welcome back Watchmen!!!!!!

[IKnowSomeJudo]

Goddamn casting threads.

 

[Sandman138]

Everyone seems to like Clive Owen. I dont think hes right for Nite-Owl II. First of all, he plays the same guy in every movie. Hes brooding and monotone and acts like a tough guy. He does it well, but thats not Nite-Owl and i didnt think it was Dwight from Sin City either. He played that character so differenet than i imagined it. Owen just talks with such an angry tone or montone voice. Its very unappealing for Nite-Owl. I personally think John Cusack is good.

Did you see Closer? Not the same character as his other work at all.

 

[Sandman138]

Are we turning this into another casting thread?

Hopefully it can be an all around discussion of what we would like to see from/in a Watchmen movie?

 

[IKnowSomeJudo]

Do you like cookies? I like cookies.

 

[matrix_ghost]

Sure send it to me too

 

[Darth Nata]

J.J. Abrams should direct Watchmen and he, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse should write the screenplay...

 

[cerealkiller182]

I could live with Abrams. He's pretty good at making cool action/adventures but with an interesting plot (at least semi-interesting)

I think Alex Proyas would be best. The style of The Crow and Dark City I think are close to what Watchmen is albeit the constant darkness.

 

[matrix_ghost]

Agreed.

Proyas may not be someone who knows alot of comic books ( i think) but he still someone who respects the medium and stays close to it , just as long as studio interference doesn't screw it up.

I mean Asimov must be spinning in his grave with I,ROBOT. God that sucked ash.

Abrams , i dunno. I just dunno. He's IMO a bit too commercial to do such a thing. I mean look at what he would've done with Superman.
I just think that he wouldn't treat the source material with enough respect.

I mean if the script is so hard to write down , why go to all the trouble if 1) Hayter's script is ready , 2) has been reviewed by comic book fans and loved by them and 3) moore approves of.

If Proyas and Hayter worked together , icould see this movie work.
But then again , so many other directors also can make this movie great.

Bottomline is 1) Get a director who respects the material enough and has (some) comic book knowledge , 2) go with Hayter's script and 3) get a good cast.

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

For the record, they're still using Hayter's script but they have another writer doing a draft based on that script.
And Proyas, who's someone familiar with comic-books, in the past expressed interest in doing Watchmen.

 

[Sandman138]

I'd rather avoid "dark" and "edgey" directors like Proyas. This film needs somone who's into totally turning the idea of genre on it's head. The worst thing that could happen to Watchmen is becoming a genre film, since the book was all about destroying genre, similar to Barthelme's Postmodern Snow White. I really liked the idea of Gilliam doing the movie, and was dissapointed that he dropped out. They would never do it, but I imagine somone like Jim Jarmusch or the Coen Brothers being perfect for a Watchmen movie.

 

[cerealkiller182]

I'd rather avoid "dark" and "edgey" directors like Proyas. This film needs somone who's into totally turning the idea of genre on it's head. The worst thing that could happen to Watchmen is becoming a genre film, since the book was all about destroying genre, similar to Barthelme's Postmodern Snow White. I really liked the idea of Gilliam doing the movie, and was dissapointed that he dropped out. They would never do it, but I imagine somone like Jim Jarmusch or the Coen Brothers being perfect for a Watchmen movie.

I feel like it turned the genre of superhero films on its head, but made it into a noir film. So thats kinda the way I was thinking with Proyas.

Gilliam- too surreal even for this movie. i love Gilliam though and prolly wont be dissapointed in that choice

I like Coens and they are usually good at conforming to genre in a way that they get the humor in O Brother and LEbowski but still the crime drama of their other movies

i like Jarmusch's style but I rarely like his movies.

I think it might be a good idea to get a new director who hasnt found a style of his own that way he could make a more direct translation and stay true to the original source without cluttering it with their own style.

 

[Sandman138]

I feel like it turned the genre of superhero films on its head, but made it into a noir film. So thats kinda the way I was thinking with Proyas.

I think the only thing that was "film nior" about Watchmen was that it was subversive. Outside of that, it was much more of a dramatic tragedy. People make the mistake of thinking that Watchmen is predominantly a whodunnit. While there is certianly the mystery driving things towards their conclusion, Watchmen is much more about the way resistance is co-opted by those in power and ultimatly subjugated. Dr. Manhattan may be a god, but he is first and foremost American, and as an American he is nothing more than the newest weapon. That Moore made reference to EC and its imitators with the pirate comic sub-plot shows just how little room there seems to be for resitance in the world of superheroes. Yet ultimatly the world is saved not by black and white morality, but by ambiguity. This is what Watchmen is about, and I personally don't think Proyas could deliver that.

Gilliam- too surreal even for this movie. i love Gilliam though and prolly wont be dissapointed in that choice

Dr. Manhattan is certianly a surreal character, and Gilliam certianly proved with Brazil that he knows how to create distopias that, while escapist in many ways, also echo our own fears about where we might be heading towards.

I like Coens and they are usually good at conforming to genre in a way that they get the humor in O Brother and LEbowski but still the crime drama of their other movies

The reason that I like the Coens is that they consistantly redefine whichever genre they choose to work in whether its a suspense thriller (Fargo) a mythic quest (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) or morality play (The Ladykillers). If Watchmen doesn't redefine the superhero genre for movies, it will be a complete and utter failure.

i like Jarmusch's style but I rarely like his movies.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. One thing I will say is that Jarmusch is great at writing encounters that don't lead to nice clean answers, in other words, ironies. Watchmen would benifit from that.

I think it might be a good idea to get a new director who hasnt found a style of his own that way he could make a more direct translation and stay true to the original source without cluttering it with their own style.

Stay true in what sense? If your talking about the "style" in a visual sense, that matters very little in this adaptation. Watchmen, moreso than most works that have been adaptaded, is about concepts. What this movie needs is a director willing to approach the concepts that Watchmen puts forth in an honest manner and not dumb them down for the sake of making another superhero movie, or even making a film for the fans.

 

[cerealkiller182]

Stay true in what sense? If your talking about the "style" in a visual sense, that matters very little in this adaptation. Watchmen, moreso than most works that have been adaptaded, is about concepts. What this movie needs is a director willing to approach the concepts that Watchmen puts forth in an honest manner and not dumb them down for the sake of making another superhero movie, or even making a film for the fans.

Thats exactly what i was trying to get at. Most directors take on certain consistencies in their work whether it be visual or storytelling, and it would be a shame for that to clutter Moore's story.

 

[larryfilmmaker]

it'd be awesome to have Jim Caviezel (Christ himself) play Adrien Veidt (more or less the anti-christ w/ his good looks, likableness, and plan to murder the world)

 

[IKnowSomeJudo]

David Greengrass should return and continue where he and Hayter left off. Things seemed to be going in the right direction until the project unfortunately got sihtcanned by Paramount. After reading that interview with him, you could tell he really, really gets Watchmen and really wanted to make that movie.

Then again, with Coen brothers at helm, that would mean William H Macy would 100% sure be cast as Rorschach...and that would rule.

But no... no. Get Greengrass, he was and still is the right guy for the job.

 

[CrimsonMist]

David Greengrass should return and continue where he and Hayter left off. Things seemed to be going in the right direction until the project unfortunately got sihtcanned by Paramount. After reading that interview with him, you could tell he really, really gets Watchmen and really wanted to make that movie.

Then again, with Coen brothers at helm, that would mean William H Macy would 100% sure be cast as Rorschach...and that would rule.

But no... no. Get Greengrass, he was and still is the right guy for the job.

hey, thanks for the script man. I appreciate it.

 

[IKnowSomeJudo]

No problemo, dude. It's all about sharing with other fans...

 

[matrix_ghost]

thnx a bunch for that script man.

You know , i actually like the script better then the books since it gives closure. I always found the ending to be very unsatisfying with everyone with the exception of rorschach.

I like this one more. And from the looks of it , it seems that a PG rating isn't that far away.

 

[cerealkiller182]

I have been rereading Watchmen and i thought, if they make the movie it might be a good idea to use the rotoscoping effect (Richard Linklater's process of animating over live-action reels; see Waking Life and upcoming A Scanner Darkly-trailer here

I think this would work best for a few reasons.

-First of all, it will be able to depict everything about Doc Manhattan, Rorschachs ever changing mask, the strange tiger, Doc's Mars castle, and the ridiculous alien at the end.

-Second, since it takes place over so many years, it would be easy to age some of the actors by animating over their older selves.

-Third, anything the actors do not feel comfortable doing (nudity, stunts, uncomfortable costumes) could be completly animated over their live actions selves.

What do you think? I think its a pretty good idea, but i think I'd take a Watchmen movie anyway I could.

 

[Eddie Dean]

I’m not sure if that would be the best idea, but it would be very interesting.

 

[ToddIsDead]

While it's a cool effect, I don't think it suits Watchmen at all.

 

[CrimsonMist]

why not, for the flashback scenes, to make the characters look younger, use the effect used in the begining of X-Men III? The one where it made Ian MacKellen and Patrick Stewart look atleast 20 years younger.

 

[Sandman138]

You mean hair dye?