Alan Moore, author of the much-lauded comics V for Vendetta and From Hell, among others, published his magnum opus Watchmen in 12 parts from 1986-87, and to this day it is still considered one of the finest works in the comics medium. Moore's approach was both more literary and more cinematic than any other popular comic, and it helped to redefine the entire superhero genre. Here's the wikipedia link--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen. For those who haven't read it, whether or not you read comics (or "graphic novels" as may hear them referred to by people who don't actually read them), I really recommend searching it out and giving it a shot. Hell, just buy it sight unseen, it's that good.
So why am I introducing this to you, besides the fact that it's a great piece of literature and one of my personal favorites? Because it's finally being made into a movie. Hollywood has been trying to get this one off the ground for some time, with a script by Sam Hamm, who penned the first Tim Burton-directed Batman, floating around and various directors, such as Terry Gilliam, attached to helm the film. However, because the film was guaranteed to cost a pretty penny and because the story wasn't a typical action-y superhero movie but rather a very meta- and allegorical take on the superhero genre, it has long languished in development hell. Enter young director Zach Snyder, who made his name with the Dawn of the Dead remake (which I'm actually rather fond of) and 300 (which I am definitely not fond of). After the success of those two films, Snyder had the clout to finally get the film off the ground, and like 300 he's sticking incredibly close to the source material and might, just might, fingers crossed, get it right. Here's the first of 12 video diaries, which just popped up today.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=43692
The film is due out next summer and will be a tentpole release, which, yes, goes against the films we look at here at Citizen, but that's only because big movies rarely have this much thought and work put into them, and because of Moore's book and the fact that pretty much every other one of his comic adaptations has been close to pure crap (From Hell by the Hughes Brothers, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Stephen Norrigton/taken over by Sean Connery), I'm holding out hope that this one is rarity in many forms.
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2 comments:
I am scared to death of this movie. I think Watchmen is one of the greatest things ever and I am just scared that they are going to mess it up. Like Moore says, it was meant to be a comic and nothing else. So many devices he and Dave Gibbons used in it might have a hard time translating to a film. I am of the camp that thinks if it has to be made, it should have been made a mini-series on HBO or something. Take each issue and make that however long it takes to do it properly. Then again no one probably wanted to sink that much money into it.
And I don't care who makes it, really. I know a lot of people who feel the same are even more pissed that Snyder is doing it (especially reading some of his jockish quotes about the movie). I was pissed that this guy was given the Dawn remake, a remake of a movie that means a lot to me. I ended up going to that movie after swearing I'd boycott it, and actually kind of dug it. So it's not the fact that Snyder is doing it, it's more that it's being done at all. We'll see, maybe I'll lift my boycott of this too and see for myself (maybe turn up to the theatre in a disguise) but for now I just wish it would have been left in development purgatory.
This movie looks terrible!
And you didn't like From Hell?
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