Watchmen (film) Totally Explained

Everything about Watchmen Film totally explained

Watchmen is a 2009 film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' twelve-issue Hugo Award-winning comic book limited series Watchmen, directed by Zack Snyder. The film stars Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode, Stephen McHattie and Carla Gugino. Set in 1985, the film follows a group of former vigilantes as war begins to break out between the United States and the Soviet Union. The film began shooting in Vancouver in September 2007 for release on March 6 2009.

Cast

Patrick Wilson as Daniel Dreiberg / Nite Owl: A retired vigilante superhero with technological experience.
Billy Crudup as Dr. Jon Osterman / Doctor Manhattan: A superhero with genuine powers who works for the U.S. government. The role was once pursued by actor Keanu Reeves, but the actor abandoned his pursuit when the studio held up the project over budget concerns. He later visited the set while filming The Day the Earth Stood Still, an experience which he enjoyed. Crudup provides motion capture for the computer-generated character, and also plays Osterman in flashback as a human. Morgan found the role a challenge, explaining, "For some reason, in reading the novel, you don't hate this guy even though he does things that are unmentionable. [...] My job is to kind of make that translate, so as a viewer you end up not making excuses to like him, but you don't hate him like you should for doing the things that he does."
Jackie Earle Haley as Walter Kovacs / Rorschach: A superhero who continues his vigilante activities after they're outlawed. He was transformed over time from a "soft" costumed hero into a killer who sees the world in black and white. Small holes were made in the mask for him to see.
Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias: A retired vigilante superhero who has since made his identity public. The role of Ozymandias was originally connected to actors Jude Law
Matt Frewer as Edgar Jacobi / Moloch the Mystic: An elderly rehabilitated criminal, known when he was younger as an underworld kingpin and magician.
Niall Matter as Mothman: He isn't a main focus of the storyline, but appears in flashbacks, at one point reduced in his later years to fragile sanity, unnerving the second Silk Spectre. He is regarded fondly by most of the Minutemen, and the first Nite Owl sends the second to visit him, uncostumed, on his behalf.

Actor Thomas Jane said in June 2007 that Snyder had expressed interest in casting him in the film. Snyder said he wanted younger actors due to the many flashback scenes, and it was easier to age actors with make-up rather than cast two actors in the same role.
   Production for Watchmen began casting in July 2007 for look-alikes of the era's famous names for the film, including Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, H.R. Haldeman, Ted Koppel, John McLaughlin, Annie Leibovitz, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Fidel Castro, Albert Einstein, Norman Rockwell, John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Mao Zedong and Larry King. The actor playing Nixon used a full face prosthetic. Fox asked author Alan Moore to write a screenplay based on his story.
   Gordon and Silver set up the project at Warner Bros., where Terry Gilliam was attached to direct. Unsatisfied with how Hamm's script fleshed out the characters, Gilliam brought in long-time collaborator Charles McKeown to rewrite it. The second draft, which was credited to Gilliam, Warren Skaaren, and Hamm, used the character Rorschach's diary as a voice-over and restored scenes from the comic book that Hamm had removed. Filming was to take place at Pinewood Studios. Because both Gilliam and Silver's previous films, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Die Hard 2 respectively, went over budget, they were only able to raise $25 million for the film (a quarter of the necessary budget). After WB dropped the project, Gordon invited Gilliam back to helm the film independently. The director again declined, believing that the comic book would be better directed as a five-hour miniseries.
   Impressed with Zack Snyder's work on 300, an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name, Warner Bros. approached him to direct an adaptation of Watchmen. On June 23 2006, Warner Bros. announced that Zack Snyder would direct Watchmen with Alex Tse attached to write the script. For the new script, Tse drew "the best elements" from two of the project's previous drafts written by screenwriter David Hayter. The script didn't keep the contemporary atmosphere that Hayter created, but instead returned to the original Cold War setting of the Watchmen comic.
   Snyder said of his plans for filming Watchmen: "There are so many easter eggs in the frames (of the comic) so you want that level of detail in the movie itself." Similar to his approach to 300, Snyder used the comic book as a storyboard, travelling with a copy and annotating its pages. As well as the novel, Snyder cited Taxi Driver and Seven as visual influences. Snyder said his February 2007 revision of the script would require 2 1/2 hours of screen time. In December 2006, comic book artists Adam Hughes and John Cassaday were confirmed to work on character and costume design for Watchmen. Costume tests were being done by March 2007. 300 associate producer Wesley Coller played Rorschach in a costume test, which Snyder inserted into an R-rated trailer for 300.
   Snyder hoped to have principal photography take place from June—September 2007, but filming was delayed until September 17 2007. Sony Pictures Imageworks and Intelligent Creatures are among the visual effects companies working on the film.
   Composer Tyler Bates began scoring Watchmen in November 2007. He planned to visit the shoot for a week during each month, and view assembly cuts of scenes to begin rough composing. The film will use some of the songs mentioned in the comic. Moore had opposed the adaptation of Watchmen from the beginning, intending to give any resulting film royalties to Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. Before shooting, Snyder said "[I] totally respect his wishes to not be involved in the movie." Dave Gibbons enjoyed the script by Alex Tse, Gibbons gave Snyder some script advice which the director accepted.

Marketing

DC Direct will release action figures based on the film in January 2009. Director Zack Snyder has also set up a YouTube contest petitioning Watchmen fans to create faux commercials of products made by the fictional Veidt Enterprises.

Tales of the Black Freighter

Tales of the Black Freighter, a comic within the Watchmen comic, will be adapted as a direct-to-DVD anime, which will be released on March 11 2009. It was originally included in the script, but was cut due to budget restrictions, before WB raised the budget. Snyder previously considered including it in the final cut if it worked well. Gerard Butler, who worked with Snyder on 300, is voicing the Captain in the film, having been promised a role in Snyder's adaptation of the comic. The DVD will also include Under the Hood, a documentary detailing the characters' backstories, which takes its cue from Hollis Mason's memoirs in the novel.

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