Hasitha Fernando on the story behind Zack Snyder’s Watchmen…
Watchmen was a seminal piece of literature written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons that received universal acclaim when it was published. Multiple attempts at adapting the complex source material were abandoned until Zack Snyder was hired by Warner Bros. to tackle the property. Now, as Warner Bros. releases the first chapter of its animated adaptation of the iconic comic book [read our review here], we look back at some of the behind-the-scenes details of this polarizing yet ambitious adaptation which was, in a lot of ways, ahead of the curve…
The project was stuck in development hell for the longest time
British writer Alan Moore have been responsible for creating of some of the most memorable comics book runs and graphic novels of all time. V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Batman: The Killing Joke, Swamp Thing and From Hell make up some of the efforts that have gone on to receive the big screen treatment from Hollywood. However, there was one property that stood above all of Moore’s creations over the years, and that was the Watchmen comic book series published in 1986.
Now, over the years various individuals and studios have tried their luck trying to adapt the IP but to no avail. The first attempt was shortly after Watchmen hit bookstores and producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver acquired the rights for 20th Century Fox. Moore declined to write the screenplay so Sam Hamm (Batman) was brought on board to give it a whirl. Nothing fell into place over the next few years, and the project was eventually put into turnaround in 1991 and shifted to Warner Bros. with Terry Gilliam attached to direct. Unable to raise the required funding Gilliam parted ways with the effort and deemed the comic an “unfilmable” property.
In 2001 things began shaping up at Universal Pictures with David Hayter eyed to write and direct but once again it was not meant to be, and production was shifted the Revolution Studios, but this too didn’t pan out. Come 2004 Paramount Pictures was looking to produce Watchmen with Michael Bay considered to direct. After discussions with Bay broke down Darren Aronofsky was briefly attached to helm the potential movie from David Hayter’s script. However, fraught with innumerable delays Aronofsky left to focus on The Fountain.
Finally, in October 2005 Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin met with Warner Bros. to once again help spearhead the shoot and things finally started moving forward. After Tim Burton passed on the project Watchmen finally secured its director… Zack Snyder.
Faithfulness to the source material was paramount
Zack Snyder made waves with his remake of George A. Romero’s cult-classic horror Dawn of the Dead when it debuted in 2004. Critics praised the effort and commended the filmmaker’s creative choices in updating Romero’s vision for contemporary audiences and horror fans. Shortly after Snyder took on the project that would shoot him and his cast into the proverbial stratosphere – Frank Miller’s 300. The blood-soaked historical action epic received universal praise for its distinct visuals and stylized action sequences, becoming a bona fide box-office winner.
Impressed by his work on 300, Warner Bros. hired Snyder to deliver the nigh impossible – make a big screen adaptation of Watchmen. As he did with 300, Snyder utilized the original graphic novel extensively to storyboard the film, even getting the assistance of co-creator and artist Dave Gibbons to give his creative input during the making of the movie. For his take on the material Snyder not only wanted to stay true to the source material from a visual perspective but also from the storytelling angle as well. Because of this he restored the narrative to its original Cold War setting and cherry picked his favorite elements from David Hayter’s script whilst enlisting Alex Tse to rewrite the final screenplay.
Zack Snyder brought his trademark visual style to the movie
Zack Snyder possesses a trademark visual style that is all his own. These include the presence of slow-motion action sequences, stylized violence, and an overall gritty aesthetic to the proceedings. Having honed his unique style with Dawn of the Dead and 300, Snyder dialed things up to eleven with Watchmen. When it came to the color palettes of the movie, they were heavily influenced by Dave Gibbons’s artwork in the comic which primarily utilized secondary colors – such as purple, green, and orange – instead of the primary colors used in artwork commonly by comic book illustrators of the era.
Jackie Earle Haley made a home-made audition tape to nab Rorschach’s role
Jackie Earle Haley may have garnered an Academy Award nomination for Little Children (2006), but the talented actor will forever be remembered for playing the gruff voiced vigilante Rorschach in Watchmen. Haley was so convinced he was born to play the iconic role that he put together a home-made audition tape to get the part. After seeing Haley’s audition tape Snyder knew he found the perfect actor to play Rorschach. Haley was also the only main cast member who was already familiar with the graphic novel, which undoubtedly gave him the opportunity to share valuable creative input during filming. For example, when it came to deciding on Rorschach’s fighting style for the film, Haley felt that a scrappier, less disciplined style would better suit the character instead of drawing from his martial arts skills as a Kenpo practitioner.
Patrick Wilson was doubtful if he wanted to star in a comic book movie
Patrick Wilson started his acting career in the world of Broadway musicals, excelling in the craft and going on to on to nab two Tony Award nominations for his roles in The Full Monty and Oklahoma! The gifted creative then co-starred in the critically acclaimed mini-series Angels in America (2003) opposite Al Pacino and Meryl Streep, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Prime-Time Emmy Award. However, Wilson received broader recognition with the recurring roles he played in James Wan’s Insidious films and the Conjuring-verse movies.
So, it was in the time he was dabbling with serious adult dramas and indie-flicks that Wilson was offered the role of Dan Dreiberg/Night Owl II in Watchmen. Snyder was impressed by Wilson’s work on Little Children (2006) so he knew what the performer could bring to the role. But Wilson had doubts if he was indeed the right man for the job, and to clarify this he got in touch with one of his best friends who was a huge comic book aficionado to ask him what he knew anything about the Watchmen comic. He told Wilson that if he was ever to do a superhero movie that this was the one to do. After he landed the gig, the actor invited his friend to visit the set when they were filming the pivotal prison escape scene as a treat.
Billy Crudup wore a suit studded with blue lights to play Doctor Manhattan
In the Watchmen graphic novel Doctor Manhattan plays an important role in the narrative and is present almost throughout the entire story. But translating this detail to a feature-length presentation proved to be a challenging one for director Zack Snyder. The conventional way a CGI character usually got shot was by having two separate shoots for every scene in which the character makes an appearance. First, the scene would be shot with a placeholder instead of the CGI character, then the character’s movements would be recorded on a separate sound stage to capture its “motion capture” aspect. These would in turn be combined together in post-production to yield the final output.
Since this was an expensive and painstakingly slow process Billy Crudup ended up providing both Doctor Manhattan’s placeholder and motion capture simultaneously on set. Crudup wore a specially-designed motion capture suit and face markers, and was constantly filmed by at least two cameras, one for all-over movement and another trained on his face to follow his expressions. This way, his on-set performance as the placeholder could be used directly to create the CGI character. This motion capture suit was further studded with over 2500 blue lights to create the perpetually ethereal glow that emanates from Doctor Manhattan’s body.
Casting The Comedian proved to be a difficult process
Before getting his big break in movies with Watchmen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was already a bona fide star of the small-screen having appeared in TV shows like Supernatural, Grey’s Anatomy and Weeds and guest-starring in television series such as ER, JAG, Walker: Texas Ranger and CSI. For the role of The Comedian, Snyder was struggling to find the right actor who would embody the traits he was looking for but when he met Morgan, he instantly knew his search was finally over, “It’s hard to find a man’s man in Hollywood. It just is. And Jeffrey came in and was grumpy and cool and grizzled, and I was, like, ‘OK, Jeffrey is perfect!’” But Morgan was not convinced about his character’s importance in the context of the story when he flipped through the graphic novel, and this made him nearly pull out of the project. Thankfully, at his agent’s insistence he kept on reading, making him realize how wrong his earlier impression of the character was.
Gerard Butler’s involvement with Watchmen was an unusual one
Gerard Butler made quite a dramatic impact as Spartan king Leonidas in 300 (2006) and suffice to say he and Zack Snyder bonded well during the production period. As a result, Snyder promised that he’d cast him in Watchmen, even promising him a role in the film. Unfortunately, the filmmaker couldn’t quite stick to his promise and instead ended up casting him as the voice of the sea-captain in Tales of the Black Freighter, an animated segment based on the comic-within-a-comic from the original graphic novel. Although not included in the theatrical cut this particular segment was released with the 215- minute Ultimate Cut of Watchmen, interweaved with the main narrative as in the comics, when it was released to home media.
The first official image of Watchmen was hidden in one of the trailers of 300
The first official image from Zack Snyder – a test shot of Rorschach holding The Comedian’s button – was actually concealed in one of the trailer’s for 300 (2006), Snyder’s previous movie. It featured Wesley Coller, an associate producer of that film, wearing a makeshift mask and standing in front of a New York City backdrop. The image was created as an experiment by Snyder to establish the overall mood and aesthetic of his proposed Watchmen project. Snyder’s wife, Deborah Snyder, bet him $100 that no one would discover it, while Snyder was convinced that someone would eventually find this Easter egg. He won.
Alan Moore disowned the film… just like other adaptations of his works
British author Alan Moore was historically known to outright disown the film adaptations of his works. Harboring intense regret for selling the movie rights to his efforts when he was young, misguided, and naïve, Moore has since then reserved nothing but contempt and anger towards any mention of his material being adapted by the Hollywood machine.
When Snyder was asked in an interview about Moore’s dismissal of the movie by ReelzChannel.com, the filmmaker was quoted as saying “Worst case scenario – Alan puts the movie on his DVD player on a cold Sunday in London and watches and says, ‘Yeah, that doesn’t suck too bad.’” When this particular response was brought up with Moore himself in a later interview in the British Tripwire comics fanzine, the author responded “That’s the worst-case scenario? I think he’s underestimated what the worst-case scenario would be… that’s never going to happen in my DVD player in ‘London’ [Moore very famously lives in Northampton]. I’m never going to watch this fucking thing.”
Solid critical reception, so-so box office returns and a lasting legacy
A graphic novel thought to be nigh unfilmable finally made its way to cinemas on March 6, 2009. Made on a production budget of $120 million, Watchmen went on to make $187 million worldwide which isn’t too bad all things considered. After all this was a hard R-rated comic book movie featuring neither big-name actors nor any recognizable superheroes set in a bleak, dystopian world which explored very dark and mature themes.
Although the overall critical reception was somewhat mixed there were a great many film critics who applauded the film and the efforts made to stay true to the source material. Critically acclaimed movie critic Roger Ebert gave the flick four out of four stars writing: “It’s a compelling visceral film—sound, images and characters combined into a decidedly odd visual experience that evokes the feel of a graphic novel.” Richard Corliss of Time magazine also had a positive experience and concluded that “this ambitious picture is a thing of bits and pieces,” yet “the bits are glorious, the pieces magnificent.” Other critics found fault with Snyder for slavishly adhering to the source material, and by extension the outdated 80s setting, and not instilling the movie with its own unique personality.
But regardless of detractors, with time, it became abundantly obvious that Snyder & co. had created a comic book movie that was ahead of the curve and even filmmaker Christopher Nolan attested to this notion saying, “I’ve always believed ‘Watchmen’ was ahead of its time. The idea of a superhero team, which it so brilliantly subverts, wasn’t yet a thing in movies.” Nolan added that the movie should have been released “post-Avengers” for audiences to truly understand what the movie was about. Because at the end of the day, Watchmen was essentially a deconstruction of the superhero genre that peeled back the layers to give a glimpse into the flawed, imperfect lives of superheroes whilst holding a dark mirror to our own morally bereft society. And this made Watchmen “nothing less than the boldest popcorn movie ever made,” to quote Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times.
Although Watchmen received mixed reviews from both critics and audiences, over time, the film has gained a cult following and is appreciated by many fans of the graphic novel. Overall, the making of Watchmen was a complex and challenging process, but it remains a significant adaptation of one of the most revered graphic novels of all time.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.