Watchmen (film)

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Watchmen is an upcoming 2009 American superhero film directed by Zack Snyder. Based on the 1986 comic book limited series Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the film adaptation stars Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode, Stephen McHattie, Matt Frewer, and Carla Gugino. Set in 1985, the film follows a group of former vigilantes as tensions heighten between the United States and the Soviet Union. The film began shooting in Vancouver in September 2007 for release on March 6, 2009. As with his previous film 300, Snyder closely modeled his storyboards on the comic, but he chose not to shoot all of Watchmen using chroma key and opted for more sets.

Following the series' 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., where Snyder was hired to direct (Paramount remained as international distributor). Fox sued Warner Bros. for copyright violation arising from Gordon's failure to pay a buy-out in 1991, which enabled him to develop the film at the other studios. Fox and Warner Bros. settled this before the film's release and Fox will receive a portion of the gross.

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 documentary Under the Hood, detailing the older generation of superheroes from the film'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 forthcoming.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Cast 3 Moore and Gibbons' response 4 DVD releases

Synopsis

The story is set in an alternate 1985 where superheroes exist, Richard Nixon is still president, and tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union are at an all-time high. The vigilante Rorschach is investigating the murder of a former hero, the Comedian, and uncovers a plot to discredit and murder various heroes. Rorschach discovers a far wider-ranging conspiracy involving his colleagues' past which could completely change the course of history.

Cast

See also: Characters of Watchmen

• Jackie Earle Haley as Walter Kovacs / Rorschach: A superhero who continues his vigilante activities after they are outlawed.Unlike the other five principal actors, Haley had read the comic and was keen to pursue the role when he heard he had become a favorite candidate among fans. He and fourteen friends put together his audition, where he performed scenes from the comic.Haley "almost went nuts" trying to reconcile his understanding of complex human behavior with Rorschach's moral absolutism, stating the character made him wonder if people generally just make excuses for their bad actions. Rorschach wears a mask with ink blots that morph to reflect his emotions: motion capture markers were put on the contours of Haley's blank mask, for animators to create his ever-changing expressions. Haley found the mask "incredibly motivating for the character" because of its confining design, which heated up quickly.Small holes were made in the mask for him to see. Haley has a black belt in Kenpō, but described Rorshach's attack patterns as sloppier and more aggressive due to the character's boxing background.

• Patrick Wilson as Daniel Dreiberg / Nite Owl II: A retired superhero with technological experience.John Cusack, a fan of the comic book, expressed interest in the role.Snyder cast Wilson after watching 2006's Little Children, which co-starred Haley. Wilson put on 25lbs to play the overweight Dreiberg.He compared Dreiberg to a soldier who returns from war who is unable to fit in with society again. Wilson said the fight style he was instructed to give Nite Owl was "heavy handed and power coordinated".

• Malin Akerman as Laurie Juspeczyk / Silk Spectre II: A retired superheroine. Akerman described her character as the psychology and the emotion of the film due to being the only woman among the men. The actress worked out and trained to fight for her portrayal of the crimefighter.Akerman's latex costume and wig, which often stuck into the latex, did not permit a lot of protection when performing stunts, and she often bruised herself during filming.

• Billy Crudup as Dr. Jon Osterman / Doctor Manhattan: A superhero with genuine powers who works for the U.S. government. The role was once pursued by actor Keanu Reeves, but the actor abandoned his pursuit when the studio held up the project over budget concerns. As well as playing Osterman in flashback as a human, for his post-accident scenes as Dr. Manhattan, Crudup is replaced in the film with a motion-capture CG version of himself. During filming on set, Crudup acted opposite his co-stars, wearing a white suit covered in blue LEDs, so he would give off an otherworldly glow in real life, just as the computer-generated Manhattan does in the movie. Crudup had to keep thinking of the character in the comic, because he felt ridiculous in the suit. Crudup deemed it fortunate he did not have to wear prosthetics or fit into a rubber costume like the other actors though, and would remind them of this when they made jokes about his appearance.Snyder chose not to electronically alter Crudup's voice for Manhattan, explaining the character "would try and put everyone as much at ease as he could, instead of having a robotic voice that I think would feel off-putting".

• Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias: A retired superhero who has since made his identity public. The role of Ozymandias was originally connected to actors Jude Law and Tom Cruise (who Snyder felt would have been better as Manhattan), but they left the project behind due to the studio's delay in handling the budget. Snyder said Goode was "big and tall and lean", which aided in bringing "this beautiful ageless, Aryan superman" feel to the character. Goode interpreted Veidt's backstory to portray him with a German accent in private and an American one in public; Goode explained Veidt gave up his family's wealth and travelled the world, becoming a self-made man because he was ashamed of his parents' Nazi past, which in turn highlighted the themes of the American Dream and the character's duality.

• Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Edward Blake / The Comedian: A superhero who is commissioned by the U.S. government. Prior to Morgan's casting, producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin met with Ron Perlman to discuss portraying the Comedian. When reading the comic for the part, Morgan stopped when he saw his character was killed off three pages in. When telling his agent he did not want the part, he was told to continue reading it and find out how important his character was. Morgan found the role a challenge, explaining, "For some reason, in reading the novel, you don't hate this guy even though he does things that are unmentionable. [...] My job is to kind of make that translate, so as a viewer you end up not making excuses to like him, but you don't hate him like you should for doing the things that he does."Morgan asked Snyder if the Comedian could swear more in the script.

• Stephen McHattie as Hollis Mason / Nite Owl: The first vigilante to take up the mantle of Nite Owl.

• Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter / Silk Spectre: A retired superheroine, mother of Laurie Juspeczyk and the first Silk Spectre. Gugino's character ages from 25 years old in the 1940s to 67 years old in the 1980s, and the 37-year-old actress wore prosthetics to reflect the aging process. Gugino described her character's superhero outfit as an influence of Bettie Page-meets-Alberto Vargas. The actress donned the trademark hairdo of the character, though it was shaped to be more plausible for the film. She also posed for the Alberto Vargas-style pin-ups of her character and a painting meant to be done by Norman Rockwell, which she enjoyed because she was fascinated by Vargas.

• Matt Frewer as Edgar Jacobi / Moloch the Mystic: An elderly rehabilitated criminal, known when he was younger as an underworld kingpin and magician.

• Niall Matter as Byron Lewis / Mothman: He is not a main focus of the storyline, but appears in flashbacks, at one point reduced in his later years to fragile sanity, unnerving the second Silk Spectre. He is regarded fondly by most of the Minutemen, and the first Nite Owl sends the second to visit him, uncostumed, on his behalf.

• Dan Payne as Dollar Bill: A first-generation crimefighter who caught his cape in a revolving door during a bank robbery and was shot to death. Payne is a fan of the comic and shot his scenes over four days, both for his cameo in the theatrical cut and the fictionalized DVD documentary.

• Danny Woodburn as "The Big Figure": A dwarf crime boss whom Rorschach put in prison.

Production for Watchmen began casting in July 2007 for look-alikes of the era's famous names for the film, including Nixon, Henry Kissinger, H. R. Haldeman, Ted Koppel, John McLaughlin, Annie Leibovitz, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Fidel Castro, Albert Einstein, Norman Rockwell, John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Mao Zedong, Larry King, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and the Village People.Snyder said he wanted younger actors due to the many flashback scenes, and it was easier to age actors with make-up rather than cast two actors in the same role. Snyder's son cameos as a young Rorschach, while the director himself appears as an American soldier in Vietnam. Actor Thomas Jane said in June 2007 that Snyder had expressed interest in casting him in the film.

Moore and Gibbons' response

When 20th Century Fox acquired rights to the novel, the comic book's writer Alan Moore was excited about the film adaptation. In a 1987 edition of Comics Interview, he revealed Sam Hamm, who was attached to write, "came to Northampton and had lunch with me – and I've got complete faith in him. I believe that he will try his best to make the film as faithful to the experience of reading Watchmen as he can." Hamm's script was unfaithful to the comic though. In an interview with Variety's Danny Graydon during Warner Bros.'s first possession of feature film rights for Watchmen, 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's opposition to the film adaptation crystalized after the disappointing 2003 film version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and he intends to give any resulting royalties from Watchmen to the comic's 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." Gibbons felt it would probably be adapted as a television series like The Prisoner.

In November 2006, Zack Snyder said that he hoped to speak to 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. Moore signed a deal to go uncredited on the film and give his share of income from it to Gibbons, as he had done on V for Vendetta. Before shooting, Snyder said "I totally respect his wishes to not be involved in the movie." Moore 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". Dave Gibbons enjoyed the script by Alex Tse, and gave Snyder some script advice which the director accepted. He drew licensing art for the film, consulted on merchandise and the webcomics, publicizing the film with Snyder and wrote a tie-in book about the creation of the comic, entitled Watching the Watchmen. He also blogged about his visit to the set. Moore did not mind Gibbons' involvement and felt it did not have any impact on their friendship. Snyder asked Gibbons to draw up the film's altered ending, which the comics' colorist John Higgins also returned to work on. Gibbons believed watching the film on DVD would emulate flipping through the book, with viewers pausing or rewinding the film to catch details.

DVD releases

Tales of the Black Freighter, a comic within the Watchmen comic, will be adapted as a direct-to-video animated feature from Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation, which will be released on March 24, 2009. Get the DVD It was originally included in the script, but was cut due to budget restrictions, as the segment would have added $20 million to the budget, because 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 comic book. The actors were allowed to improvise during filming interviews in character. 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. Snyder expected this final version will be three hours and twenty-five minutes long. In addition, the Watchmen: Motion Comics, which appeared digital video stores will also be released on DVD on March 3 and include an exclusive scene from the movie.