Savage Popcorn

After my last post, here’s some positive comic-book to film news.

While promoting the much anticipated – by me, at least – 300, director Zack Snyder answered a few questions about his upcoming adaptation of Watchmen. And it does sound very positive indeed.

As previously mentioned, Snyder is planning to set the film in 1985 – as was the case with the book.

I think that by setting the movie in ‘85, by having the Cold War, having Nixon, having all that stuff you reinvigorate what the story is about. It allows all the metaphors…”

“I think what Alan Moore has, in his book, the comic he’s made about authority and government and all those things, they’re big themes. Maybe if you make that movie right, [then] what that has to say makes people think about what’s happening maybe now or in their own lives. That’s my hope for what the movie can be.”

Which all sounds very positive, but it gets better when he gets on to the often dreaded subject of CGI.

“The idea of Watchmen is not to do a CGI movie, but to do it when it’s necessary. Like when Doc Manhattan goes to Mars, there’s an issue here, we’ve got to figure that out. We can’t go to Mars, I know, a lot people are going to be disappointed by that – but I just don’t have the money. Antarctica also, there’s no Carnac built there. I know, again, we should probably build it and then go film it there, but I don’t think they’re going let us do that. So those two things right off the bat you can think about. Dr. Manhattan himself, what do you do, how do you make him – how do you render him. Rorschach’s mask. There’s things that have to be dealt with and figured out. But I think that the appetite for me is to make a movie that feel’s more like Taxi Driver than like Fantastic Four, again. So it’s a balance.”

Which is exactly the sort of thing that an over-aged fanboy such as me wants to hear. Snyder goes on to say “go see 300!” as the best way to ensure Watchmen gets made, gets a budget and doesn’t get turned into another clone of Fantastic Four.

It’s a comment I wholeheartedly endorse. Go see 300, even if you weren’t already planning to, because what Snyder is talking about for Watchmen sounds very promising indeed.

(Via First Showing by way of Filmstalker)

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