Comic Book Movies -- Watchmen

March 6, 2008: In celebration of the "one year away" release of Watchmen, Zack Synder has released 5 character photos, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian, Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl, Matthew Goode as Ozymandias, Jackie Ealre Haley as Rorschach and Malin Ackerman as Silk Spectre. You can view larger images by clicking on any character below:

February 19, 2008: The official site for Zack Snyder's "Watchmen" film adaptation has been updated with a new entry by executive producer Herb Gains. Shooting is almost wrapped on the production and Gains is excited. Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Stephen McHattie and Matt Frewer all star in the film opening March 6th 2009.

November 14, 2007: MTV has confirmed that Matt Frewer will star in Zack Snyder's Watchmen. The actor - best known as the stuttering, sarcastic, '80s icon Max Headroom - will play Moloch the Mystic, a satanic super villain and magician. Frewer is joining a cast that includes Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino and Stephen McHattie. -Thanks to 'Superherohype' for the news

August 12, 2007: Carla Gugino (Sin City) has joined the cast of Watchmen, the Warner Bros. adaptation of the DC Comics limited series. She joins Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Malin Akerman in the Warner Bros. movie, which is set in an alternate America that has passed a law banning costumed crime fighters. When one is murdered, the remaining members set out to solve the mystery. Gugino will play Sally Jupiter, a burlesque dancer-turned-costumed heroine and sex symbol the Silk Spectre who is part of the Minutemen, a group of heroes who preceded the Watchmen. She also is the mother of the new Silk Spectre (Akerman). Gugino is expected to portray Jupiter in varying eras, playing different ages throughout the movie. Zack Snyder (300) will direct the film, which is set to start shooting in the fall in Vancouver.

July 25, 2007: Zack Synder is expected to reveal the Watchmen Cast at this year's San Diego Comic Con, but several actors have already been leaked: "You can now add to the line-up Matthew Goode (The Lookout, Match Point) as Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, as revealed by IESB.net. This is in addition to Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan, Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl, and Malin Ackerman as Silk Spectre and Jeffrey Dean Morgan will play the twisted Vietnam vet known as The Comedian. Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the "Doomsday Clock" – which charts the USA's tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight." -Thanks to 'Superherohype' for the news!

June 18, 2007: In a recent interview with Superherohype, Patrick Wilson hints at the possibility of him playing the Nite Owl, in Zach Synder's upcoming CBM. Here's a clip: " I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about this stuff. It's been confirmed on a lot of websites, I'll just say that." The material's phenomenal, let's put it that way. It's pretty unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Just as we were talking about, you know with every huge... and that's a totally different, when you talk about comic book movies that doesn't even do an ounce of justice to that script, both the movie script and the original graphic novel is pretty phenomenal writing." "I mean, I would blab my mouth 'cause I certainly haven't been told to keep quiet. It's just out of respect for them trying to get everybody else on board before I go ahead and blab my mouth, but it's pretty cool. It's exciting stuff." What do you think? Discuss this on our boards!

June 14, 2007: Despite rumors to the contrary, Club-Keanu received word from Keanu Reeves' manager, who said that Keanu had been offered a role in Zack Snyder's Watchmen but turned it down. Watchmen, created by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, was released as a 12-issue comic book in 1986 and is one of the most critically acclaimed series in the genre. The comic is a crime-conspiracy story that provided the first realistic look at the behind-the-heroics lives of superhero archetypes. -Thanks to 'Superherohype' for the news!

March 6, 2007: In an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco on Saturday, "300" director Zack Snyder revealed that Scotland's new sexual ambassador - actor Gerard Butler who plays the major character in "300" - might be up for a part in Snyder's upcoming "Watchmen" comic adaptation. "He may" play a role Snyder confirmed to Sci-Fi Wire. Which one? "I don't know yet, but he's fun, so I'm sure we can figure something out for him". The confirmation comes a few days after Snyder confirmed another high profile actor, Tom Cruise no less, was briefly in talks for the role of Ozymandias but it never eventuated. Despite being linked to a new project at his production company this weekend, Snyder remains in pre-production on "Watchmen" which is set for a late Summer start. - Thanks to 'DarkHorizons' for the news!

February 13, 2007: As posted on DarkHorizons: "Out doing the promotional junket for "300", director Zack Snyder spoke pretty candidly about his plans for the "Watchmen" comic adaptation: Will they use the same green screen CG environment trick he used for "300" in the film? "Well, for Watchmen, which is the thing we're working on right now, there's no reason to do it that way. There are things like 'if you go to Mars,' sure. I think my experience with 300 helps me with using technology; it helps me go, 'You know what, we should do this here. When we go to Antarctica, we can do this,' and that would be awesome." says Snyder. He adds "There's things I do know how to do because of 300, but I think that Watchmen is more like Taxi Driver or Dr. Strangelove than it is Fantastic Four - so you have a stylistic thing like that." Will there be stuff ready in time for this year's Comic Con in San Diego? "I don't think we're going to be shots done before Comic-con. Our plan is to shoot in the summer, but I'll go there and I'm sure I'll have something to show." How far are they along? "We're trying to get a budget together that is palatable to everybody; it's a long movie, and we're trying to do. And I'm trying to shoot the Black Frater part as well, and no one has ever even talked about that, it's crazy time. And whether that ends up as a DVD extra or as a special release, that's yet to be seen; but I don't know, that's my plan."

November 15, 2006: Director Zack Snyder recently chatted with IGN Filmforce a little more about his planned adaptation of the Alan Moore classic "Watchmen" and has good news for the die hard fans. First up they've finished the script - "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... 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". Better still, an extended cut of the film is already planned - "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." The director will immediately begin on "Watchmen" after the completion of Frank Miller's "300" due out next March. - Thanks to 'DarkHorizons' for the news!

June 23, 2006: Zach Snyder ("Dawn of the Dead", "300") has come aboard to develop and direct Warner Bros. long-gestating film adaptation of the 1986 twelve-issue comic series "Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons says The Hollywood Reporter. "Watchmen", which tells the story of the last remaining superheroes and the events surrounding the mysterious murder of one of their own, was one of the first superhero comic books to present itself as serious literature and popularized the more adult-oriented "graphic novel" format. It is also the only graphic novel to have won a Hugo Award and to appear on Time magazine's list of 100 best novels from 1923 to present. Alex Tse is writing the script adaptation of the film which has been in development for over a decade, gone through at least four studios and had such luminaries as Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass attached to direct. Snyder landed the job after impressing Warners with "300," an adaptation of a Frank Miller graphic novel that he directed and co-wrote that's due out next year. -Thanks to 'DarkHorizons' for the news!

December 21, 2005: After falling out of development back in June, the film version of the DC Comics 12-part limited series "Watchmen" created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, has found a home at Warner Bros. Pictures says IGN Filmforce. Producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin remain attached to the project, but screenwriter David Hayter and director Paul Greengrass have left. Paramount had originally been aiming for a summer shoot in London but budgetary concerns stopped it from moving into production. Warner's is seeking a new writer and director at present. The film has been in development for many years, the earliest being way back in 1989 when Terry Gilliam and Sam Hamm were attached. -Thanks to 'DarkHorizons' for the news!

June 8, 2005: According to Variety, Paramount has put the kibosh on the production of a film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. According to the trade, the movie version of the best-selling and critically acclaimed comic went under the critical microscope after Gail Berman replaced former studio head Donald De Line in March (a change which De Line learned of while in London, discussing possible cuts to the Watchmen budget). Officially, the project is now in “turnaround,” meaning that Producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin were taking the project, with its director Paul Greengrass to other studios to drum up interest. If successful, the next studio will be the third home for the project, as it was at Universal before moving to Paramount. Greengrass had been eyeing a summer start to production. - Thanks to 'David' for the heads up!

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