Watchmen. Rumored as the Nite-Owl, Patrick Wilson of The Alamo and Little Children. (He's a bit buff for the role, frankly. I'd expected someone a little more gone to seed, like John Cusack or even Tom Hulce.) As Doctor Manhattan, Neo himself, Keanu Reeves. (Um, ok. I don't really see that working. Then again, I don't really see anyone else working either, this side of Gollum-style CGI) And, as Ozymandias, much-avowed Watchmen fan Jude Law. (That's pretty good, although somebody like Aaron Eckhart would be even better.) That's it so far, other than that Snyder -- who won't deny these casting rumors -- has promised he'd get Gerard Butler of 300 in there somewhere. (Why bother? I don't remember any character who's supposed to YELL...ALL...THE...TIME.) At any rate, that means Simon Pegg as Rorschach is still a possibility, if one that is very, very remote.
As I noted a few weeks ago, NBC's Heroes has been a guilty pleasure of mine this past season: It serves up poorly-scripted, wafer-thin, and yet undeniably scrumptious slices of z-grade fanboy cheese every week, and it's close to the only network show I watch these days. (And the "Company Man" episode of a few weeks ago was good television by any reckoning.) That being said, the show's outright plagiarism is getting more and more marked, to the point where I'm fast losing interest. Series creator Tim Kring says he doesn't read any comics, which I find somewhat hard to believe. And there's always going to be some overlap in the superhero genre, just because there's only so many ways you can tell the same sort of story. But Monday's episode not only showed the writers continuing to lift liberally from the famous "Days of Future Past" arc from the Claremont-Byrne years of X-Men, but brazenly ripping off one of the key plot points of the mother of all contemporary graphic novels, Alan Moore's Watchmen. And I don't mean homage or tip-of-the-hat -- I mean straight-up, unabashed, actionable stealing, right down to Linderman's Ozymandian monologue. For shame. Do Kring & co. really think their fanboy/fangirl viewership isn't going to notice?
After last night, I gotta say I'd have much preferred to see a Paul Greengrass Watchmen. Still, I'll give him this: Zack Snyder knows his audience, and has inserted a test image of Watchmen's Rorschach in a new Internet trailer for 300. (And, for the record once more, I'm totally on board with the commenter in that AICN talkback who suggested Simon Pegg for the part.)
"The truth is, '300' to the studio is a graphic novel movie. It's not a movie that they necessarily understand exactly when I pitch it on paper. They feel in some ways the same about "Watchmen." They don't understand why it's not 'Fantastic 4.' I have to remind them that it's much more 'Strangelove' than it is 'Fantastic 4' which they don't like hearing, but they believe that I know, and in that way, it helps." 300 helmer Zach Snyder checks in with the status of The Watchmen.
Word officially comes down that Garth Ennis' Preacher is being developed for HBO by Mark Steven Johnston (Daredevil, Ghost Rider) and Howard Deutch (Grumpier Old Men.) Not the most exciting development team in the world, but it's nice to see HBO get into the comic game. (And if Zach Snyder's take on The Watchmen falls apart for some reason, as so many earlier attempts at it have, a 12-hour series on the Home Box Office would be a good place for Alan Moore's magnum opus.)
"1985's a problem for people. The Cold War's a problem for people. But these are things I've been trying to [tell people] would be cool. I like that Richard Nixon is the president in it. I think that's important. Those kinds of things tell you exactly what kind of movie this is - it's not Fantastic Four, you know." 300 director Zach Snyder offers a brief update on the current state of The Watchmen.
Along with word of an unfortunately actioned-up Watchman script and news of some stranger-than-usual comic adaptations (The Doom Patrol? Frank Miller on Will Eisner's Spirit? Benico Del Toro's Deadman?), Latino Review -- the site that first announced Brandon Routh as Superman in 2004 -- discloses that Heath Ledger has an offer to play the Joker in Christopher Nolan's next Batman flick. Hmm. An interesting and slightly-out-of-left-field choice...He wouldn't have been one of my top picks for the part (Adrien Brody, Sam Rockwell, Paul Bettany, or how 'bout Ralph Reed?...His calendar's open), but he's definitely better than some names that were floating around (Crispin Glover, Robin Williams, Michael Keaton, Sean Penn.)
Directors Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass failed their Rorschach tests -- Still, Alan Moore's Watchmen may soon have a new helmer in Zach Snyder, who's currently finishing up Frank Miller's 300.
The long-awaited film version of The Watchmen, which died over at Paramount this summer, gets a new lease on life at Warner Brothers, although director Paul Greengrass and screenwriter David Hayter are no longer attached.
"Watchmen's whodunit plot was not allowed to kick into gear until late in the day and climaxes with Ozymandias spouting Postmodern art theory in his snowbound eyrie ("phosphor-dot swirls juxtapose; meanings coalesce from semiotic chaos before reverting to incoherence"). Even that old windbag the Silver Surfer might have hung his head in shame." As its twentieth anniversary approaches, Critic Tom Shone revisits The Watchmen for Slate. Frankly, the piece begins and ends as almost a parody of the too-frequent needlessly contrarian Slate article: "The Watchmen is not as good as you remember!" Next up: "Torture good, Ice Cream bad!" Still, it's worth reading regardless.
