Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian in WATCHMEN(2009).
© Warner Bros.
SDCC: WATCHMEN Comic-Con Panel Highlights
By: Rob VauxDate: Friday, July 25, 2008
Director Zack Snyder and the cast of the highly anticipated Watchmen adaptation assured journalists that their work would be faithful to the classic Alan Moore/David Gibbons graphic novel. The director of 300 was joined by Gibbons at the San Diego Comic Con, along with actors Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson to answer questions about the upcoming film.
"If, at the end of the day, the movie turns out to be a three-hour advertisement for the book, then I would call it a success," Snyder spoke to a crowded room full of reporters. "It's an important work and our job is to do justice to it."
"There is a sense of being a part of something really special here," said Goode, who plays fair-haired super-genius Ozymandias. He and many of his fellow cast members found themselves debating the moral quandary of the story's conclusion during filming, and whether the "hero" he plays is justified in his actions.
Crudup, who plays the omnipotent Dr. Manhattan, was unfamiliar with the work before signing on, but quickly became enthralled by Watchmen's richness and complexity.
"I had never heard of it before," he commented. "My brother's a big graphic novel fan and I remember him having it in his apartment. But I was shocked by the script, because I had all these preconceived expectations about what a superhero movie might be like. This shattered every one of those expectations from the first page, and that was exciting."
Gibbons, who drew the original novel from Moore's script, has been happy with the filmmakers' work so far. "I've been really impressed with what I've seen. The details are just spot on. Maybe I'll be singing a different tune in six months, but frankly, from what I've seen so far, I don't think that will happen."
As for concerns about the film's length--studios traditionally balk at event movies being unduly long--Snyder only smiled. "Was The Dark Knight too long? If you go out [to that Comic Con crowd] and ask them if Watchmen should be fifteen minutes longer than, The Dark Knight, they're going to respond with an overwhelming 'yes'."
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