Based
on a 12-issue limited comic book series published by DC Comics between
September 1986 and October 1987, "Watchmen" has grown into one of the
most celebrated publishings in the history of the comic industry. Created
by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, the story revolves around
a group of former superheroes in 1985 at a time when tensions are
building between the United States and the Soviet Union. In Moore's
story, vigilantes have been outlawed and most heroes are either retired
or working for the government. Our story begins when one of the
government-sponsored superheroes is murdered and his friends decide to
investigate.
While I'm pretty sure the Grateful Dead weren't talking about Friday's release of "Watchmen," they very well could have been.
While "Watchmen" is not the first film in the superhero genre, it has the capability to be the most original and most true to Moore's original concept. Throw in some fanboy reverence and a monster legal battle and you've got yourself some buzz.
And it was that legal battle that almost caused this film never to see the light of day.
After months of casting, filming and production, the Warner Bros. film was halted by a lawsuit claiming that Twentieth Century Fox, not WB, actually had the rights to the series and therefore it should not be released.
Fox claimed it had owned the rights to "Watchmen" for the last 22 years and Warner Bros. had no right to even begin production. Warner Bros. in turn responded with a big old "nuh uh."
And when the line in the sand had been drawn, Fox found that they had an unlikely ally in the fight against "Watchmen," creator Alan Moore. But his opinion lay not in the finances of the studio but in the potential quality of the film.
"The main reason why comics can't work as films is largely because everybody who is ultimately in control of the film industry is an accountant," Moore said in an interview with TopFilm.com. "These people may be able to add up and balance the books, but in every other area they are stupid and incompetent and don't have any talent.
"They're going to show it to the backers," continued Moore, "and then they're going to say, 'we want this in it, and this in it and where's the monster?' "And what about the financial aspect? "$100 million. That's what they spent on 'The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen' which shouldn't have come out but did anyway," Moore added ("League" was the film adaptation of another comic book by Moore). "Do we need any more (expletive deleted) films in this world? Whereas the $100 million could sort out the civil unrest in Haiti. And the books are always superior, anyway." It didn't take long after a judge got involved, that both sides came to an agreement.
While terms have never fully been disclosed, it is believed to involve a very large cash payment to Fox and percentage of the film's box office draw. But that is where the sharing ends. Fox will not be a co-distributor and they will have no claim to any DVD sales or merchandising that might come with the film. (Like the new Nite Owl Coffee being offered for $19.85 a tin on organiccoffee.com.)
And so after all of that, Zack Snyder, director of films like "300" and "Sin City," finds himself in the position to be the man behind another of geekdom's classics. Will it be the critical success that everyone seems to think it will be? Or will its dark material and two hour and 37 minute run time be too much for some audiences to bear?
The Cast of Characters
Take the outlawed superhero community of Pixar's "The Incredibles," drop it into a multi-generational tribal tale like "The Godfather II" and add a trippy riff on "Forrest Gump's" at-the-elbow-of-history plot device (one character parties at Studio 54 with Jagger and Bowie, another pulls the trigger the day JFK died in Dallas), you start to get a feel for "Watchmen," due in theaters Friday. Here's a look at some of the key characters:
-- Los Angeles Times
Dr. Manhattan
(Billy Crudup)
A scientist who is transformed into a blue-skinned "quantum being," the most powerful force on Earth, he becomes a tool of the U.S. government and wins the Vietnam War. He also is becoming progressively withdrawn from humanity and stops wearing clothes -- yes, "Watchmen" shows the full Monty.
Rorschach
(Jackie Earle Haley)
The inscrutable masked loner was a product of a vicious upbringing (he shed no tears when his prostitute mother was murdered by her pimp) and sees the world in absolutes of black and white, which is why he alone is on a mission to solve the slaying of the unpopular Comedian.
The Comedian
(Jeffrey Dean Morgan)
He's comedic in the same way the Joker is funny; a thuggish killing machine, this "hero" is the ultimate fixer for American black-ops at home and abroad. His murder is the mystery at the heart of the story.
Nite Owl II
(Patrick Wilson)
His gadgets recall a certain Gotham City resident, but this caped hero, pulled back from a pudgy retirement, is meek without his costume and, in another first for superhero cinema, has sexual dysfunction issues.
Silk Spectre II
(Malin Akerman)
Beautiful and one of the best fighters in the world, but she didn't want the hero job (she inherited it from her mother), nor did she expect to fall in love with the increasingly inhuman Dr. Manhattan.
Ozymandias
(Matthew Goode)
Brilliant but aloof, he is a sort of modern-day Alexander the Great with vast riches and far-flung plans. As the world becomes more complicated, he looks down on it as his chessboard.
Leave a comment