WE Are Watching The Watchmen

It’s been a long road from comic to big screen –but they’re finally coming.  The Watchmen.   Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ creative masterpiece – a graphic novel hailed as one of Time Magazine’s top 100 novels of all time – will open as a major motion picture on March 6, 2009.  

When The Watchmen first appeared in 1986/7 as a monthly comic spanning 12 issues… it was a year long read with a month of suspense between each chapter… and because Moore/Gibbons/DC fell behind schedule… sometimes more than a month of suspense. I still say that the pause between chapters made it EVEN BETTER - letting us pour over theimages, re-read every word for hidden meaning and deeper context.   The extra month(s) it took for the final issue to come out only built the anticipation and made the payoff that much more incredible. It's hard to imagine a 2 (or 3) hour movie being as enjoyable.  Still, the movie looks awesome from what's been shown so far.

 

 

The collected graphic novel has never been out of print and has received praise from both in and outside of the comic industry.   Often called “unfilmable” (even by writer Alan Moore who refuses to have anything to do with the movie) the project has bounced from studio to studio for decades… finally coming home to Warner Brothers (owners of DC Comics) where the film has finally come to life in the hands of Director Zack Snyder. 

In the past month we got a scare as dispute between 20^th Century Fox and Warner Brothers threatened to delay the release date… but it’s all be cleared up and The Watchmen are/is coming!

First movie posters, then trailers, and now  viral videos are starting to come out with incredible visuals from the decades long story… Check out this 1970 Newscast about Dr. Manhattan:
 

While it’s not unfilmable, there is certainly more to film for The Watchmen than will fit into a typical 2 hour

Hollywood

movie… Fans of the graphic novel will no doubt swarm to theaters March 6^th – but the real treat is going to be The Watchmen DVD – which no doubt will be loaded with extras that were jam-packed into the graphic novel – treats like Hollis Mason’s “Under The Hood”, commercials for Veidt Enterprises products, and The Tales of The Black Freighter.

 

And we're sure to see people in line wearing their Watchmen T-Shirts, carrying Watchmen Lunchboxes and toting Dr. Manhattan messenger bags.

The film’s (and book’s) central question is “Who Watches The Watchmen?”   The answer is WE DO.