Official website:
watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com

Release Date:

3/6/09

Learn More About the Film:
Watchmen Movie News | Wikipedia | IMDB

Writers: David Hayter,

Alex Tse

04/14/08 - Still Watching the Watchmen

03/17/08 - The End Is Nigh, Part 3

03/10/08 - The End Is Nigh, Part 2

03/03/08 - The End Is Nigh, Part 1

02/04/08 - Manhattan Transfer

01/05/08 - Night Watchmen

11/28/08 - Watching the Watchmen

“We all want to see this movie. Getting to sit behind that monitor and see shot after shot…it was really looking cool,” Haley exclaimed. “Everything that Zack was doing was just so inspired by the book. All of the elements from production design, to costuming, to makeup - it was looking really badass. I can’t wait to see what he does with it with all the CG work that has to be done.” Part of that, of course, is Rorschach’s mask itself, a moving kaleidoscope of ink blots that needs to be digitally inserted. Of the mask, Haley said wearing it was “incredibly motivating for the character.” “It was incredibly confining,” he said. “It was get warm and sometimes fuzzy in there.” But don’t be fooled into thinking that the entire look is CG, Haley warned. “There’s a lot of real set work in it,” he insisted. “They’ll stick green screens in here and there to make buildings taller, but I think it’s going to be unique. There was a lot more green screen work in ‘300.’” - MTV, 3/6/06 [link]

Zack Snyder on wrapping the film - I promise to refrain from getting too sentimental, but I want to take a moment to say thanks to the Watchmen cast & crew. You have all been phenomenal. It has been quite an experience and I could not have done it without the hard work and determination of each and every one of you. A film adaptation of Watchmen has been in the works for almost 20 years and thanks to you, it is finally in the can. It has been such a pleasure to be surrounded by a team that is so dedicated and that has given 110% each and every day. I am extremely grateful for the level of attention to detail put forth by each department to capture all of the texture that makes Watchmen the incredibly unique property that it is. Although we still have a lot of work to do in post, the shoot has been an experience I will not soon forget! - Official Watchment site, 2/19/08 [link]

Dave Gibbons visits the set - Somewhere, someone shouts "Cut!" And I'm standing amongst them. Nite Owl shakes my hand. The Comedian slaps me on the back. Silk Spectre smiles a dazzling greeting. I'm overwhelmed by the depth and detail of what I'm seeing. But more than that. I'm overwhelmed by the commitment, the passion, the palpable desire to do this right. - Official Watchment site, 12/14/07 [link]

"We also hear that Watchmen, the impossible-to-make-into-a-movie iconic 1980s superhero comic book, is stalled. Trouble casting, trouble with script (likely writers, director Zak Penn's creative team from 300, are moving to J.J. Abrams' Star Trek project), trouble with money. Production was supposed to start last summer, then September. Now? Dunno. Here is a prediction: not gonna happen." - Wired, 9/20/07 [link]

"I kind of storyboard. I draw. For instance, if I'm at a scene where Rorschach and Dan [“Nite Owl” Dreiberg] go to Happy Harry's to interrogate people, I have the script there while I'm going, and then I have the graphic novel which is the scene as well, and I kind of squish the two together. I change the script a little bit if I like a piece of dialogue that's in the graphic novel. Most of the dialogue is in the graphic novel, but every now and then I'll say, “Oh, we left this out. I wonder why?”—maybe it's time [issues] or whatever—and I'll kind of whack it back in. Then I'll look at the compositions that are in the graphic novel and the details that are in the frame, and then with the art department I'll say, “It'd be cool if we have this kind of whiskey or this light thickness to add in the background,” or whatever that little thing is. All those kind of crazy obsessive details, I try to whack those in as much as I can. Then I try within the scene, from time to time at least, to say, “This is a frame that's very similar to the kind of frame that Dave laid out” with Rorschach smashing the glass in the guys hand and the glass flying and the guy screaming, and so I'll grab that angle. Then I just put it in my book and cut out the frame. I glue it in my book next to the frame. That's kind of how I do it. Then I go, “Next shot.” We keep going, and if there's a frame that coincides I'll grab it, and if not I just try and get it close." - Snyder on Watchmen, Wizard Universe, 8/21/07 [link]

"According to the Hollywood Reporter, actors Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves and Jude Law were interested in appearing in Snyder's film, but refused to participate when it became clear that Warner Bros. were holding strong in regards to the budget." - CBR, 7/25/07 [link]

"The LA Daily News reported today that Warner Bros is having trouble getting some "casting" done for their upcoming adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen. The film being helmed by Zach Snyder certainly has a large cast of look a likes to incorporate into the film... Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, H.R. Haldeman, Ted Koppel, John McLaughlin, Annie Liebowitz, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Fidel Castro, Albert Einstein, Norman Rockwell, JFK and Jackie Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Mao Tze Tung and Larry King." - Mania Movies, 7/3/07 [link]

Back in late May, AICN revealed that Patrick Wilson, Jude Law, and Keanu Reeves might be cast as Night Owl, Ozymandias, and Dr. Manhattan respectively. At the time that was just a rumor, but the guys at MTV inquired with director Zack Snyder about whether these might be true or not. His response is below. “Um - you know what? I would say 'No,’ but then you'd call me later and go like, 'Dude, what are you doing?’ " Snyder laughed. “I don't know who's leaking this stuff, but they're good." - FirstShowing.net, 6/9/07 [link]

"Warner Bros. wants to keep Watchmen's budget under $100 million, the director is currently pushing for something in the $150 million range. The trade quoted an insider, who noted that, "To do it right, you need a huge budget." Though previous attempts to bring the rather expansive graphic novel to theaters were often thwarted by budgetary disputes, last weekend's record-breaking returns by Snyder's 300 may help convince the studio to go along with the director's vision for the film." - 3/13/07, Hollywood Reporter

"There has been a push on I think everybody's… on the other scripts that exist about trying to update the movie or make it take place in present day, or things of that nature. I think that by setting the movie in ‘85, by having the Cold War, having Nixon, having all that stuff you reinvigorate what the story is about. It allows all the metaphors…" Snyder said. "I think what Alan Moore has, in his book, the comic he's made about authority and government and all those things, they're big themes. Maybe if you make that movie right, [then] what that has to say makes people think about what's happening maybe now or in their own lives. That's my hope for what the movie can be." - 2/12/07, FirstShowing.net