Exclusive: Snyder on Watchmen
IGN corners Snyder for comments about his forthcoming film.
by Todd Gilchrist
October 2, 2008 - On Wednesday October 1, IGN joined a group of online and print journalists for a preview of footage from Watchmen, Zack Snyder's adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel by Alan Moore. Following a screening of some 25 minutes of material, Snyder fielded questions from the audience and then joined attendees at a reception afterward. During the reception IGN managed to find a quiet moment to ask a few questions about Watchmen, its relevance to contemporary culture, and the impact and influence of its iconography on Snyder's burgeoning directorial style.
Watchmen was published in 1986 and takes place in an alternate 1980s America where superheroes have long been a real part of the country's cultural landscape. As written by Alan Moore, the books offered an unprecedented commentary on comic book mythology and pop culture at the same time, and have since been imitated by countless other comics and movies. When asked how relevant his adaptation of Watchmen will be in an era where pop culture regularly cannibalizes itself and comments upon its own form, Snyder said, "that is the fun of it. Because what I said when we were [first] talking about it was I would rather set the movie in '85 and have to draw parallels to their own time than me commenting directly on their culture. Because who gives a ***** what I have to say?"
"If you go, 'wow, that reminds me of the war on terror', or 'Nixon has too much power – maybe the president has too much power', or there's a million of them in the movie, to me that kind of gets around the super post-modern 'this means this'!"
Snyder explained that he hopes the film will succeed because it acknowledges its form but also believes in it. "The movie's incredibly self-aware, you can probably tell – but on the other hand, we take it completely seriously. These are their stories. She needs to get from here to there. They need to beat those guys up. But that's not to say that we don't go what does it mean, what does that mean?" Snyder also compared his approach to those of other recent comic book adaptations that attempt to be irreverent and self-aware but also acquiesce to the formulas of the genre
"I also think that… Watchmen has balls in the sense that [in comparison], Iron Man and Fantastic Four, though they are in their own way self aware, they drink their own Kool-Aid, and the movie is a movie. It still has a beginning, middle and an end, and makes you care about this guy or that guy. Watchmen is like this nonlinear, all-over-the-place on the edge of being an art movie.
"Not to be mean or try and make it more than it is," he continued. "To me it says 'how far can you go with this'? and in some ways it's less like 'hey, mass culture, we know what we're doing'! In some ways, this is all we are – all we are is self-aware."
Snyder made his feature directorial debut with a remake of Dawn of the Dead, which was a significant commercial hit and a critical success. His follow-up, an adaptation of Frank Miller's 300, set a new standard for the boundaries of what could be accomplished visually on film, and became a worldwide box office smash to boot. At the same time, both films took many of their cues from their source material, and 300 in particular was so faithful that many scenes were literally lifted from the pages and panels of the graphic novel. In spite of the enormous expectations fans of Watchmen will have for the film, Snyder said that his personal style can't help but be married to even the most iconic images he recreates.
"It's funny because I feel likeit becomes clear when you see this third movie that there's a certain thing that's inescapable for me," he said. "It's unconscious, this tone that is so self-aware but still takes the thing seriously. And from a visual standpoint, I don't compromise my own aesthetic. I still feel like, even with 300, I mate with the thing completely. So by the time I actually get to filming it and now seeing it on the screen, I feel like it's gone all of the way through me like a prism or a blender and become its own thing."
Snyder also observed the irony that with so many collaborators on board helping him adapt artist Dave Gibbons' images for the screen, he finds that he actually has to try in order to make the scenes and shots look like they did in Watchmen. "Anytime you take something and I have all of these department heads and set builders and costume designers and actors, it's a miracle that it looks anything like the frame actually more than it is," he said. "I actually do more work to keep it like the frame than I do to like say, oh there's my stamp on it."
Stay tuned to IGN for more exclusive interviews and coverage of Watchmen and all of your favorite entertainment and gaming properties!
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