Life may yet imitate art. In this case, sequential art.
The Dark Knight is not for the faint of heart, and it's a decidedly grown-up comic book movie, and it should set the stage for next year's Watchmen, the long-awaited adaptation of the genre-redefining and nigh-unfilmable graphic novel series created by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons. Provided Watchmen is done right, which seems like a very tall order considering the sheer density of the original work, it could well be the one-two punch that will help comic book movies grow beyond the need to be empty spectacle and into a realm where, much like Heath Ledger's turn as The Joker, Oscar buzz can be a reality.
This would be extraordinarily apropos, as back in the mid-80s, Watchmen and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns were the one-two punch that radically redefined the comic book genre itself and the darkness of the stories it could portray, making the term 'graphic novel' much more necessary.
Alan Moore, one of comics' most respected writers, has a long history of having his work adapted into crappy movies, and he's long made it his habit to withdraw his name from any credit for these bad projects. He's done the same with Watchmen sight unseen, because he has no faith in the movie business. As he's said in the past, as far as he's concerned, the finished story is the book on the shelf, and movie versions are unnecessary. Watchmen director Zack Snyder has gone on record as saying his greatest hope for Moore's involvement is to have him, some day in the future, pop the DVD in and say "they didn't fuck it up that badly."
Dave Gibbons, however, is quite involved in the production, and we have video here on Fancast of Gibbons speaking about his impressions of the level of detail and faithfulness to the original story Snyder is exhibiting, and just how thrilling it is to see his imagination being made real.
We can cross our fingers and hope that Snyder somehow pulls off in two hours what most believe it would take a 10-hour miniseries to fully cover.
Watch Dave Gibbons speak on the adaptation of his work on Watchmen.
Watch another behind-the-scenes look at Watchmen.
Watch more about the set design of Watchmen.
See the costume designs for the main characters in Watchmen.
Watch a slideshow of Watchmen images.
See our interview with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays the rough and tumble Comedian.
