Comic-Con Friday: Watchmen is ‘Nipply’
“Mr. Moore, will you sign my DVD of Watchmen Babies?”
Anne Thompson spoke to Zack Snyder prior to the Watchmen panel at Comic-Con on Friday and, though the panel itself sounded like a snooze (read about it here if you must), Anne dug up some interesting information.
A year or so ago when Watchmen first started gaining momentum, if you’d asked me who I thought most likely to screw it up, I’d have pointed to 300 director Zack Snyder. I know many of you continue to be skeptical of him, but every time he opens his mouth, he says something right as far as I’m concerned.
According to Anne, Snyder is the guy who fought for a faithful adaptation of the comic and an R rating. Furthermore, it turns out he’s battling with the studio over the (currently) 3-hour running time of the film. Says Snyder, “If Dark Knight got two and a half hours, Watchmen should get fifteen minutes more.” Amen, brother.
With the studio worried that Watchmen is “too long, too sexy and too violent,” Snyder says anything else would just be a “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.”
About Watchmen character Silk Spectre’s outfit, Snyder says, “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 dominatrix outfit. That’s the fetishistic aspect of it. You have to go all the way.”
Ok, so he gets a little over enthusiastic with that last part (I hope Anne was wearing a raincoat), but I continue to be encouraged. Watchmen the movie may depart from the comic in significant way (how can it not?), but more and more it feels like a decent movie might come out of it. Of course, if Warner Bros. has it’s way, we might have to wait for the inevitable Special Edition DVD, but I have to admit things could’ve been a lot worse than the seem to be right now.
Via: Hollywood Elsewhere
Filed under: Upcoming
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Nipply?
Zach Snyder, heir of Joel Schumaker.
(Sorry, that was low and obvious.)
I’ll fully admit he has enthusiasm for the material and it would be beyond difficult for ANYONE to adapt this and please everyone (hence I still think we’re all better off if that stone had been left unturned). The teaser and the stills I’ve seen look faithful but they didn’t give me the same “Oh crap, something special is happening here” feeling that the first Fellowship of the Ring teasers did. Admittedly, my skepticism was a little lower for the LOTR films than it is for the Watchmen movie, but something about the entire LOTR experience was just…right for me from the very beginning.
Snyder getting Dave Gibbons to do the teaser poster is cool and his faithful appreciation of the source material is awesome, but what he says and what comes out on-screen are two different things.
Case in point, go back and re-read some of his interviews for 300. He had the same faithful adoration for that comic, but he delivered a tepid, paint-by-numbers movie. The public ate it up, but that means little to this film-goer.
Wow, I’m one cynical, skeptical bastard, aren’t I?
LOTR: RETURN OF THE KING is one of the undisputed cinematic masterpieces of the new millenium, methinks.
Oh, and Craig…I LOVE that image at the top of the article. Hah, I completely forgot about that nugget of comedy gold from the Simpsons.
Joel, just to let you know, I submitted that LOTR comment to back you up, in the spirit of sustained discussion.
I’m drinking the Kool-Aid on Snyder’s Watchmen Joel, that’s all I’m saying, but I will also be the first to admit I was wrong when and if that turns out to be the case.
I never read 300 and don’t have much interest in it so I can’t say how he bungled that. The sad thing is, Warners is damn well counting on him to deliver another 300 (tepid, audience friendly) and if that’s what he does, it will probably be a financial success. If he remains true to the comic, I think Watchmen will fail at the box office.
I got a chuckle out of that Simpson’s still too. It seemed fitting to a discussion about a non R rated Watchmen.
Well, the sad reality is that I think he was pretty fair to 300 and the comic is right there in all its live action glory on-screen. I’ve never understood the draw of it, beyond Miller’s artwork.
Maybe Watchmen will be The Dark Knight of 2009. Or just the Incredible Hulk of 2009. I don’t know, but where you’re feeling optimistic I’m just an hourglass on Mars half-full kinda guy.
I hope you’re right, by the way. Going to suck if this is just a series of pretty pictures. Again.
I’m committed to the idea that it can’t be awesome in the way the comic was awesome, so hopefully it delivers in some other way. Honestly my biggest fear is the slo-mo/fast-mo action scenes.