Several months ago rumors cropped up about a film version of Alan
Moore's graphic novel Watchmen. Those rumors have recently been confirmed, and Director Zack Snyder (300) was chosen for the adaptation. Other adaptations of Alan Moore's works include The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta. While League tanked, V for Vendetta was fairly well received, which begs the question: how will one of the most critically acclaimed novels fair on the big screen? It's important to note that this is not the first time Watchmen has begun pre-production; the first script for a film adaptation was completed in 1988. While turning Watchmen into a movie production at that point in time would have likely proved disastrous, cinematic production with the help of computer technology has improved drastically since that time.
Personally, I would much rather have seen Watchmen as an HBO miniseries. The graphic novel seems too long for a single film, and with the adaptation (and hopeful success) of Garth Ennis's Preacher as an HBO miniseries, Watchmen would likely be on a short list for comic television adaptations. On another funnier note, only a few months before I'd heard Watchmen was being adapted for film, I read that a rock opera version of Watchmen was being written by David Bowie.
Finally, a few casting possibilities have begun to surface. The first was for Keanu Reeves to play Dr. Manhattan. I suppose choosing an emotionless hack to play essentially the same character is a good fit. Secondly is Jude Law to play Ozymandias. Maybe it's his snooty English accent, but it sure makes him sound like he could play the smartest man on the planet with an ambiguous sexual orientation.
After all this I hope I don't find myself regretting the rejection of David Bowie's rock opera.
Test Shot of Rorschach
