A couple of notes on The Watchmen

[Mr. Hamrick]

The film has been officially greenlit.

Some of the production will be taking place in Vancouver and that is where the primary production office will be.  For those who need elaboration, the production office is usually sat up a few months in advance for the purpose of casting, location scouting and other assorted preproduction things.

As already noted in another thread here, Zack Snyder will be directing the film.  Gerard Butler is on board but no idea what role he is going to play.  Ron Pearlman was approached to play The Comedian but no clue how those talks went.

They are scheduled to start shooting in August of this year.  The intended release is for "sometime in 2008" but I wouldn't be surprised to see a 2009 release.  If it does get released in 2008 then it will likely be November.  The distribution will be done by some company called Warner Brothers.  I hear they are a very reputable company.   ;) 

that's all I got but I thought you might be interested

[Uncle Yuan]

I'm very interested in this and I'm glad to see things are moving ahead.  Still, on the whole, I wonder if there's going to be much of an audience for this movie.  I mean, who going to watch the Watchmen?

[lugaru]

Ron Pearlman is one of my alltime favorite actors but he just might be too scary for the comedian. Regardless Im looking foward to this, he already stated his intentions as being loyal and while a lot of the nuance is going to be cut (such as the pirate comic, Im sure) I have some faith.

BTW How about Gerald Butler as Ozymandias? "I AM TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD!!!". "Ok, uhm... use your indoors voice ozzy".

[The Hitman]

Ron Pearlman would make a good Comedian, but you know who I'm secretly rooting for? Don't laugh- Bruce Cambell. Seriously, don't laugh.

[BentonGrey]

I root for Bruce to get every role....always....

[Volsung]

I hope they avoid a nightmare such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

[zuludelta]

Loved the comics, but I don't know if it's a story that translates well into film. I'm afraid the creators might cram the essentials into one 2-to-3 hour movie at the risk of losing a lot of the original's depth and nuance (sort of like what happened to V for Vendetta). Also, a lot of the impact of Watchmen stems from the context of the times it was written in (the whole height of the Cold War/Thatcher/Reagan-omics era) although I'm the first one to say that the themes the story explores are universal... but without the immediacy of context, I'm not sure it will go over so well with audiences unfamiliar with the comics.

[BentonGrey]

I thought that V still presented a pretty powerful message and film, if they could do HALF as well with the Watchmen (which I doubt they could, as it really is rather a ponderous story) then it would be fantastic.

[lugaru]

Loved the comics, but I don't know if it's a story that translates well into film. I'm afraid the creators might cram the essentials into one 2-to-3 hour movie at the risk of losing a lot of the original's depth and nuance (sort of like what happened to V for Vendetta). Also, a lot of the impact of Watchmen stems from the context of the times it was written in (the whole height of the Cold War/Thatcher/Reagan-omics era) although I'm the first one to say that the themes the story explores are universal... but without the immediacy of context, I'm not sure it will go over so well with audiences unfamiliar with the comics.

I already heard an interview where the director said that he will NOT modernize watchmen, no war on terror, no guantanamo bay, no george bush... simply put it will be in the cold war like the comics. For me that's reasuring, since everyone is trying to do that these days with mixed results.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

He also said during that interview he wanted to make it a Lord of the Rings-length epic and would not make it unless he had that length of time to work in.