Watching the Watchmen

On March 6th, the much anticipated film Watchmen will hit screens across North America. The once twelve-issue comic, now complete graphic novel, was released in 1986 and 1987. Since its release the story had been tossed around Hollywood, but never made it past preliminary stages of production. Director Terry Gilliam was set to direct the film in the early 1990s for producer Joel Silver, but had the plug pulled on him just before production was approved. Gilliam had many issues with developing a producable script, and went on to say "I think it's going to be impossible to make as a film, unless you make it three and a half hours long, which most people aren't going to want". Try telling now director Zach Snyder that, who has completed the film at, well, just shy of three hours long according to sources. So what hit the cutting room floor?

While I have not had the pleasure of seeing the film yet, sources have said that the film has removed the Tales of the Black Freighter from the on-screen version. The plan right now is to release a seperate DVD animated version of the story a mere 5 days after the film hits the screens. The marketing machine is in full effect for this classic graphic novel, as you can already purchase condoms and mugs branded by the film (see here). The removing of the Black Freighter should help to shave off a small portion of the film, but coming in around three hours can only mean most other sections of the story have been preserved, or at least manipulated to be film friendly. Many rumours though are swirling that there is too much emphasis on the Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and Dr. Manhatten (Billy Crudup), becuase of Snyder's love for special effects and using sex to attract an audience. This has shown to be the case in most trailers and adds for the film, but I hope Snyder has grown past that in order to do the story justice. After all, a novel grows legs solely on the basis of good story telling, and so should a film. But that is not always the case...