Keeping Time With The Watchmen

Now that the film version of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 is just 4 short months away, (March 9th 2007-can't wait!!) director Zack Snyder is talking about his next project, a big screen version of Alan Moore's acclaimed The Watchmen comic book series. Talking exclusively to IGN-Filmforce reporter Scott Collura-- Snyder says that he expects that film to get underway very soon.

..."It's the only thing I'm really working on right now, so if I don't do that I've got to find something else!" he laughs, adding that once he completes 300 he will go directly into full gear on Watchmen. "There's no break, hopefully none, between 300 and Watchmen. They'll just roll us right over. We'll probably start Watchmen and then come back and do publicity for 300. Right now we're still finishing 300, so I'd say I've got another three weeks of shots waiting to come in. And then in the meantime I'm trying to maybe make a commercial, maybe make some money, which is cool!"

... Snyder believes that the key to the movie is to stay true to Moore's original vision, even if by necessity certain aspects of the story must be cut due to running time constraints. His Watchmen will not be stretched over a series of films with sequels and the like, despite the trend of other comic-to-film adaptations like Spider-Man and X-Men.

"It's a labor of love, and I've wanted to try to get back to the source material as much as I could without it being, of course, a six-hour long movie. And I would say the fans are probably going, 'What do you mean? You say that like it's a bad thing!'" he smiles. "I will tell you that the draft of the script is long. It's so long in fact that when we turned it in, we turned 'The Black Freighter' stuff in as a separate script so as not to scare them too much. We were like, 'Here's your script. Oh, here's your other script!' They were like, 'Oh, great!'"

"The Black Freighter" elements of Watchmen are one aspect that could be cut from the film if need be, though Snyder is already investigating avenues of release for an extended cut of the film.

"I want 'The Black Freighter' stuff in it," he says. "It will all depend on how [the studio] likes it. I feel like they don't really question it, like, 'Why, what is this?' But we've designed the movie so that it works without it. We have the places designed where that story would go and then if they want it, [they have it] for like extended theatrical or limited theatrical, or definitely for DVD. That's the one cool thing we have is DVD, and in my opinion it's not exploited nearly enough. [We could use that] to create the three-hour version of Watchmen. And [as a director] I'm totally fine with that, but I feel like that's a battle I haven't lost yet, so I'm not going to concede to it yet."

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As much as I think the intricate story would benefit from a multiple film plan....I like the idea that Snyder wants a self contained epic just the same--making the film even more "special". Of course, the one film mantra means that, a lot of good stuff will have to be left out. And as Snyder says--there's always the possibility of an extended cut somewhere down the road. I have a lot of confidence that Snyder will do right by the fans of the source material for the cinematic version...

Meanwhile, in another IGN exclusive, Collura also spoke with 300 author/artist Miller about the progress of Sin City 2 and beyond:

"We might be shooting [Sin City 2] as soon as this spring. Either that or The Spirit is my next project," he says, while adding that he will co-direct the Sin City sequel with Robert Rodriguez as he did the first film. He also says that rumors implying that the filmmakers are waiting for a certain high-profile actress' schedule (Angelina Jolie's, perhaps?) to clear up before getting started are greatly exaggerated.

"No, it's just that there's a million puzzle pieces that need to be put in place," he laughs. "Mostly it's that [Robert] needs to finish Grindhouse right now. And then we're gonna get rocking. It'll be A Dame to Kill For and several short stories. The script is ready, so we're up and running ...

Rumors of Angelina Jolie's involvement in SC 2 have been around for awhile...I am glad the script has been finalized. That means that shooting on the sequel will begin sooner rather than later.