Tag: Alan Moore

Hrm…

“The bottom line: Warner Bros. had absolutely no right to roll film on Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons superhero classic.” Forget the watchmen for a sec: Who’s watching Larry Gordon? A judge rules that Fox’s lawsuit over Watchmen does indeed have merit, and that former Fox, now WB exec Larry Gordon never actually secured all the necessary distribution rights to make Watchmen at his new home studio. “In his ruling, Feess concludes that Gordon never properly presented Fox with the option to produce and distribute the version of Watchmen developed by director Zack Snyder. He also makes it clear that neither Gordon nor Warner Bros. had bought out Fox’s interest before Warner Bros. went into production.“

What this means for the movie is still up in the air, although a release delay of several months isn’t out of the question. When a similar incident happened with The Dukes of Hazzard, a case that involved the same judge, WB eventually just settled and ponied up before the release date.

Well, here’s hoping this gets worked out in short order. I’m guessing Snyder’s film is going to have some serious problems, but I’d still like to see it next to immediately. (Watchmen image above via The Nerd of Her.)

City of Glass.

“The Superman exists, and he’s American.” Several months after the fact, the Philip Glass-scored, Comic-Con Watchmen footage finally leaks onto the tubes. This looks more promising than the last trailer…but it’s always easier when nobody’s talking.

Update: In related news, see also Matt Groening’s Watchmen. (Via LMG and mkh.)

Midnight Agents, Superhuman Crews.

Among the bountiful harvest that is the Quantum of Solace trailer crop…

  • Trailer rights to use Philip Glass and Muse? Several thousand dollars. Lawyers to haggle out an armistice among warring studios? Millions. Finally getting a Watchmen film up and made? Priceless. Costumed heroes (the Voice-of-Mastercard among them) investigate the death of a Comedian in the story-heavy second trailer for Zack Snyder’s Watchmen.

    I’m all over the place on this one. There are some real red flags here — all the Snydery slo-mo shots of Malin Ackerman’s hair, for example — and some of the dialogue feels as stiff and expository as the ponderous take-a-meeting scenes in 300. Then again, as with the first trailer, I’m still having trouble just wrapping my mind around the fact that they finally made a Watchmen movie. So I’m inclined to be charitable, and the little flourishes throughout (Rorschach’s mask moves!) appeal to my inner fanboy regardless. (Also, while Jackie Earle Hale’s Bale-Batman-growl may be a tad distracting, it’s hard to imagine Rorschach with any other kind of voice.) For now, I’ll call it a push.

  • Bad Boy Kirk! Angry Spock(?)! Alluring Uhura! Villain with Ridges on Face! J.J. Abrams introduces his new-and-improved Enterprise babies in the crowd-pleasing trailer for the Star Trek reboot. I can’t say I’m expecting all that much from this venture, and this clip, particularly in its 2 Fast 2 Furious opener, doesn’t shy away from bringing the summer movie dumb. Still, I’m forced to admit this looks more fun than I’d earlier envisioned, and I’m looking forward to more of Simon Pegg’s Scott and Karl Urban’s Bones. (And Bruce Greenwood (Pike) and Eric Bana (Big Bad) are generally a welcome touch of class in any event.)

    Also out of late:

  • A stiff, robotic alien promises to destroy life on Earth in order to save it…oh yeah, and he brought Gort along too. Keanu Reeves get threatening in the new action-centric trailer for next month’s The Day the Earth Stood Still, also with Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.

  • Speaking of threatening, Harrison Ford looks to uncork the finger of doom for the cause of immigration reform in the trailer for Wayne Kramer’s Crash-like Crossing Over. (I hope his wife and family are ok, at least.) Joining Indy on this border-crossing adventure: Summer Bishil, Alice Braga, Cliff Curtis, Alice Eve, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, and Jim Sturgess.

  • Immigration, Schmimmigration. According to the teaser for Roland Emmerich’s next forgettable summer jaunt, 2012, we’ve only got four years left anyway…and it’s all Dubya’s fault. Strangely enough, John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Woody Harrelson are all along to surf this improbable Himalayan-swamping wave, but I wouldn’t expect much of a splash at the box office.

  • Finally, the revolution may not be televised, but it’ll soon be hitting at least a few screens here in America anyway: Witness the a international teaser for Steven Soderbergh’s Che (or, more to the point, Ches — I believe this project is still two films.) Word of mouth on this one has been highly variable, but I remain curious to see what Soderbergh and Benicio del Toro have come up with. Still, this strangely disjointed teaser — Ken Burns by way of Oliver Stone — doesn’t really get the job done.

    • A Long Way Down.

    As featured in the Spike awards last night, an extended version of Zack Snyder’s Watchmen trailer arrives online. I’m liking the Galactus-y feel of Dr. Manhattan’s moments, but the slo-mo Snyderisms here (the doomed flight of the Comedian notwithstanding) still give me pause.

    Update: Speaking of which, said flight is now captured in a spiffy new Watchmen teaser poster, above.

    You watch the Watchmen. I’ll watch The Wire.

    “I’ve not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn’t particularly like the book 300. I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them: [that] it was racist, it was homophobic, and above all it was sublimely stupid.” As a companion to their Watchmen story, EW has a wide-ranging sit-down with Alan Moore, wherein he discusses Zack Snyder, 300, magic, the afterlife, DC Comics, and his favorite television show: “The absolute pinnacle of anything I’ve seen recently has got to be The Wire. It’s the most stunning piece of television that has ever come out of America, possibly the most stunning piece of television full-stop…So yeah, everything else looks pretty lame next to The Wire.”

    Speaking of Moore’s critique of Snyder, I felt a similar unease after reading Snyder’s EW Q&A. Says Snyder of Watchmen: “Everyone says that about [Christopher Nolan’s] Batman Begins. ‘Batman’s dark.’ I’m like, okay, ‘No, Batman’s cool.’ He gets to go to a Tibetan monastery and be trained by ninjas. Okay? I want to do that. But he doesn’t, like, get raped in prison. That could happen in my movie. If you want to talk about dark, that’s how that would go.” Hrm. Ok. I’d have more faith in Snyder’s Watchmen if he didn’t persist in sounding like one of those “Totally Extreme!!” meathead whiteboys from Harold & Kumar.

    Manhattan Lands Early.

    “The world will look up and shout, ‘Save Us!,’ and I will whisper, ‘No.’” Forget midnight — the teaser for Zack Snyder’s Watchmen has leaked. I must say, Dr. Manhattan looks better than I had anticipated (I like the money shot of him, the American Superpower, in ‘Nam), Rorschach looks great, and the Comedian seems ok, but I have quibbles with Ozymandias (too young), Nite-Owl (too buff) and Silk Spectre (too vamp). Still, I’ll reserve full judgment until I’ve watched it a few dozen more times. In the meantime, how weird is it that there’s actually a trailer for Watchmen out? We seem to be living in the Golden Age of comic book movies. Update: Like most things in this world, it looks much better in HD.

    Update 2: “Based on footage Snyder screened for EW, at least, the work seems to have been worth it. Multiple scenes — the Comedian’s murder, Rorschach’s introduction, Dr. Manhattan’s origin, and a hypnotic title sequence that shutter-flies through the history of Watchmen America, set to Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ — suggest a film that may capture more of Watchmen than anyone thought possible.” Hrm. Watchmen makes the EW Comicon cover — see below — and their story includes the first pic of Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter. Sadly, Ozy’s still not looking so hot…maybe they should’ve gone with Jude Law of the Rorschach tattoo, since he was practically begging for the part. (And is it just me or does Crudup-Manhattan look eerily like Kevin Spacey?)

    Update 3: Speaking of Sally Jupiter, AICN scores a pinup of the heroine, in the style of Alberto Vargas and in keeping with the WWII-era aesthetic of The Minutemen.

    That Memory May Their Deed Redeem.


    This is old news at this point, but nevertheless: AICN procures a vintage-era photo of the Minutemen from Zak Snyder’s forthcoming version of Watchmen. (Note Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian.) Hrm…They look a bit cosplay, but then again they probably should.

    Update: Also in Watchmen news, the NYT reports that Tales of the Black Freighter will first be spun off as its own DVD, five days after the film comes out. “Mr. Snyder said he was eager to head a direct-to-DVD project, in part because it would allow him to use more material from the ‘Watchmen’ graphic novel. ‘I thought the ‘Black Freighter’ story would never see the light of day,’ he said. ‘The main picture is nearing three hours long and I know I have a fight on my hands just with that.’”

    Heavy Freight.

    “Exhausted, I slept across the grave…I saw the Black Freighter bearing down on all I loved, but I was powerless to stop it.” Zack Snyder alum Gerard Butler reveals his upcoming part in Watchmen: He’ll be narrating the Tales of the Black Freighter digression for the DVD version. “‘I’m going to do the voice of the captain,’ said Butler. ‘They’re going to do it in the style of a Japanese anime and I’m totally stoked.” Anime? Hrm.

    The Bad News Blots.

    Also in comic-to-film news, there’s more rumors of close-to-official casting for Zack Snyder’s Watchmen happening. Keanu Reeves apparently passed on Dr. Manhattan, so now they’re looking for, um, Jason Patric in that role. (I’m not seeing it, frankly, but he’s no better or worse than Keanu, I guess.) Also rumored, Thomas Jane as the Comedian, and, as Rorschach, Little Children‘s Jackie Earle Haley. That’s actually not half bad.