By Andy Hunsaker
Fancast Movies
The panel for the Watchmen movie has every one of its 6500 seats filled with Comic-Con nerds eager to see more footage from their Bible. I'll be providing a real-time update of the news as it breaks and the pithiness as it is quipped, right here. Stay tuned.
They're giving away a Watchmen-themed XBox 360 - it's all black with Dave Gibbons art pasted on the sides. Very nifty.
We've got director Zack Snyder, Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons, Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre), Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan), Matthew Goode (Ozymandias), Carla Gugino (the first Silk Spectre), Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian) and Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) all coming out to "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan.
Snyder talks about the history of the Watchmen project, and that he was called about this film while he was in post on 300. He accepted because he knew he felt responsible for making the film good, because if he refused and it turned out bad in the hands of someone else, it'd still be his fault anyway for not taking it.
Snyder says the actors are just as dogged as he is about adhering to what actually happened in the book, so as to keep him on track. They shot in Vancouver.
Snyder enjoys talking about how he exceeded some 'net fans expectations on the trailer that debuted with The Dark Knight.
Dave Gibbons talks about the "only meeting of the Crimebusters," where superheroes try to form a sort of superteam to absolutely no avail. He says how seeing the Owlship and having The Comedian slap him on the back and show off his guns was great for him. They even had a martial arts school named Judomaster, which is a reference to the original Charlton Comics characters that were going to be the Watchmen if they'd gotten the rights.
Gibbons wishes that Alan Moore could feel his excitement and regrets Moore's bad Hollywood experiences that prevent him from enjoying the one Gibbons is enjoying.
Snyder says he knew he had to bring more than just the trailer, because everybody at Comic-Con had already seen it in front of The Dark Knight last weekend. This footage he brought highlights the "non-PG" aspect of the movie - including Dr. Manhattan marching through Vietnam and winning the war.
The footage is rather stunning. Including extended sequences directly out of panels of the books. Those complaining that Patrick Wilson didn't look pudgy enough to be Nite Owl should put their fears to rest, as he looks a hell of a lot like Dan Dreiberg. Rorschach's mask morphs with every step, and it looks perfect. Nite Owl and Silk Spectre have a kiss while a mushroom cloud explodes behind them - leading to wondering whether or not the 'big space monster' threat that Ozymandias unleashes on the world is going to be changed.
Snyder says changing the setting into something more contemporary didn't feel right at all.
Billy Crudup jokes that he already knows what the question is and that he's already answered it, riffing on the omniscience of his character Dr. Manhattan. He had no frame of reference for the character, which made it hard. He said he did the best he could at playing a 6'4" buff master of matter when he's a 5'9" 40-year-old jackass.
Jackie Earle Haley says it was a challenging blast to play Rorschach. He studied the books a lot, and did a lot of internet research on what the fans think Rorschach should be.
Snyder won't declare his favorite Watchmen character, but everyone likes Rorschach so that rules him out. Everyone likes The Comedian because he's a badass and "is morally... y'know." So he can't vote for either one. The girls are awesome but also a cop-out because it's too obvious. But he reverses and says he likes the girls best.
A guy asks Crudup if the rest of the Blue Man Group is upset that he got the part of the big blue Dr. Manhattan. Crudup says he's not on speaking terms with them anymore. He had to get into shape and ignore how embarrassed he was at looking like he did. "Rearranging molecules is something they don't teach at drama school."
Patrick Wilson loves the Nite Owl costume. He was glad he didn't have to get all ripped, and just sit back with a carton of Hagen Dazs and drink beer all day. He misses Dan Dreiberg. You always pull for Dan. He's flabby, he's morose, he's down on his luck. The artwork from Gibbons in the book informed Wilson on the lightness in a character that could be played very dark and depressed and pathetic. The small smiles really kept him into Dan. The relationship he has with Hollis Mason is great to him as well. Every day he got in the suit was a gift. He felt like a badass, and he really identified with Dan, who needed his costume to "successfully date" as they say. Read up on him.
Snyder never worried about it being "too dark." it's a reflection of us, and the unanswered moral question at the end leaves us to wonder 'what is darkness?' It's not dark for the sake of darkness. "Saw is dark because people get their arms sawed off... people get their arms sawed off in our movie too, but for different reasons!"
The supplemental material - the "Under The Hood" excerpts, the Q&A with Adrien Veidt, etc. - were also things he wanted to get in, but just the actual paneled stuff will result in five-hour movie, getting the other stuff in is difficult. He had to resign himself to leaving some of the "big picture" stuff out.
Snyder loves that a guy wearing a Rorschach costume can ask him about the maturity of comic book movies. He goes on about how good The Dark Knight is and how it raised the bar for it. Snyder would like to see Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns made into a movie at some point.
Carla Gugino says the green screen work was minimized for her, although the Mars stuff was the only big bit. Malin Akerman laughed in Crudup's face for the first week he had to wear all the crazy CG-suit stuff. She really had to rely on her imagination for that, but otherwise it was mostly realistic. Gugino says the characters are very full, and if they're not, green screen can make you lost. She praises the talented group of actors who love to transform into characters. Trusting the director's vision doesn't happen all the time, and everything else falls to the wayside when that trust is there.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan just got off a plane from Thailand and is in a daze. There were days when he would go home from work in a daze because of the horrible things that The Comedian does. He jokes that "we all pull for the Comedian." (No, we don't). Putting a cigar in his mouth put him in the mood to kill people. A couple of days shooting with Carla that will stay with him for a long time. (He does something horrible to her).
Matthew Goode was in the middle of an English period piece playing a "very ambiguous homosexual." He wasn't familiar with the book and had no idea of the scenes he was doing. A friend got on Wikipedia says "looks like you're playing another gay, but the good side is he looks like a stoner." He's read it since, and views Ozymandias as a real mystery that he had to make flesh. They shot the Lee Iacocca scene first. In the two weeks after that, he had his own "vision quest" that made him think it would be very interesting if he riffed on Hollis Mason's mention of Nazis and thought that maybe Adrien Veidt's parents were Nazis, and he occasionally has a half-American, half-German thing going on. He hopes it makes sense.
Snyder is asked about the Smashing Pumpkins song in the trailer, and he says tonally it made sense, and it says things that relate to Watchmen. There's subtle irony based on its lineage (which may be a reference to it being on the Batman and Robin soundtrack). It's not going to be in the movie, though, since the movie is set in 1985.
Akerman loved the script. The characters are all real people with good and bad sides. Laurie is a real women aside from her asskickery. She was forced into her profession by her crazy mother, and she's searching for her own identity.
Gugino found her character amazing - an exhibitionist costumed crimefighter with a film noir pin-up Vargas aesthetic she loves. The flash frame where Sally Jupiter rubs her eyes after having her photo taken before the horrible act that soon occurs is one of the small moments that really illuminates what life might have been for her. She thinks the film is timeless. She sees herself in her prime, but she very much isn't.
Snyder had not heard the rumor that he was going to compile stuff from all the previous directors who tried to get the film made for the DVD feature about the 20 year process of trying to get it made.
The footage is shown once again to loud applause, and exeunt. March 9, 2009.
