News and Rumors:

April 5, 2005: DarkHorizons reports: "Last week word was flying around about problems facing the Paul Greengrass directed adaptation of "Watchmen", specifically it looked like Paramount may have to cut back on the budget by about 20% - not necessarily something to worry about but it was enough to raise concern. Today, Screen Daily reports that the film, which has been in pre-production at London's Pinewood Studios, may not be able to afford to shoot the movie there as planned. Producer Lloyd Levin cites the exchange rate of the US dollar to the British pound as one of the reasons for the change of location. No word as yet as to where they might shoot as an alternative. Levin has made it clear that Greengrass was still attached and they're still hoping to release the film in next Summer."

February 28, 2005: IGN Filmforce has learned that Joan Allen may be part of Paul Greengrass' Watchmen cast. Allen previously teamed-up with the director for hit sequel "The Bourne Supremacy": We heard a rumor that Oscar-nominated actress Joan Allen - who appeared in The Bourne Supremacy as shady government operative Pamela Landy - might portray Sally Jupiter (a.k.a. The Silk Spectre I) in Watchmen. For those unfamiliar with the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons comic book, Sally Juspeczyk (she later changed her surname to Jupiter) was the mother of Laurie Jupiter. Both women fought crime under the guise of The Silk Spectre. Sally's relationship with the slain Comedian (Edward Blake) is a key subplot in both the comic and the screenplay adaptation by David Hayter." -Thanks to 'Superherohype' for the heads up! On other related casting news Jude Law is reportedly interested in playing Ozymandius. Simon Pegg is also interested in playing Rorscach.

February 9, 2005: The film doesn't come out until 2006 and there are no official castings made, but that didn't stop Paramount Pictures from launching the teaser site for the film. Check it out here! - Thanks to 'JoBlo' for the heads up!

November 20, 2004: "Ain't-It-Cool-News is reporting that "The Bourne Supremacy" and "Bloody Sunday" director Paul Greengrass has replaced Darren Aronofsky in the director's chair of the Watchmen adaptation. ComingSoon.net/Superhero Hype! sources have confirmed this, Paramount Pictures has indeed hired Paul Greengrass to direct the Watchmen movie"

November 3, 2004: Ain't-It-Cool-News has learned that Darren Aronofsky is no longer directing Watchmen because he will be tied up shooting "The Fountain,". Now, the good news here is that the reason he left involves timing issues. See, THE FOUNTAIN is about to start principal photography. We're talking about a matter of days here. And I love THE FOUNTAIN as a project. Paramount just couldn't wait, though. They want to have WATCHMEN in a theater by the summer of '06, no matter what. That means they need a filmmaker who can be ready to shoot long before Aronofsky would be ready. Thanks to 'Superherohype.com'

August 12, 2004: Empire sat down with [Jude] Law recently to talk 'Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow'. During their chat, Law revealed that he used to be an avid comics collector — which is a surprise, given that Law is good-looking, slim and has a girlfriend. "I still go to comic shops, Forbidden Planet and look through back issues of the ones I love," he told Empire. "I was a big fan of Johnny Nemo and Strange Days, Parallax, you know those? But I haven't gotten into anything recently, not like I did with From Hell and Watchmen." With that in mind, we mentioned that Law — with his dashing good looks, blond hair and movie star charisma — would be perfect for the role of Adrian Veidtaka Ozymandias, a former superhero and the smartest (and richest) man in the world, who becomes a key player in Watchmen's twisting plot. So we told him that there was a movie on the way, directed by [Darren] Aronofsky. "Darren Aronofsky? I'm on the phone NOW!" said Law, clearly excited. "Adrian Veidt, King of Kings!" And then, as if to show off his Watchmen fanboy credentials, he whispered conspiratorially. "I'm tattooed with Rorschach, did you know that?" Thanks to 'Evil G.' for the link. Click here for the full interview.

July 23, 2004: "Watchmen," the seminal DC Comics limited series, has landed at Paramount Pictures. Darren Aronofsky will develop and direct the project, which is being written by David Hayter. Aronofsky's producing partner Eric Watson will produce with Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin. "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. It is a crime-conspiracy story that provided the first realistic look at the behind-the-heroics lives of superhero archetypes." Thanks to 'Alex' for the news!

May 12, 2004: Things seemed to have been clipping along recently for the long-in-development feature film adaptation of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel classic. David Hayter had penned the screenplay adaptation and a hot director was said to be onboard to helm it. But now Comics2Film points out this blurb at Entertainment Weekly that doesn't bode well for the project. "Hayter's screenplay migrated to Revolution Studios, where Darren Aronofsky was rumored to be prepping to direct it after completing his current film – until the Revolution deal fell through in just the last couple weeks," EW reports. This news is all the more distressing as Revolution Studios had seemed keen on Watchmen and recently had a success on their hands with another tough-sell comic book adaptation, Hellboy. Thanks to IGN FilmForce.

April 23, 2004: According to Aint-It-Cool-News, director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) is set to direct the motion picture adaptation 'Watchmen' from writer David Hayter's script. Aronofsky was previously attached to direct an adaptation of 'Batman: Year One' for Warner Brothers, which eventually fell through. This will be his first large budget film. Thanks to everyone who sent this in! And there was a lot of you.

April 5, 2004: "Hellboy" came in at No. 1, which means the producers of that film are busy getting another comic book adaptation to the big screen. "We're going to do 'The Watchmen,' '' says producer Lloyd Levin. "It's about a group of superheroes who reunite to figure out who is trying to kill them off." No, it's not Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman. "It's different characters, but it's really a unique story because it deals with the spiritual aspect of being a superhero," he says. Thanks to Superherohype.com

February 4, 2004: Cinescape has received an interesting bit of casting gossip for David Hayter's Watchmen adaptation... "And, in the WATCHMEN, Sigourney Weaver as the Silk Spectre. Daniel Craig as Rorschach." Some months back there were rumors that casting ideas for the WATCHMEN movie were being tossed around, including the intriguing idea of casting John Cusack as The Nite Owl. This is the first rumor we've heard mentioning either Weaver or Craig specifically. Our scooper added that the role Weaver would play would be the older version of Silk Spectre (the younger Spectre is her daughter and wife of Dr. Manhattan.) Thanks to Superherohype for the heads up.

December 11, 2003: Greg's Previews at Yahoo! has unearthed a kernel of information on Revolutions Studios' much anticipated film adaptation of the acclaimed comic book Watchmen. The site found a recent item in Variety that claims Watchmen is slated to finally begin filming in Prague sometime in 2004! No mention was made of who the director might be but Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter has long coveted the job. The problem is that the ambitious adaptation would mark his feature directing debut. Watchmen would hardly be an easy undertaking for any director let alone a freshman filmmaker. Other comic book movies that have been shot in the Czech Republic include Hellboy, Blade II, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell. Thanks to IGN FilmForce for the heads up!

October 31, 2003: According to Aint It Cool News, the rumors about John Cusack being cast as Nite-Owl were likely false, but the rumors of Revolution Studios being brought onto the film were not: "For now, the one solid thing is that Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin, who are just finishing up HELLBOY for Revolution with Guillermo Del Toro, are looking forward to gearing up with the same studio on WATCHMEN, with much of the same crew just rolling over from one film to the other. Hopefully, we'll start hearing more about the picture soon, and at the moment, know that the casting isn't happening, and won't for a while."

October 27, 2003: AICN indicates John Cusack is attached to play Dan/Nite-Owl in Revolution Studios new comic adaptation.

September 26, 2003: David Hayter confirmed that he will begin directing a certain comics classic just as soon as he finishes with some other screenwriting projects. "I'm trying to finish various writing projects, and then I'll be making my directorial debut with 'Watchmen'. The cool thing about Watchmen," commented Hayter, "is that it is a complete story...and it's really a murder mystery that has a great beginning, middle, and end. And for years, people have been saying, 'oh, that's unfilmable, you'll never be able to translate that', and I disagreed, this is the greatest movie I've ever seen. So I'm looking forward to doing that, something with such...profundity."

Hayter went on to dicsuss the costumes he planned to use in the film. "We've got Rorschach, who's basically in a trenchcoat and a fedora, but he's got that awesome mask, and it's gonna be such a great visual that's still half real and half costume, and I think that will continue to ride the line between reality and..." As Hayter trailed off, Stan Lee interjected, "How are you going to deal with the naked guy?", in reference to the character Dr. Manhattan, who spends most of the story wearing nothing at all. Replied Hayter, "Um, we've had a couple of actors in their 40s say, 'Yeah, I'd like to play Dr. Manhattan', I'm like...I dunno if I think we need to see you naked..." Someone commented that if they could do it with Mystique, they could do it with Manhattan. "Yeah, well, there's a big difference between Rebecca Romijn Stamos and, y'know, James Gandolfini...Who is *not* playing Dr. Manhattan," Hayter quickly clarified. Unfortunately, Hayter did not reveal his current casting choices. But it sounds like it might not be too much longer before we hear something! Thanks to CountingDown for the exclusive!

July 15, 2003: IGN FilmForce recently caught up with producer, Lloyd Levin, and asked him about his plans to bring a much anticipated comic book adaptation to the big screen: Alan Moore's Watchmen. Here's the interview:

IGNFF: The League of Extraordinary Gentleman has just opened, and you're currently working on another big project based on work by Alan Moore, Watchmen. How carefully will you be watching what has been done with LXG in terms of adapting Alan Moore's work? Because the biggest decision with that film is that they dumbed-down a comic book to make a movie, and Watchmen is one of the seminal comic book works, ever.
LLOYD LEVIN: I think that with something like [Watchmen], if I've learned one thing, it's just to approach whatever you do with as much seriousness as possible and give it as much dignity as it deserves. So as soon as you start to dumb something down you're doing the opposite.
IGNFF: Terry Gilliam has been involved and he couldn't crack it because he wanted to do something like a 12-hour version. But now David Hayter is on board writing a new script. Is it completed?
LEVIN: We have a script. And we have a great adaptation by David Hayter that absolutely celebrates the book. It's a great adaptation of it. It's very faithful.
IGNFF: With the script completed, who are you thinking about for directing the film?
LEVIN: We're talking to David about directing the film.
IGNFF: Do you have a timeline that you'd like to go with? You know, a general idea as to when you'd start casting and, hopefully, principal photography.
LEVIN: I can't say right now, but hopefully, as a fan, the sooner the better.