Running Time?

[Johnichi Chiba]

Zack has said previously that it'd be around 2 1/2 to 3 hours, but how long do you think it'll ultimately be, and how long do you think it should be?

I would like a 3 hour epic length.

 

[Darkly Dexter]

yeah, he said it would be "super long"

2h 45min is fine for me

 

[ThatDamnNinja]

Somewhere close to three hours. I know a lot of stuff would get cut out, still, but if they want any sort of box office, three hours is pretty much the maximum. On the plus side, audiences these days are developing a taste (or a tolerance) for longer films.

But thank God they're not trying to condense it into two hours.

 

[SaxtonTemple]

3 hours would be great. Definitly not shorter than 2.30, please.

 

[Darkly Dexter]

3 hours would be great. Definitly not shorter than 2.30, please.

that's for sure

 

[odiin]

it should be a 15 minute adult swim special

 

[ToddIsDead]

They could do it like Robot Chicken!

 

[Drizzle]

2 hrs, 45 mins would be a reasonable time

 

[Carmine Falcone]

If it's shorter than 2 and a half hours, they can't do it justice. I want a normal pacing too, not Sin City style, which was basically cramming 3 stories in 2 hours. Every voice over was sped up, and the original lines were chopped down to the bone. I don't want to see that happen with Watchmen.

3 hours would make it the Godfather of Superheroe movies.

 

[Rezzo]

It´s gotta be 3 hours

 

[Rust]

2 hours and 45 minutes. No less.

 

[Motown Marvel]

yeah at the LEAST 2.5 hours....but i think the story would be most comfortable at 3 hours. thats probably without the black freighter story, which would be another half hour added in for the extended edition DVD.

 

[Roughneck]

5 hours. I would gladly sit through 5 hours of the Watchmen


Or maybe an experimental film style.

Release the first 2.5 hours, and the follwowing week....maybe two, release the other 2.5 hours....and some theaers can offer up the entire thing with a short intermission.

 

[Roughneck]

And of course the DVD would be one movie....not two halves like Kill Bill

 

[bapi]

I think 150-170 min.

 

[ThatDamnNinja]

And of course the DVD would be one movie....not two halves like Kill Bill

It wouldn't kill anyone to make it 180, I don't think. People sat through Lord of the Rings.

 

[The Guard]

With the story they're telling, 2 and a half hours is more than enough.

 

[ThatDamnNinja]

With the story they're telling, 2 and a half hours is more than enough.

Two and a half hours is more than enough if you want the movie only to a be a bare-bones adaptation; an action-thriller about Rorscach trying to discover the truth behind the Comedian's murder... but it certainly would not be "more than enough" if you wanted the multi-layered symbolism, character development, and cultural criticism.

 

[MaskedManJRK]

With the story they're telling, 2 and a half hours is more than enough.

Guard, you seem to be a pretty smart guy, and have a pretty reasonable viewpoint with most things, but here...you're wrong. I'm sorry, but 2 and a half is the mininum, and 3 hours is the maximinum. Like someone else said, it wouldn't be Watchmen if it was less than 2 1/2 hours, it would be a bare-bones action thriller with no substance whatsoever.

 

[The Guard]

Let's pretend for a moment that I've written two WATCHMEN scripts, and read about four others, not including Tse, Hayter and Hamm's various drafts. Have any of you ever seen a "bare bones" action movie that was 2.5 hours long? I don't think I have. You can get a LOT of depth into a 2.5 hour film, period, let alone one that's written the way WATCHMEN was.

The Tse script has a lot of the deeper stuff in it, but it doesn't have everything, and his first draft was 122 pages. WATCHMEN will tell Dan's, Laurie's, Rorschach's, and Dr. Manhattan and Veidt's stories, with hints at Hollis and Sally's, and the backdrop of war. I'm not sure, other than the CONTENT, what you all expect to see onscreen.

I'm almost posititive that WATCHMEN will only run about two and a half hours.

 

[Cinemaman]

I hope it won't be anything longer than 160 mins, otherwise we should expect ourselves getting slept by the 3rd act (LOTR:ROTK anybody?)

 

[Carmine Falcone]

I hope it won't be anything longer than 160 mins, otherwise we should expect ourselves getting slept by the 3rd act (LOTR:ROTK anybody?)

Not with a third act that is both exciting and disturbing.

 

[Cinemaman]

^^^

If only they make it worthy of waiting

 

[FatalEnergy]

If it's shorter than 2 and a half hours, they can't do it justice. I want a normal pacing too, not Sin City style, which was basically cramming 3 stories in 2 hours. Every voice over was sped up, and the original lines were chopped down to the bone. I don't want to see that happen with Watchmen.

3 hours would make it the Godfather of Superheroe movies.

Yes! Fast V.O's completely kill the mood. That fanmade ch I pg 5 video had a pretty well-paced V.O., he just sounded kinda weird.

I hate to say it, but the studio is gonna have a tough time accepting a three hour super hero movie. But I definitely think it needs to be at least 2 hours and 45 minutes.

 

[ThatDamnNinja]

Can anyone imagine a more disastrous scenario than the movie being it's appropriate length... but sucking anyway? Not only would that ruin it completely for us... the studio would never dare touch this kind of project with a thirty-foot pole for many years to come...

So, for the sake of high-concept, high-art comic book movies, let's hope this one is good, long, and shows the studio execs that this sort of **** can work.