July
25
Comic-Con Exclusive: Snyder Talks Watchmen
High above the exhibition hall at Comic-Con, Warners was conducting interviews Thursday for Watchmen in advance of their anticipated Hall H show-and-tell on Friday. Zack Snyder is currently battling with Warners over the ultimate running time of the movie, which is three hours. He's trying to cut it down, but doesn't want to lose a character like Hollis, a guy who gets murdered about half way through. ""I'm not ready for that yet. If Dark Knight got two and a half hours, Watchmen should get fifteen minutes more," he pleads. "I'm trying to be reasonable." Snyder is caught between the Scylla and Charybdis of the studio's commercial demands and the fans who love the comics. A movie has to reach beyond the faithful, remaining accessible to mainstream moviegoers.
Thanks to his success with 300, Snyder was able to sell Warners on a faithful adaptation of the Alan Moore mid-80s classic graphic novel. All the previous adapters changed something fundamental, he points out, like updating it to the war on terror. He sets his in the 80s, cast unknowns, and insisted on an R rating. "I wouldn't know how to do it otherwise," he says. "Fans should thank 300 because there's no way they would let me do it, no way, I've taken full advantage."
But the studio still thinks Watchmen is too "too long, too sexy, and too violent," says Snyder. For him, "that's a reason to go. That's the why. If you take that out you take out the why." Otherwise it'll just be another "watered down version of Watchmen, and then you might as well make another superhero movie. There's a million characters out there you could do instead."
On the amazing maturation of comics-based cinema, Snyder says, "People are interested in comic book movies because they represent mythology and adventure heroes. They allow fantasies to exist in our world. That worked with a great movie like Dark Knight, which took it over the top. You look at Iron Man and you have the same thing, a serious actor like Robert Downey Jr. in a serious portrayal of a guy and then you have this cool fantasy aspect that makes for a great time at the movies. That's what comic books allow us to do, they live in our world but they also allow us to experience some sort of mythological connection to gods or whatever you want to call them, and that's archetypal and everyone can relate to it."
Watchmen "deconstructs those same mythological ideas," he says. "Watchmen says, 'you know what? Look at your heros, what are they really? They're us dressed up.' The cool thing about Watchmen is it allows the story and the characters to comment on our world, comment on ourselves. It's a modern superhero movie, modern in the sense that it is slightly intellectualizing the concept of superheroes. People have to come to Watchmen, Watchmen can't go to them. If I've done it right, the movie will get more people into the graphic novel Watchmen itself, so they could read it and say, 'wow, this is what a superhero could be!'"
When he put the looks and costumes together, Snyder used the book, he says, "it works. Why would you change it? The film has to exist for a cinema audience the way the comics existed for comic book fans in 1985 and 1986. It's got to be able to comment on how cinematically people relate to superheroes. The cool thing about Silk Spectre is her outfit is overtly sexual. You can't put that outfit on a Fantastic Four. If I was making a PG 13 movie everybody would be up in arms. This girl is clearly using sexuality as a weapon. That's the point. It's nipply. It's like a dominatrix outfit. That's the fetishistic aspect of it. You have to go all the way."
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Hey Anne,
We're uploading footage directly from the Watchmen Panel (and the rest of the conference) at http://youtube.com/mahalodotcom
Part one uploading right now!
Batman asks a question: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2mKOTbwD0MY
Cheers,
Conrad Quilty-Harper
Producer, http://mahalodaily.com
Posted by: Conrad | July 25, 2008 at 01:50 PM
I love this guy...he says all the right things and the trailer looks like is honoring the graphic novel. I can't think of anyone better for this project.
Posted by: Tony | July 25, 2008 at 03:15 PM
Zack is a really cool dude, The Watchman is going to be great! I've been saying this for a long time.
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Posted by: John Darko | July 25, 2008 at 05:28 PM
I don't understand why the studio has a problem with a three hour movie. The Lord of the Rings movies easily made money, and there was far more pressure placed on Jackson for those movies. If WB allows Snyder to do what he wants, he will come through. Look at Nolan on The Dark Knight. WB left him alone, and he created the greatest super hero movie of all time. Come on WB, don't let your accountants ruin this. Let the people who have creativity, and imagination do what they do best.
Posted by: M | July 25, 2008 at 06:08 PM
I hated 300 and I feared the worst when Snyder signed on to this project, but everything he as said about it gives me hope he's going to do it the right way. I didn't like how squeaky clean the trailer looked and I hate that slo-mo/fast-mo 300 BS, but I'm more and more confident he might pull it off.
Posted by: Craig Kennedy | July 25, 2008 at 07:04 PM
you should know that the extended footage shown at the Con was NOT squeaky clean. He's going for R. He can't do it any other way.
Posted by: anne Thompson | July 25, 2008 at 07:32 PM
What more can anyone ask for in a director..passion,fidelity and drive foe the material subject. Just a heads up to everyone...I tunes is giving away a free web comic of the Watchmen which is just awsome. Go check it out it's like a mini movie....just a taste of what's coming.
Posted by: Alex | July 25, 2008 at 09:30 PM
Thanks for that Anne, that's encouraging. What I meant though was that the trailer seemed kind of slick. The comic had a very simple, direct, but layered style. If the movie is too flashy, it might lose some of the spirit of the original.
Posted by: Craig Kennedy | July 26, 2008 at 09:12 AM
Why don't they do a series of 10-15 minute shorts that give a bit of background to some of the lesser known, or "less significant" characters in the story? Something they can offer for free up on Watchmen's official website, that will actually get people excited to see each short, with just enough to leave them hanging until the movie.
They could even do something like "after-shorts" that reflect on the movie, pointing out things that maybe some people missed that would make them want to see the movie again, which in turn would *gasp* make the studios money. If they're that concerned about it, why not give a director everything he/she needs to artistically portray something so that more people will want to be involved with and understand a work of art.
The novel can't be matched artistically, and there's no reason why the director should try to. However, it can be interpreted, faithfully, given its own artistic personality that runs hand-in-hand with the novel so that they complement each other, not clash with one another. Just sayin'.
Posted by: Michael B | July 26, 2008 at 10:00 AM
The footage at Comic-Con was accompanied by a lush Philip Glass opera score; it was gorgeous, beautiful, lyrical. It had style to burn. Is Snyder juggling too many characters to service in two and a half hours? probably. Does the wide audience out there give a hoot about Watchmen, and are they ready for deconstruction? These are not archetypes they are invested in. But the important thing is this material is rich and nourishing and full of vitamins. That's what's great about these comic movies. They're not carbon copies of other pictures. They come full-blown from gifted artists like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Posted by: anne Thompson | July 26, 2008 at 10:33 AM
I wonder what Warner Bros. has spent on this and what their expectations are. I fear they're thinking Comic + Zack Snyder + March release = 300's $210.6 million. I think they will be sorely disappointed if Snyder actually delivers something close to the comic which he seems to be promising.
It's hard for me to see how they can condense the story into even a 3 hour movie (if Snyder gets away with that), but we'll see. Perhaps the inevitable Special Edition DVD will be longer.
Posted by: Craig Kennedy | July 26, 2008 at 03:33 PM
Yes, let's hire some Ridley Scott wannabe to film a two+ hour version of an unfilmable Graphic Novel.
No thanks. Only the under British control, and only in a several-hour (television mini-series) format, would Watchmen ever work as a moving storytelling image.
I wonder: Will it be as unintentionally homoerotic as 300? Will it be a series of "gritty", washed-out colors that will, at most, capture the "essence" of Watchmen? Maybe, but that's not good enough.
Watchmen, as directed by "Mr. Green Screen" will be visually interesting and that's about it. It won't even approach the depths of the original Graphic Novel and will likely be as subtle as a linebacker.
Alan Moore's judgment is good enough for me. I'm sitting this one out.
Posted by: MB | July 26, 2008 at 05:11 PM
"Alan Moore's judgment is good enough for me."
Even Alan Moore stated he thought that Zack Snyder was going to do the best possible interpretation of his material possible. He just holds it a bit more personal than the rest of us.
Alan Moore removed his name from ALL his properties, not just this one. Don't be so hasty to call this one out as if it's the paste eater in the schoolyard.
Posted by: Mal | August 13, 2008 at 01:27 PM
I'm disappointed with how the movie treated Silk Spectre. Modern comics treat women poorly enough as it is with regards to their appearances. I felt that if the movie was going to be so keen on remaining true to the comic, why did it need to hypersexualize and de-power her and ruin THAT artistic element of the original?
Posted by: inter-something | March 24, 2009 at 06:50 PM