Watchmen Easter Eggs

I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the Easter eggs crammed into the Watchmen movie...heck, I try and do that for all the comic book movies I watched!

While I got some of the more obvious ones like references to The Black Freighter comic book that is an integral part of the graphic novel, the Village People appearing at the front of Studio 54, just behind Ozymandias, and the Comedian being responsible for Kennedy's assassination, there was quite a lot of stuff that I missed.

Here are two sites that highlight some of the Easter eggs from the Watchmen movie that you might have missed.

The first one is absolutely brilliant, with stills from the movie and picture comparisons!

Easter Eggs (And Missing Parts) In Watchmen's Titles

The second one is more of just a regular article, but it's still pretty good:

'Watchmen' Easter Eggs: Our Favorite Blink-And-You'll-Miss-'Em Moments

Enjoy!

Review: Watchmen: The Movie

So we ended up watching the big screen adaptation of Watchmen yesterday at the cinema. As stated in the previous blog entry, I was extremely excited to see Alan Moore’s seminal and memorable characters make the jump from the four-colour medium of comics to the big screen.

Expectations, not just from me, but from the comic book community, were undoubtedly huge. Alan Moore once called Watchmen “unfilmable”. Could Zack Snyder, the director who made Frank Miller’s “300” a critical and commercial success, defy the odds once again by making Watchmen THE most acclaimed comic book movie of all-time, just like the graphic novel was heralded as the “Citizen Kane” of comic books?

Spoiler warning: From this point on, I will be reviewing the movie and will be examining major plot points, discussing minute details of the comic and the movie as well as revealing the twists. If you haven’t yet read the Watchmen graphic novel or watched the movie and don’t want it spoiled for you, STOP READING THIS BLOG ENTRY NOW.



Still reading? Good. Let’s talk about the Watchmen movie then.

I came out of the cinema feeling pretty shallow and empty. Watchmen was a good 160 minutes including the credits, making it probably the longest comic book movie, in terms of movie screening length, ever made.

Of course, it is naïve to begin to think that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ magnum opus could be squeezed into a 2 hour movie, the average length of modern comic book movies. But the Watchmen movie seemed to go on an extra 30 minutes too long, even though I acknowledge that any shorter and you’d lose major plot points from the graphic novel.

It’s not that I didn’t like the movie. I did, for most parts. But the last third of the movie was a let-down, and it seemed to be dragging on needlessly. Was this because the end of the movie was poorly scripted? Was it because they had rushed the big reveal, the big ending, which was significantly changed from the graphic novel?

Or was it because the build-up towards the climax of the movie was extremely fantastic that when it was revealed that Adrian Veidt was the villain, the way the reveals came about just utterly destroyed what had come before?

I’m not quite sure. As I said, I was excited for most of the movie, especially the first half, but the final third of the movie just spoiled it for me, and since the last part of the movie is usually the one that you remember a movie for, it kind of soured the entire movie for me.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but as I said, by and large, my expectations were met for most of the movie. I think it was very true to the graphic novel for most parts, up until perhaps the scene where Rorschach was freed from Sing Sing and then it all went downhill from there.

But I’m being too general. Let’s examine parts of the movie that I liked and parts that I didn’t like.

The opening sequence was breathtaking. This was where it was obvious that a movie could do so much to portray the Comedian’s death than the graphic novel could. The graphic novel starts with the Comedian having already been killed by being beaten up and thrown out of his room of a very very tall building.

In the movie, we see the Comedian settling down to watch a TV program, which describes the escalation of potential nuclear war between America and the USSR. All of a sudden, someone breaks into his room and for the next three minutes, we see the vicious one-sided fight between the Comedian, an aging 67 year old man, and his assailant who not only brutally assaults the Comedian, but makes it look oh so easy.

While the Comedian is being beaten to a pulp, we’re being treated to Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable” playing on the TV in the background, from the advertisement of Adrian Veidt’s Nostalgia perfume. A sign of foreshadowing perhaps? Of course, the Nostalgia ad being part of Veidt Enterprises is never really mentioned, though that’s a neat Easter egg for those who had read the novel. Perhaps a bit camp, fighting to that background music but I’m sure it was deliberately filmed that way.

This fight sequence is never shown in great detail in the graphic novel, being just a simple flashback sequence of the Comedian getting his butt kicked, so it’s refreshing to see the fight in all its gory detail. The Comedian gets thrown through the plate glass windows of his apartment and plunges to his death…cue the opening title credits sequence!

This opening credits sequence was also brilliant, with a fantastic song playing in the background. We are introduced to the Minutemen of the 30s/40s, showing how they got together as a superteam and nearly each members’ fall from grace. Alan Moore fleshes out almost all of the Minutemen’s backstory in the graphic novel via “extra features” outside the main story, such as Hollis Mason’s (the original Nite Owl) biography, Under the Hood, and of course, it’s impossible to go through each individual character’s backstory in the movie, so the opening sequence does a great job of quickly showing, in 10 second segments, what happened to each character.

After the introduction of the original Nite Owl beating up a bank robber, we see the Silk Spectre being introduced to the press, with the policemen standing on either side of her trying to glance down to catch a glimpse of her boobs. We then see the formation of the Minutemen and the reveal that Silhouette is a lesbian by snogging a nurse after Japan surrenders at the close of World War 2.

We then see the death of Dollar Bill when he gets shot after getting his cape caught in a revolving door. We also see Mothman being committed to an asylum. Silhouette and her lover have been murdered in a hotel room with the words “Lesbian whores” scrawled on the wall. The Minutemen’s fall from grace lead to the formation of the second generation of heroes including the main protagonists in the movie. In the graphic novel, this second generation of heroes was known as the Crimebusters, though we learn later on during the movie that they called themselves “Watchmen”.

The next few segments in the opening credits sequence show how each Watchman is ensconced in real life events happening in America in the 60s and 70s. John F Kennedy shakes hands with Dr Manhattan on the lawn for the White House. In the next segment, we see John F Kennedy’s head snap back and then forwards in that famous assassination. The camera pans to the right where we see the Comedian was the assassin! Neil Armstrong lands on the moon and turns around, only for us to see the reflection of the Dr Manhattan already standing on the moon.

Andy Warhol is in an art gallery, unveiling his latest art of Nite Owl II, while Ozymandias is posing for photographs outside Studio 54; just standing behind Ozymandias is the Village People! We are also introduced to Rorschach who doesn’t appear on-screen, but has left behind his calling card after tying two criminals to a lightpost.

The 70s sequence shows the hippie movement where a hippie girl puts a flower in the barrel of a gun that’s pointed directly at her; soon, all of the hippies get shot. President Nixon gets re-elected for a third term, changing the course of history in the Watchmen world, and we also see the amassing of nuclear arsenals by Fidel Castro and his Russian counterpart.

It is a superb credit sequence that sets the tone for what has passed before in the Watchmen world. It does a great job considering there is so much happening in the graphic novel and to be able to distil the main plot points and cram it into a brilliant and stunning visual opening sequence is just magnificent.

The main story starts off exactly the same way the comic book does, focusing in on the smiley face pin that the Comedian wears. The camera pulls back upwards towards the window of the Comedian’s apartment where Detective Fine and his partner wonder who would want to kill a 67 year old man.

What I really love about the first half of the movie is that scenes are filmed and duplicated almost exactly the way they were illustrated in the comics. From Rorschach’s breaking into Nite Owl’s apartment and then storming out; to the flashback sequences showing each individual character’s involvement with the Comedian; to the retelling of Dr Manhattan’s past; to Rorschach’s capture and his subsequent rescue by Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II…the scenes from the graphic novel are lovingly and carefully reproduced in the movie. Way too many scenes to go through individually.

Which leads directly into the dialogue. While it’s impossible to expect all the dialogue from the graphic novel to be replicated in the movie, the script does take the most memorable lines from the graphic novel and either transposes them directly, or are largely intact, just changing a few words here and there. The most memorable quotes are:

“Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire thread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me, I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their wasists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout ‘Save us!’, and I’ll look down and whisper ‘No’.” – Rorschach’s first line of dialogue from both the movie and graphic novel

“Hurm.” – Rorschach

“You were a better Nite Owl than I ever was.”
“Hollis, we both know that’s bullshit.”
“Hey, watch with the language! This is the left hook that floored Captain Axis, remember?”
- exchange between the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason, and his successor, Daniel Dreiberg

“An ordinary burglar? Kill the Comedian? Ridiculous.” – Rorschach

“Um. Don’t you think that’s maybe a little paranoid?”
“That’s what they’re saying about me now? That I’m paranoid”
- exchange between Nite Owl and Rorschach

“Yes. I remember. Used to come here often. Back when we were partners.”
“Yeah, those were great times, Rorschach. Whatever happened to them?”
“You quit.”
- exchange between Rorschach and Nite Owl

“Meeting with Dreiberg left bad taste in mouth. A flabby failure who sits whimpering in his basement. Why are so few of us left active, health, and without personality disorders? Only two names remaining on my list. Both share private quarters at Rockefeller Military Research Centre. I shall go to them. I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.” – Rorschach

And all that is just from the first issue! Rorschach does have all the best and most quotable lines. I can just see the entire movie having heaps of quotable lines, just like in Army of Darkness.

There are too many memorable lines of dialogue in the movie that are taken straight out from the graphic novel, but others include the Pagliacci joke (which no one seemed to get in the movie, I was the only one laughing!), Rorschach’s exchange with Big Figure in Sing Sing prison, Rorschach’s memorable “I’m not locked up in here with you, you’re locked up in here with me!” line, the “The superman exists, and he’s American” line, Dr Manhattan’s the miracle of turning oxygen into gold line, and Rorschach’s “Never compromise, not even in the face or Armageddon” line.

There are plenty of Easter eggs throughout the movie that probably get lost on all those who haven’t read the novel before. When meeting Adrian Veidt for the first time, we see the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in the background, leaving no doubt that while this is an alternate reality from the one we know, the characters are all in New York. We see Mason’s auto repair shop, the Gunga Diner, the offices of the New Frontiersman, a right wing publication that Rorschach picks up daily.

Part of the fun of the movie, for me at least, was trying to spot as many Easter eggs as possible, things that were strictly in the background of the movie, but made up the big picture in the graphic novel. Graffiti of “Who Watches the Watchmen?” on walls, cameos of the newsvendor, the kid who sits at the newsstand reading the comic book, “The Black Freighter”, the lesbian taxi driver Joey, and a poster of “The Black Freighter” on the newsstand. They even reproduce the “War?” headline on the front page of a newspaper! I think I’m going to have to get a copy of the DVD when it’s released and play each scene back slowly to see if I can catch all the Easter eggs!

We even hear Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”, which is referenced in Hollis Mason’s Under the Hood, when there is this flashback sequence of Dr Manhattan intervening in the Vietnam War. When you hear “Ride of the Valkyries” blaring over the speakers and see the imposing 40 foot tall half naked body of Dr Manhattan walking over the fields of Saigon, incinerating the Viet Cong soldiers, one gets a chill of excitement running through one’s body.

Which leads directly to the music; it is an absolutely brilliant and breathtaking soundtrack. The licensed songs fit the scenes perfectly: when Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk meet for dinner, Nena’s “99 Luftballoons” play in the background. When the Comedian gets buried in the cemetery, we hear Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence”. We even hear the extremely cheesy “Hallelujah” when Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II make love for the first time in Nite Owl’s ship, Archie (short for “Archimedes”, Merlin’s pet owl, as Nite Owl tells us himself in a later scene).

I can’t wait for the soundtrack to get released because I’m sure I’ll be getting it!

There’s quite a bit of deliberate campy humour in the movie as well, which fits with the deliberate humour from the graphic novel. When Nite Owl and Rorschach ask when Ozymandias plans to execute his evil “mad scientist” plans, Ozymandias remarks that he’s not some “comic book villain” and he did it 35 minutes ago (in the novel Ozzy remarks that he’s not a “republic serial villain” instead). When Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II spring Rorschach from prison, Rorschach remarks that he needs to first use the men’s bathroom before they can leave (though of course, Rorschach is trying to get his hands on Little Figure).

We also see the awkwardness when Dan and Laurie try having sex for the first time, with Dan not being able to…uhm…perform. Actually, that is probably a negative of the movie because Dan and Laurie have this really weird relationship in the graphic novel where it’s a balance between Dan’s impotence and Laurie’s fetishes. It’s never really dealt with in the movie at all, making very scant reference to Dan’s impotence.

When Dan and Laurie finally do have sex in Archie, when close to…uh…finishing…Laurie accidentally hits the flamethrower button and a large burst of flames shoot out from Archie’s…uh…mouth. A sexual innuendo if there ever was one! These moments of campness make it a bit hard to interpret the movie. From the graphic novel, we know that it’s deliberate, but it doesn’t really translate well onto screen. For such a dark movie, there sure must have been a few movie-goers thinking to themselves, “What the hell? Why is there an attempt of humour here?”

There are many cameos in the movie from famous figures in history to show the era which the movie takes place in. The aforementioned cameos in the opening credits title sequence of John F Kennedy, Neil Armstrong (though one doesn’t see his face behind his spacesuit helmet), Andy Warhol, the Village People, Fidel Castro, and I believe even Mick Jagger, who I didn’t catch but who’s name is in the final credits!

There are also cameos in the movie itself to show that it’s 1985, with people such as Lee Iacocca and Ted Koppel making an appearance. Of course, Richard Nixon plays an important role in the movie as the President of the United States. “Tricky Dick” as Rorschach calls him, has the unenviable task of deciding whether to empty out America’s nuclear arsenal in a pre-emptive strike against the Russians. While the actor playing Richard Nixon in the movie does look and sound like the real Nixon, it’s just a shame that they couldn’t get Frank Langella, who played the disgraced President in the Oscar nominated “Frost/Nixon” to reprise his role! That would have been icing on the cake.

I’ve been avoiding this topic for a while, but let’s get to the casting of the actors. While there are no real big-name or A-level celebrities among the actors chosen to play the roles of the various Watchmen, the casting was absolutely spot on…whoever did the casting needs a huge pay rise for choosing the best actors to reprise their respective roles in the movie!

Billy Crudup is probably the most well known actor out of the main cast of actors and he does a fine job of playing the emotionless Dr Manhattan. One does wonder whether it is Crudup’s “member” we see in those scenes where Dr Manhattan is completely nude. Crudup’s Dr Manhattan is unnervingly devoid of any sentiment and plays the part perfectly…you will believe that a god can walk this earth!

The casting of Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach is a masterpiece. It will be an utter shock to me if I ever hear that anyone who’s watched the movie isn’t convinced or blown away by Haley’s performance. Rorschach is a misfit, an outcast and a sociopath and Haley delivers Rorschach’s psychotic lines as if he believes every single word that he says.

While Haley is brilliant with the mask on, his performance is out of this world when the mask comes off. From the little changes of facial expression to his snarling voice when he threatens his fellow inmates, this is one character you never EVER want to get on the wrong side of.

While on the topic of psychopaths, I was a bit disappointed when I found out Bruce Campbell wasn’t chosen as the Comedian (even though he was never in the running! I’m just a big Bruce Campbell fan), Jeffrey Dean Morgan played the part with all guns a-blazing. Morgan is utterly believable as a grade A asshole who has no sympathy for his fellow man and takes great pleasure in causing as much wanton destruction as humanly possible. He shows a disdain for women and loves the fact that he can cause as much carnage as he wants…and no one can lift a finger to do anything about it because he’s being paid by the government to do so! It’s just a shame that the Comedian has limited screen time, just like in the graphic novel.

Patrick Wilson, when wearing those goofy plastic spectacles, is a dead ringer for Dan Dreiberg. He is every bit as insecure as the character he plays and always second guesses himself, not knowing whether what he’s doing is the right thing to do. All of Wilson’s best scenes are when he’s playing Dreiberg and out of the costume; when he’s playing the part of this bumbling fool who doesn’t know how to reveal his feelings for Laurie Juspeczyk.

Matthew Goode is sparkling as villain Ozymandias, who is cocky, self assured is completely convinced that everything he does, all his acts of evil, is for the good of mankind. There is an evilness lurking behind the façade of his good looks and you truly believe that the smartest man on the earth could kill you with little effort if he put his mind to it.

Not quite sure what to think of Malin Akerman, who does a great job of playing Silk Spectre II, but seems to be relegated to a minor role behind all the testosterone-laden male protagonists. While she does play a major role in the graphic novel, she seems to play a bit part in the movie, with her greatest contribution (other than the gratuitous sex scenes with Dan and Dr Manhattan) convincing Dr Manhattan to save the world…by simply crying. She fits her spandex/latex costume really well though; it must be hard to move around in that costume, let alone do all those fighting scenes in it!

My favourite characters in the movie are, in this order, Rorschach, Dan Dreiberg (not Nite Owl, but his alter ego) and the Comedian. Pretty much exactly like the graphic novel!

Those are the good bits out of the way, unfortunately, like I said at the start of this review, a long long time ago, the good bits aren’t enough to save the movie, just the last third of the movie made it such that this movie will NOT be the most acclaimed comic book movie of all time.

The worst part of the movie in my opinion is the different ending from the graphic novel. In Watchmen, Ozymandias engineers the death of millions of people to save billions from nuclear holocaust. While this is the same in the movie, there is one single, major difference.

In the comic book, Ozymandias gets a team of people to DNA-engineer a lifeform, designed to look like an alien, which is teleported to the heart of New York City. The alien self destructs and kills millions, with the psychic resonations killing millions more, forcing the Americans and Russians, already on the brink of engaging in nuclear war, to declare an alliance against the would-be alien invaders, resulting in world peace.

In the movie, Ozymandias and Dr Manhattan work on solving the world’s energy crisis where Dr Manhattan inadvertently creates energy “modules” that are based on his own powers and sends them to Ozymandias’ Antartica base, Karnak, so that Ozzy’s scientists can research and explore these modules in greater detail.

Ozymandias teleports these modules to major cities across the world like Los Angeles, London, Beijing and of course, New York City, and triggers a self-destruct mechanism which kills millions caught up in the blast. As these modules were based on Dr Manhattan’s powers, it is made to look that Dr Manhattan has declared war on the world.

If you take the movie ending and dissect it, it is a sound and plausible alternative from the graphic novel ending. After all, it achieves the same ends where something catastrophic happens that forces the Americans and Russians to call for a ceasefire resulting in world peace. I’m not convinced though.

To have pretty much the entire movie follow the events in the graphic novel and then change the ending completely is just…sacrilege. Perhaps I’m just an ornery comic book fan who wants stuff to be EXACTLY the way it is in the graphic novel.

I acknowledge that Alan Moore’s original idea of having that alien lifeform ending is a bit kitsch and would be really difficult to incorporate into the movie. After all, there was this whole backstory in the graphic novel of a whole team of people (psychics, artists, writers, etc) being relocated to a deserted island who had a hand in the creation of the alien lifeform. This involved writer Max Shea’s pirate comic “The Black Freighter” and there were many panels in the comic devoted to that…of course, that had to be abandoned from the movie, so it made more sense to have a completely different ending since one couldn’t explore that same backstory in the movie without adding minutes to the movie.

But I would still have loved to see it so that it remained true to the graphic novel. Why stay 90% true to the graphic novel but have 10% completely different? I wonder what Alan Moore would say when he finds out that his most seminal work has been altered. He already hates Hollywood but this would cause him to hate it even more I’m sure.

That last third of the movie was a real let down as well, after the first part was so true and faithful and built everything up. But like a house of cards, all it takes is for one badly placed card and everything falls apart.

The movie sort of went downhill after Rorschach was freed from Sing Sing. The next few scenes all went by very quickly and it seemed as if the movie was “forced” to end quickly. Laurie’s time with Dr Manhattan on Mars was fairly short, though I suppose I don’t think the audience could have sat around for TOO long while Dr Manhattan marvelled at Olympus Mons or Valles Marineris. Even the big reveal by Ozymandias seemed…campy.

The reveal of Ozymandias’ plot just went on too quickly…I only know what was going on because I had read the graphic novel! I can just imagine how head-spinning it would be for anyone who hadn’t read the source material, because it just went very quickly from Ozzy’s killing of the Comedian, to his plot to remove Dr Manhattan from the playing field, to the framing of Rorschach and to the attack on his persona which was faked to throw Rorschach off his real scheme.

There’s nothing really specific, other than the changed ending, that I would attest to the last third of the movie spoiling it for me. I just can’t put a finger on what went wrong…it’s just a combination of different things that happened that sort of soured the movie for me. I will fondly remember the movie for the first two-thirds, but not the last.

Though I’m sure a lot of people, especially those who had never read the source material, would disagree with me, I found there was too many unnecessary things that were “highlighted” in the movie. There was too much unnecessary violence, too much unnecessary nudity and the sex scenes went on too long!

I full expected to see nudity in the movie, especially full frontal nudity of Dr Manhattan since it was certainly brought to the forefront in the graphic novel. In fact, when we first see Dr Manhattan’s “member” in the movie, there was a loud gasp among viewers in the audience. For shock value, that was unbelievable. But then they showed it over and over and over again to the point where there was no real reason why they were exposing Dr Manhattan’s member, it just seemed extremely unnecessary and gratuitous.

Speaking of gratuitous, did we really need to see an extended sex scene between Dan and Laurie with “Hallelujah” playing in the background? Sure, Malin Akerman has a nice body and I suppose they wanted that whole sexual innuendo thing of Archie spewing out fire, but I personally feel like there was no necessity to drag it out that long.

These guys are superheroes, yes, but apart from Rorschach, who is a sociopath who breaks people’s fingers and throw them down elevator shafts, and the Comedian, who kills for fun, none of the other characters in the graphic novel I would classify as vigilantes who go around hurting people unnecessarily.

And yet we see Dr Manhattan disintegrate a whole bunch of crooks in a bar (we sort of see that same scene in the graphic novel, but nowhere close to being as violent or gruesome!) and their entrails hang off from off the ceiling. We also see Dr Manhattan obliterating the Viet Cong with “Ride of the Valkyries” playing in the background, but I guess that’s war…plus it added some campy humour to that scene!

In the very first scene we see Dan and Laurie take on a bunch of muggers, Dan breaks a mugger’s arm…with the bone piercing the skin and blood spurting forth. Laurie then kicks a mugger in the shin, breaking it too with his lower leg sticking out the wrong way! Really, is there any necessity to show this at all? Yes, some people find it cool, but what is the purpose of showing those ultra violent scenes? Dan and Laurie aren’t vigilantes! They aren’t sociopaths!

We also see Rorschach use a chopper to cleave a child murderer’s head in half…you could sense that the audience was cringing every time Rorschach pulled the chopper from out of the murderer’s head and “threw” it back in again. And the scene where Larry is blocking the entrance to Rorschach’s cell; Big Figure orders his other goon, Michael, to cut off Larry’s arms. Michael does so…and we literally see Larry’s arms being cut off with an electric saw. Campy and funny, yes, but once again, unnecessary violence we don’t really need to see.

The reveal of the Comedian as Laurie’s father was an almost non-entity as well! In the comic, the reveal is built up slowly and gradually with all the clues being there for us to put everything together on our own. When it came to the final reveal, readers were left to work it out themselves and they would know exactly that the Comedian sired Laurie even before it was actually put in print. But in the movie, this was relegated to perhaps two or three scenes where Laurie’s mother, the original Silk Spectre, was arguing with her husband, Laurence Schexnayder, about the Comedian.

The audience doesn’t get a chance to put the clues together as there is a mention of the Comedian raping Silk Spectre I and about them having sex just the one time…and then Dr Manhattan reveals that the Comedian is Laurie’s real father. But the reveal has no impact whatsoever…it’s as if they’ve just decided to lampoon the reveal of Darth Vader’s fatherhood of Luke Skywalker in the Empire Strikes Back!

Of course, in the graphic novel, this reveal has much more significance. We’re shown very early on that Laurie hates the Comedian for his attempted rape on her mother. There is mention of this on one occasion in the movie but it was never brought up again. While the graphic novel showed how much Laurie hated pretty much everything in the superhero community, movie Laurie didn’t have that anger or pathos. So when it’s revealed that the Comedian is Laurie’s father, it just feels flat. I’m sure there would be audience members going: “Really? Who cares? What’s this got to do with the movie?”

Hollis Mason doesn’t die in the movie…in fact, he’s not featured at all apart from the first act of the movie when he’s catching up with Dan for drinks. He dies in the graphic novel, adding that extra level of angst in Dan, going into the final few chapters. Once again, I understand that to cram all this extra detail in the movie would just make it drag on for an extra few hours, so it’s probably good that they didn’t add this in.

I really disliked the fact that the movie script made Janey Slater out to be a villain. She confronts Dr Manhattan at the TV studio in the movie, pulling off a wig to show that she has acquired cancer from him. No sign of her doing this in the graphic novel though. It is also revealed in the movie that it was Janey Slater who hired Victor Chess, the man who made the attempt on the life of Adrian Veidt. Even though Adrian was the ultimate orchestrator, it painted Janey in the light of a villain, when she is anything but. Yes, Janey Slater was bitter in the graphic novel, but not to the point where she wanted to take revenge on Dr Manhattan, as portrayed in the movie.

There are some issues in the graphic novel that either don’t feature in the movie or just can’t be replicated on the big screen…remember Alan Moore saying that the comic was inherently “unfilmable”? There were some scenes of the “Fearful Symmetry” chapter where we see the neon lights of a seedy motel reflected in a puddle, but that’s about all we got in the movie, referencing the aforementioned famous chapter in Watchmen.

There are political nuances in the graphic novel as well as the examination of the super hero genre that wasn’t featured in the movie. The examination/commentary about homosexuality doesn’t make it to the movie either. What was most disappointing though, is there was scant reference to Dan Dreiberg’s impotence and Laurie Juspeczyk’s fetishes and trying to live up to her mother’s expectations.

Ozymandias’ costume is terrible. It looks as if it were taken out of one of Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies! His genetically altered sabertooth tiger, Bubastis, makes a brief appearance in the movie as well, though probably just to appease fans, but it had absolutely no bearing or consequence in the movie at all…they might as well have done without Bubastis!

No Max Shea’s “The Black Freighter” and we because there was only a cameo for the newsvendor, we don’t get to see the funny exchange between him and Rorschach’s doomsayer-with-a-the-world-is-ending picket sign; in the comics, Rorschach tells the newsvendor that the world would definitely be ending that day but also asks the newsvendor to make sure he keeps his regular copy of The New Frontiersman tomorrow.

Speaking of the doomsayer picket sign character, we see him in certain sequences during the movie, but it’s just not obvious that it’s Rorschach at all. Plus, we never really get to see a proper close-up of doomsayer-guy’s face, so when Rorschach’s mask is pulled off in the movie, if you haven’t read the graphic novel, it’s unlikely you’d recognise who that was. We see doomsayer guy’s face often in the graphic novel so when the mask finally comes off Rorschach’s face, we instantly go: “I can’t believe Rorschach is that hobo going around proclaiming that Armageddon is at hand!”

Just a nitpick: when Ozymandias, the Comedian, Dr Manhattan, Nite Owl and Rorschach come together to form their supergroup in the movie (no Captain Metropolis either!), they actually call their group “Watchmen”. The group was never formed in the graphic novel and even when they were discussing the formation of the group, Captain Metropolis suggested that they be called “Crimebusters”.

I guess the movie script went with the group being called “Watchmen” so as to add some continuity in why the movie was called “Watchmen”.

Of course, that isn’t the reason why Alan Moore named the series “Watchmen”.

But I’ll stop here as this has been one unbelievably lengthy review of the movie compared to the source material. It has taken me over three hours to craft this review and if you’ve read the entire review and got to the end, I congratulate you.

I do like the Watchmen movie. I think it has gravitas; it’s not as good as it could have been, but it is faithful to the graphic novel, up to a certain point at least.

I just can’t take away the glaring differences between the graphic novel and the movie’s ending and the omission of some of the material from the graphic novel and plot points that added to the overall story. The movie is good, but it’s not great.

Watchmen is truly the most acclaimed graphic novel in the history of comics and still remains one of my favourite comics of all time. The number of times I’ve read the series from cover to cover! The movie though? Not quite the most acclaimed comic book movie of all time.

However, it did take a few readings of the graphic novel to get most of the nuances and appreciate what a masterpiece it was. Perhaps it’s the same with the movie where you need repeated viewings? Only time will tell on that one.

Watchmen: The greatest graphic novel of all time!

I re-read the Absolute Watchmen HC graphic novel on Wednesday evening in two sittings; wanted to make sure I remembered even the most minute detail before actually catching the Watchmen movie on the big screen, which was released in cinemas Australia-wide on Thursday.


There's a reason why Watchmen has been called, and is by and large recognised as the greatest and most acclaimed graphic novel in the history of comics: it is just absolutely brilliant. It was a tale certainly way ahead of its time...every single time I read it, I keep discovering something new!


To be honest, the first time I read Watchmen, probably some time in the early 00s, I wasn't that impressed. Sure, it was a good read and it had some fascinating characters and character interactions and a wonderful twist ending (which was already spoiled for me since I'm an avid reader of Wizard magazine and they've referenced Watchmen so many times in the past), but I didn't think it was THAT special.


It took a second read for me to grasp how special and truly brilliant it was. And then a third read. And a fourth...this graphic novel wasn't just exceptional, it wasn't just brilliant; it was simple out of this world and nothing could come close to a story of this magnitude, nothing was even COMPARABLE to this!

All the little nuances and the stuff that Alan Moore crammed into the story...it all somehow added extra layers to the overall story but at the same time contributed to the overall story. You could read each individual chapter and it would mean something. You could take different parts of the story like Max Shea's pirate tale and read it on its own as well and still get something out of it.

And Dave Gibbons' wonderful art. Each panel, so meticulously and beautifully constructed. And all those little hidden Easter eggs in the background, just teasing readers to see if they can catch everything that's happening in the scene, things that would add up to a larger Easter egg that's part of the overall story!

Most stories are straightforward and you get everything in the one read. Not Watchmen. Watchmen was special; it takes multiple reads to grasp and understand the majority of the concepts that Moore has included in this 12 issue maxi-series. The political commentary, the black humour, the sexual innuendos, the environmental commentary; it was all there in those pages, one just needed to see if one could, to coin a Pokemon phrase, "catch 'em all"!

Alas, many have also called Watchmen as the comic that is inherently unfilmable. I certainly can understand that; how can one possibly reproduce a chapter like "Fearful Symmetry" on the big screen? How do you do that without losing the story's essence? A chapter like "Fearful Symmetry" just can't be reproduced on the big screen! Other scenes transferred from the comic medium to the big screen would also lose its meaning...so what would the movie look like then?

From the few trailers I've watched on TV so far, the Watchmen movie looks like it's "glamourising" the action parts of the graphic novel. The characters are larger than life and they all look fantastic on the big screen; I couldn't imagine how stupid the Minutemen would look on screen with their campy costumes, but they don't look half bad at all from the movie stills!

I definitely cannot wait to watch the movie. Expectations are unbelievably high, as one might expect, which could lead to a lot of disappointment if Zack Snyder hasn't done the right thing by the graphic novel. But hey, then again, I guess he could be forgiven; fans expectations are unreasonably high for the movie adaption of the greatest and most acclaimed graphic novel of all-time, the one that they've all said is unfilmable.

"Watchmen" watch

Here are some teaser images from the Watchmen movie:


‘WATCHMEN’ WATCH
Check out the story hints hidden within the first teasers from the big-screen adaptation
By Rickey Purdin

Posted December 19, 2007 9:20 AM

1.The newsstand (complete with a green-shirted manager and a young man) can be seen heavily throughout Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. Within the 12-issue series, the youngster reads a pirate comic, The Black Freighter. Over the young reader’s left shoulder in the photo from director Zack Snyder’s adaptation is a Black Freighter poster complete with a tiny, retro DC Comics bullet!

2. The bottom of the “Rumrunner” neon sign can be partially seen here. In Watchmen, one of Rorschach’s old enemies, Moloch the Mystic, lives a retired, quiet life in an apartment to the left of the red and yellow relic. In issue #5, Rorschach— framed for the murder of Moloch—is apprehended on the street directly below that sign.

3. Burlesk, one of the seedy adult cinemas in “Watchmen,” hides in the background here flashing a marquee advertising “Enola Gay and the Boys.” The same stag film and theater appear on page 25 of Watchmen issue #2. 42nd Street in Manhattan acts as the hub for the comic series’ action and, if the film stays true to the source material, should see a lot of screen time in the film.

4. In the comic, a concert for a band calling itself Pale Horse (as in Death’s pony) takes place on the same night as the shocking and dramatic events of Watchmen #11-#12. Fliers and posters can be seen for the concert throughout the miniseries, and here, one can be viewed clearly above the subway entrance close to the newsstand.

5. Layout was integral when Moore and Gibbons created Watchmen. If the film follows their original design, the white building the Pale Horse poster hangs on should be the Institute for Extraspatial Studies. It’s that building, in issue #12, where a cataclysmic event changes the world and characters forever.

In the other photos, fans can spy Rorschach walking past a poster of President Richard Nixon, running for a fifth term in the film; the Gunga Diner, where Nite Owl and Silk Spectre begin their affair; and a bus stop around the corner from the newsstand.

Official "Watchmen" movie photos released

Well, I knew I probably shouldn't have posted yesterday's little blurb on Watchmen, simply because I knew sometime down the line, Wizard would have a separate article WITH the photos. And here they are!

OFFICIAL 'WATCHMEN' MOVIE PHOTOS RELEASED
See how the photos from Zack Snyder's film stack up to an original Dave Gibbons' drawing

Posted November 27, 2007 6:10 PM

Warner Bros. and Director Zack Snyder have released official photos from the upcoming “Watchmen” movie, based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' classic comic.

Wizard Universe has obtained the photos and you can see them right here. And for an added bonus, check out how Snyder's set matches up with one of Gibbons' original drawings.

New "Watchmen" images hit web

And while I'm still on the topic of movies, here's an update on the Watchmen flick:


NEW 'WATCHMEN' IMAGES HIT WEB
New photos from the set of 'Watchmen'

Posted November 26, 2007 7:30 PM

“Watchmen” director Zack Snyder updated the film’s official Website with four new photos, and provided a rundown of some of the more interesting facts about the film’s sets constructed in Vancouver.

Planned for a March 6, 2009 release, the movie’s new photos appear to show a glimpse of Rorschach as he walks by a Richard Nixon re-election poster, as well as some teasers of key scenes and locations from the classic comic.

Check out Snyder’s new post and photos here and check back to wizarduniverse.com for the latest info on the film.

LMS: Silver Surfer Vs Dr Manhattan

It's kind of hard to top off the previous two LMS features I wrote, since they were all basically free-for-all slugfights and were so much fun to write!

Decided my next LMS, written on 25 September 2007, was going to be between two stoic, but unbelievably powerful characters:


Let's pit two of the most powerful members in their respective universes against each other! On the one side, Norrin Radd. On the other, Dr Jon Osterman!


Tale of the Tape

Home:
Silver Surfer - space, originally Zenn-La
Dr Manhattan - New York City

Nature:
Silver Surfer - compassionate, loves all living things
Dr Manhattan - aloof, thinks he's above all living things

Complexion:
Silver Surfer - chrome silver, shiny, smooth and cold to the touch
Dr Manhattan - sky blue, blends in when standing in front of a blue screen

Most often mistaken for:
Silver Surfer - T-1000 from Terminator 2
Dr Manhattan - a balder, nuder version of Blue Devil

Most distasteful feature:
Silver Surfer - the surfboard. What is this, the 90s?
Dr Manhattan - walking around nude 80 per cent of the time

THE PLAYERS:
In order to save his home planet from the planet-eater Galactus, Norrin Radd pledges to serve as Galactus' herald, surfing the spaceways as the power-cosmic imbued Silver Surfer!

After an accident in a nuclear physics experiment, Dr Jon Osterman finds himself reborn with the ability to control matter at a molecular level, fighting supercrime as the all-powerful hero, Dr Manhattan!

THE BATTLE:
The Surfer's search for a planet that can sustain the great Galactus' hunger leads him to a familiar planet; a city which has streets caked in dried blood; grime and dirt on every passing corner; a world harbouring on nuclear holocaust: Earth! Deciding that this planet's beings are about to destroy themselves anyway, Surfer fires a beacon into space, signalling to his master that his search for a new food source is over!

From halfway across the world at the peak of Mt Kilimanjaro where Dr Manhattan is meditating, he feels the strange sensation of a power unfamiliar to him. Dr Manhattan opens his eyes in time to see the light beacon careening through the sky. Within an instant, Dr Manhattan traces the beacon to the origin and teleports himself to New York City. The Silver Surfer hovers above the Empire State Building when all of a sudden, he feels the atoms in the air shifting behind him and where there once was nothing, now stands a peculiar blue man.

The surfer instantly recognises a kindred soul: someone who cannot relate to the world he lives in; someone who's great power supercedes the other inhabitants on the planet; someone who's as nude as he is. "My name is Norrin Radd and I sense in you great pain," Surfer says as he opens up his palm and stretches it towards Dr Manhattan.

"Leave," Dr Manhattan growls and with an outstretched arm, he snaps his finger, trying to force the Silver Surfer to dematerialise before him. "Eh?" Dr Manhattan gasps as nothing happens. "The power I feel in you...I can't atomise you?" The Surfer is puzzled, not certain of the strange tingling sensation he feels against his skin. "You are too powerful to be on this planet. Begone." Dr Manhattan growls again as he shoots hot lava into the Surfer's chest, knocking him off his board.

As the Surfer freefalls, he shakes his head sadly. "Surely I have misjudged this one. But if it's a fight he wants, then let the power cosmic surging through me be the end of his pitiful existence! To me, my board!" the Surfer muses as his surfboard shifts in midair, flies back and catches the Surfer on his feet.

The Surfer unleashes a salvo of cosmic blasts towards Dr Manhattan, all of which are dissipated in mid-flight with a simple wave of Dr Manhattan's hand. "Truly you are powerful. Surely we can try to attain some peaceful negotiation?" the Surfer says. Dr Manhattan's reply is to harden his fist into diamond and punch the Surfer in the face.

Dazed, the Surfer feels a trickle of wetness flow down his lips. He wipes his face with the back of his forearm, only to realise the Dr Manhattan has done what a billion other sentient beings across the universe has failed to do: make the Surfer bleed! Enraged, the Surfer starts zipping across the sky, unleashing bolt after bolt of cosmic energy towards Dr Manhattan. None of them reach its target.

Dr Manhattan waves his arm and all of a sudden, the Surfer gets caught in a prison of adamantium shaped as a ball! Dr Manhattan constricts the ball of adamantium as the Surfer lets out an anguished scream. The ball gets tinier and tinier...and then it self implodes with a blaze of cosmic energy lighting up the sky! "You were a strange one invading this cesspool of a world...but this is MY world and invaders will not be tolerated," Dr Manhattan says coldly. Suddenly, a roar of thunder erupts in the sky and Dr Manhattan's persona is buffetted by waves of cosmic force so powerful that it brings him to his knees.

"Where is my herald?" a booming voice erupts from the sky above. "I no longer sense his presence."

"INVADERS. WILL. NOT. BE. TOLERATED." Dr Manhattan deadpans as he unleashes the fury of his powers in a futile attempt to get rid of the world devourer. Hours later, the planet is left a lifeless empty shell as Galactus leaves in search of his next meal. "I really should have made that blue creature my new herald, but he was such an annoying insect...and he made for a nice appetiser."

Winner: Dr Manhattan. That is, before he chose to attack Galactus.

Captain America: Groovy

Alrighty...the next couple of scripts I wrote were just an exploration of an idea Theo had. He posted up this entry:

Bruce Campbell auditioning for The Comedian

Hey Ian! Remember how I said BC looks perfect for the role of The Comedian in the coming Watchmen movie? How about a script of BC auditioning for the character, but still very much in his Ash mentality?

E.g. saying "Groovy." when given a form to fill in, or "Come get some." when it's his turn. And maybe one of the last few panels or something where one of the staff (a woman for our purposes) says he can't get the part. BC (Ash) then gets mad and says "Yo, she-bitch, let's go!!!" and then there's a full shot of BC in Ash mode complete with buzzing chainsaw and classic crazy Ash grin on his face.

OH!!! AND LEST I FORGET!! The reason why he's probably rejected is because he forgets his part!! Like you know how he forgets the magic word in the movie? Like "Clatto Verata Niii *cough cough*" Haha, get what I mean? :oD

Maybe a scene of him and the director of Watchmen could go like this too:

Zach Snyder: You're not one of my actors... who are you?
Ash: Who wants to know?
Zach Snyder: I am Zach Snyder. Director of 300 and Watchmen, Lord of the box office in early 2007 and leader of its fans.
Ash: Well hello Mister Fancypants. Well, I've got news for you pal, you ain't leadin' but two things right now: Jack and shit... and Jack just left town.


That's a pretty funny script in his own. I had Marvel Comics on my mind at the time, since I'd just written the Wolverine script, and I thought: what a great idea, BC auditioning for roles, now that he's sort of a has-been actor!

And then it hit me. Captain America recently died in comics and I really wanted to do something to honour him in memorium. And since Theo was talking about Bruce Campbell, and idea just clicked in my head.

So on 5 July 2007, this script was born:


Panel 1 - Image of Captain America surrendering to Iron Man (check out pages of Civil War #7 for a shot). Perhaps he could have his arms together, stretched out, as if presenting himself to be handcuffed. (It'd be funny if someone threw something at Iron Man's head and it bounced off...or splashed like a tomato)

Dialogue box: "In 2007, Captain America voluntarily surrendered to S.H.I.E.L.D and the forces led by Iron Man to end the Marvel Civil War."


Panel 2 - Image of Captain America being handcuffed and led away.

Dialogue box: "Captain America was arrested and put on a very public trial."


Panel 3 - Captain America, lying on the ground bleeding to death. (Check out this picture for reference)

Dialogue box: "But a single bullet from an assassin's rifle ended his legacy."


Panel 4 - completely black, with only the text in white.

Text going across the middle of the panel as large as possible: "Or did it?"


Panel 5 - Ash mimicking his pose from Army of Darkness but in a Captain America costume. The "wench" by his side is wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D uniform - Sharon Carter perhaps? (Theo: Perhaps for this, it'd be great to recreate the ENTIRE movie poster of Army of Darkness - click to see - but dress Ash up in a Captain America costume. His chainsaw MUST be seen though. Please put Captain America's shield in Ash's left hand though)

Dialogue box at the top of the panel: "Coming in 2008: Bruce Campbell auditions for the Captain America live action movie!"

Bruce Campbell: "Groovy.


That was just the start of the avalanche of ideas featuring Bruce Campbell as Captain America. Stay tuned for more of that in the next couple of days!

Shedding light on "The Dark Knight"

Even though I'm not really a DC buff, preferring the Marvel universe by leaps and bounds, I still do enjoy all things comicky, even if it means dipping my feet into the waters of the DC Universe.

Don't get me wrong though, it's not like I completely abhor DC characters and the world they live in. I just PREFER Marvel in general. Heck, some of my favourite stories of all time (and comics I might add) are from DC! Preacher, Watchmen, Alan Moore's ABC line of books...though technically Preacher was a Vertigo title (a mature readers line of DC books), the ABC line was an off-shoot of Wildstorm, which had been bought over by DC, and Watchmen, while published by DC, didn't contain any of the notable characters from the regular DC universe.

But I DO have some favourite stuff published in the mainstream DC universe though. Titles like Alex Ross' Kingdom Come, Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis, all the big books drawn by Alex Ross like Superman: Peace on Earth et al, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween, Frank Miller's Batman: Year One...just to name a few. So once again, it's not like I eschew DC Comics altogether...I'm just more of a Marvel guy.

Anyway, the one thing that I'm ALWAYS excited about, regardless of which company or organisation is movies that are based on comic book properties! I just love comic book movies whether they're superb (X-Men 2, Hellboy, Batman Begins), mediocre (Daredevil, Punisher, Superman Returns) or just plain bad (Batman and Robin). And there are a whole bunch of comic book movies coming out in the next year...they did a great job on Batman Begins, so I'm anxiously waiting for The Dark Knight!

SHEDDING LIGHT ON ‘THE DARK KNIGHT’
Get the first word on Heath Ledger as the Joker, the return of Two-Face and the early footage broken down frame-by-frame

By Rickey Purdin

Posted October 1, 2007 9:50 AM

“If it was up to me, you wouldn’t see anything until the movie came out,” said “Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan without any hint of apology. As he introduced a super-secret clip of the film to 1,200 screaming fans at Wizard World Chicago during an exclusive “Dark Knight” panel, Nolan made sure the audience knew just how special the viewing was. Considering Nolan went to great lengths to keep the film protected from prying, spoiler-hungry eyes (the production was once codenamed “Rory’s First Kiss” to lessen attention), it was clear Nolan wasn’t comfortable exhibiting an unfinished product.

“Please be kind,” added the anxious director as security guards crept into the aisles with infrared night-vision gear to catch attendees attempting to record the footage. “This is a rough, rough cut.”

What followed, despite only shooting for nearly four months in Chicago, was about two minutes of pure Bat-fan-gasm, filled with plenty of Heath Ledger’s Joker, tons of action and the world’s first glimpse at the film’s other villain—Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face.

The director has every right to be secretive. The sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins” doesn’t open until July 18, 2008, after all. Plus, if it weren’t for Nolan’s fresh, practical, cinematic approach to the Bat-mythos, the world’s last memories of a big-screen Bruce Wayne would’ve been lost in a sea of Bat-nipples thanks to a sputtered-out ’90s franchise. He’s earned the right to dictate what people see and when.

But it’s time to lift that leathery cowl and explore the elements of “The Dark Knight” that will make it DC Comics’ biggest blockbuster yet.

JOKER’S WILD
Moments before “Batman Begins” ended, Jim Gordon (played by Gary Oldman) approached Christian Bale’s Batman about a new thug in town, and in every theater across the land, the flashing of the joker playing card sent movie-goers into unbridled fits of hoots and hollers.

“We found a way of looking at the character and saw what role he could play in the film,” explained Nolan. “The joker card at the end of the first film created the right kind of feeling. That was the hook that got us thinking about the next one.”

Nolan’s writing partner (and younger brother) Jonah pointed the director toward the Joker’s first two comic book stories, both of which took place in 1940’s Batman #1. “We’ve come around to something that’s eerily close to those first two appearances,” revealed the director.

In the issue, the Joker appears as a grinning mastermind who predicts his murderous crimes over the radio before meticulously carrying them out. Each cold-blooded, calculated killing ultimately ends with the victim’s face frozen into a solid, monstrous grin. If the film version follows closely, as the writers have said it will, expect plenty of chilling death scenes.

“Once we established ‘Batman Begins,’ it was one take on Batman,” explained screenwriter David S. Goyer. “We had to decide, ‘How does the Joker fit in this world?’”

Part of that problem was solved when actor Heath Ledger (“Brokeback Mountain”) joined the cast in July 2006. One of the premier actors of his generation, Ledger dove into the role with an understanding of what he didn’t want to convey in the film.

“I’m not going for the same thing [Jack Nicholson] went for,” Ledger said in interviews. “That would be stupid. Tim Burton did a more fantastical kind of thing and Chris Nolan is doing nitty-gritty handheld realism. I love what [Nicholson] did, and that is part of why I want to do that role. But it would obviously be murder if I tried to imitate what he did.”

“What Heath is doing,” Oldman triumphantly stated in Chicago, searching for the right words to finish his thought, “…he’s going to knock everyone out of the park.”

Oldman’s words came true moments later during the screened footage. Flashing between scenes of the Joker robbing a bank and taking a Batman-administered body-slam in a police station, the teaser hit its Joker crescendo when a tired, emotionless Joker steadily opened machine gun fire on Gotham. Empty, deranged and angry, this was the Joker the audience was waiting for, and their wall-shaking screams confirmed it.

But it was the unexpected cameo of another villain that brought down the house.

TWO-FACE RETURNS
In “Batman Begins,” mob kingpin Carmine Falcone rules Gotham’s underground. When good guy District Attorney Carl Banks sticks his nose in Falcone’s business, he finds himself on the receiving end of a gangland shooting. Fast-forward shortly afterwards and Harvey Dent arrives on the scene.

“Dark Knight” promotional art features Dent running for DA, and like his comic counterpart, he wins the election. Vowing to clean up the city’s rampant crime rate, Dent takes a no-nonsense, Eliot Ness stance and mows down the street scum at the court level behind Lt. Gordon’s growing arrest record. Of course, that justice crusade comes with a price.

While the exact details leading up to Dent’s disfigurement haven’t been made public, comic fans can tell you Dent suffered acid burns over half his face during a court case. The attack sent Dent into a psychotic fit, resulting in the birth of the unhinged Two-Face. As soon as Eckhart was announced as Dent in February 2007, fans wondered if the actor might pull double duty as Two-Face, too. The footage in Chicago, along with comments made by Eckhart in interviews, put those questions to bed.

In the final moments of the clip, as explosions and sightings of the Joker resonated in the brains of the audience, a half-dollar spins wildly onto a barroom table. Two-Face plops down in a bar stool on screen with his back to the camera.

A bartender timidly pours a shot while staring up at Two-Face, crimson-maroon scar tissue running down the left side of the villain’s neck below slightly discolored hair. “Dent?” the jarred man screams in disbelief. “I thought you were dead!”

Then Two-Face speaks for the first time, saying only one word with a gravel-filled but glib voice: “Half.”

“Batman is a complex character, and Two-Face comes a little bit from the same world,” Eckhart explained in interviews. “I’m looking for the tension between the two, the similarities between the two. I want to find what’s similar to Batman and then find what’s opposite to him.”

BAT-PLOT
The title “The Dark Knight” provides a bigger clue to the movie’s plot than you might think. Just like “Batman Begins” explored the beginnings of Batman, “Dark Knight” looks to explore the Caped Crusader’s full-on immersion into protecting Gotham from its own shadows.

“‘Batman Begins’ was an origin story, and the important thing was to move the story forward,” described Nolan of the first film’s themes. “In [‘Dark Knight’], the detective [elements] will help move the story along.”

Reports indicate “Dark Knight” takes place shortly after the end of “Batman Begins” with Gordon still trying to clean up the Gotham streets after his promotion to lieutenant, Bruce Wayne rebuilding his family home with trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) and Batman refining his crimefighting methods when new baddies hit town.

After Bats took down Falcone in the last film, a criminal power vacuum sucks countless thugs and gangsters into Gotham with plans to control the city. This, of course, summons plenty of the eccentric villains Gotham is known for, and as more and more fill the streets, Batman, Gordon and Dent scramble to keep the peace. The influx of new bad guys also pushes Bats to develop new gadgets, including a streamlined bodysuit complete with projectile glove blades and a “Batpod” motorbike packing grappling hooks, cannons and machine guns.

Meanwhile, according to the teaser trailers, the lower criminals start to side with a single leader in desperation as the mobsters begin picking each other off. In the clip, Bruce Wayne and Alfred discuss the crime wave before Alfred lays the situation out on the line.

“You hammered them, and in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand,” he says, referring to the Joker. “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

The Chicago footage echoed that sentiment as scenes of Gotham cars and buildings literally on fire littered the clip, proving the power struggle mutates into a gang war at one point. As for Joker plot specifics, Ledger points to one comic in particular.

“The Killing Joke was the one that was handed to me,” admitted the actor in interviews. “I guess that book explains a little bit of where [the Joker’s] from, but not too much.”

The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore with art by Brian Bolland, explores the origins of the man who would become the Joker—a loser comedian caught up in a crime and then accidentally disfigured after his wife and baby die in an unconnected mishap. And even if the details are different, a similar, sympathetic glimpse into the slow, tortured birth of the Joker may be present in “Dark Knight.”

LAW AND LOVE
Aside from the fact that “Dark Knight” marks the first time a Batman film hasn’t featured the hero’s name in the title, it’s also the first film to feature a returning love interest for the character—kinda.

In “Batman Begins,” Katie Holmes played Bruce Wayne’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes, who becomes Gotham’s assistant DA. Later in the film, Dawes and Wayne begin sharing a slim romantic link after she discovers he’s Batman.

In January 2007, reports of Holmes leaving the cast surfaced. Her reps revealed the actress had joined the cast of “Mad Money,” a buddy film with Queen Latifah and Diane Keaton with a conflicting shooting schedule that would keep her from appearing in both films. In March 2007, Maggie Gyllenhaal (“Stranger Than Fiction”) was announced as her replacement.

“I’m not thinking of it as a role that anyone’s played before,” related Gyllenhaal to sources. “I’m not walking into Katie Holmes’ performance. I’m thinking of it as an opportunity to play somebody who’s alive and smart. Chris asked me to do this because he wanted me, not because he wants some generic lady in a dress.

“Doing Batman has shocked me at every turn,” noted the actress. “When I started, I thought, ‘Well, it’s a huge movie, I’ll just do my best to put what I can into it.’ But, in fact, they’ve been really hungry for my ideas.”

In “Dark Knight,” expect Dawes and Dent to spend some quality time together as Dent takes over the DA’s office. A love triangle has even been hinted at involving Wayne, and the Chicago clip teased a freaky scene with the Joker holding a knife to Dawes’ shivering neck as he slowly spins her around a room.

But these aren’t the only new players in Gotham.

BAT-CAMEOS
Everyone knows about the major villains plowing through “Dark Knight,” but what about the surprising stars flying under the radar?

For starters, Eric Roberts, the Oscar-nominated actor who appeared in five episodes of NBC’s “Heroes” last season, plays Salvatore Maroni, a rising mob boss. In the comics, Maroni is responsible for scarring Harvey Dent’s face with acid, creating Dent’s Two-Face persona.

“Spawn” star Michael Jai White beat out hulking rapper David Banner among others for the role of Gamble, a new mobster who bumps heads with Maroni and other mob elements.

But not just ordinary underworld figures are set to appear. Early spy reports from the “Dark Knight” set in downtown Chicago surmised that the Scarecrow would pop up in the film. Amateur video caught a man in a brown hood and suit (the costume worn by actor Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow in the first film) backed by a gang and arguing with another group of people during a scene in a parking garage. The report jells with the plot, as it would make sense for Scarecrow to make a play for the Gotham underworld.

Murphy wouldn’t comment when approached about the report, but did tell sources just after “Batman Begins” bowed that he was signed to do more than one Bat-film. He’s not the only speculated super-cameo, though.

Anthony Michael Hall (“The Dead Zone”) told sources in May 2007 he’d also joined the cast, but couldn’t specify his role.

“I signed a confidentiality agreement, and I can’t say which part I’m playing because it affects the story,” said the actor. “I can’t give away the suspense. It’s a $200 million surprise, and I don’t want to be the guy to ruin it.”

Online gossip pegged Hall’s expensive secret as the Riddler, a Batman foe obsessed with puzzles. Other reports indicate Hall plays a Gotham journalist obsessed with Bruce Wayne. Whatever the secret is, it’s not a stretch to imagine comic book Easter eggs hidden all over the film. After Arkham Asylum, home to many Gotham villains, was partially destroyed in “Batman Begins,” don’t be surprised to see more Bat-rogues lining up for a slice of the crime spree pie in “Dark Knight” or even a possible third movie.

“The script leaves room for a very interesting follow-up,” Bale admitted to sources. “I think we could take it somewhere else.”

As long as the secretive Nolan’s onboard, expect that somewhere else to be the top of the box-office charts.


The thing I'm looking forward to the most about the movie? Seeing Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. He just looks perfect and was born to play the charismatic district attorney who will eventually become one of Batman's greatest nemesis: Two-Face.

Watchmen Poster

Only two more years (less than that actually) before I get to see Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' epic Watchmen on the big screen!

Check out this new piece of Watchmen art by Dave Gibbons!

WIZARD INSIDER: 'WATCHMEN' POSTER
Original comic artist Dave Gibbons draws this first teaser poster for '300' director Zack Snyder's R-rated adaptation

By Kiel Phegley

Posted September 26, 2007 10:35 AM

Who watches the watchmen?

Hopefully, it’ll be movie audiences across the world by 2009. “300” director Zack Snyder finally breaks through years of Hollywood red tape to helm an adaptation of the seminal 1986 12-issue maxiseries by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, which brought new levels of sophistication and praise to comics. And while many fans worry no film could contain the many subtle layers and subplots inherent in Watchmen, Snyder proved his devotion at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego by announcing a cast of acclaimed actors such as Billy Crudup and Jackie Earle Haley as well as unveiling an original teaser poster drawn by Gibbons in the style of his original Watchmen covers. “I had talked to Dave before because I sent him a copy of the script and he actually drew some panels for me as storyboards,” recalls Snyder. “If you’re a fan, it’s like a lost cover. That’s what it feels like, and that’s what we’re going for.”

Below, Gibbons and Snyder give a rundown of how the poster came about, why President Nixon’s in the mix and what Alan Moore thinks.

THE HOOKUP
How exactly did Snyder persuade Gibbons to step back into the world he created 20 years ago? By living up to his potential. “I read the script and I had notes that it was quite a good script, so we spoke about me doing some conceptual work for the movie,” the artist explains. “I’m quite impressed by what he did with ‘300,’ and I’m impressed by his enthusiasm and understanding of Watchmen.”

FLASHBACK
Watchmen fans asking where this scene of an attack on Edward Blake (aka the Comedian) takes place in the comic should know that it’s not in there at all. “It’s actually the scene that comes before the first scene you see in the comic,” explains Gibbons. “It’s Blake being beaten up and thrown out the window before the smiley badge lands in the gutter.”

TRICKY DICK
Shattering across the background of Gibbons’ piece is a photo of the Comedian with President Richard M. Nixon. Snyder retains Watchmen’s story elements where it’s set in 1985 and the disgraced president remains in office. “In the graphic novel, when [Rorschach] picks it up, it says, ‘Shaking hands with the vice president,’” explains Snyder. “I switched it to Nixon because it’s more iconographic.”

EVERYONE’S A COMEDIAN
While the poster doesn’t contain any cast photos, actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan (who plays John Winchester on “Supernatural”) will be stepping into the role of the doomed Comedian once the cameras roll this month, and Snyder promises a fully realized set for the action rather than the CGI backdrops he used in “300.” “We’ve built these huge sets, like [Edward “Comedian”] Blake’s apartment and Adrian [“Ozymandias” Veidt’s] office, all of Moloch [the Mystic’s] places and stuff like that,” says Snyder, who calls the Vancouver backlot “Watchmen Headquarters.”

MOORE SILENCE
Even with Gibbons’ surprise involvement, fans shouldn’t expect to hear word one from Watchmen scribe Alan Moore, who’s publicly cut all ties to Hollywood adaptations of his comics. “I specifically had a conversation with Alan about it, and although he doesn’t want anything to do with it, he has no problem with me being involved with it,” Gibbons reports. “It doesn’t affect our friendship in the least.”

UNDER WRAPS
However, despite his involvement, Gibbons promises he won’t be spilling secrets of the film as production rolls along. “It’s weird. I get some information from Zack and [some from] off the Internet, like everybody else. So I forget what he said to me and what I read,” he laughs.

Zack Snyder prepares for "Watchmen"

Who watches the Watchmen?

Well, once the movie is released in 2008, every comic book fan on this planet who can afford to.

And probably lots of literary scribes who might want to compare the movie to the graphic novel.

And if Watchmen is going to be the blockbuster everything thinks it's going to be, a LOT of people are going to watch the Watchmen.

I personally can't wait to see Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' creations take to the big screen.

From Wizard Universe:


ZACK SNYDER PREPARES FOR “WATCHMEN”
Weeks away from filming, the “300” director opens up on Dave Gibbons’ teaser poster, his private stash of storyboards and what Rorschach looks like

By Kiel Phegley

Posted August 21, 2007 9:00 AM

Prepare yourself. It is happening.

With a cast announced and a website live, the long-awaited big-screen adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen will be heading to multiplexess nationwide in March of 2009. And while that’s still quite a ways off, the production is about to go full speed ahead with director Zack Snyder (“300”) at the helm. Weeks before filming begins, Snyder took a moment to share his thoughts on the fan reaction to Dave Gibbons’ exclusive movie poster, his plans to keep the movie authentic and why he won’t even guess what Alan Moore thinks of all this.

WIZARD: How are things going? Are you guys in the last mad dash before production?

SNYDER: Yeah. The whole thing is a mad dash, and so it doesn't feel any different. But it's fun. I'm going out right now to scout locations and look at some other s---. Good times. It's crazy.

We got a hold of this poster in San Diego, and everyone's flipping out about it. When did you start chasing down Dave Gibbons about doing something for the movie?

SNYDER: I had talked to Dave before, because I sent him a copy of the script and he actually drew some panels for me of a part in the script that I wanted him to draw out for me. He drew it up in panel form the same as a graphic novel, which was pretty cool. No one has ever seen [those drawings], but they will one day. Then while I was talking to him I said, “Hey, man, I'd love for you to do some concept art.”

Well, actually, it started with my other buddy doing a painting—I have it—of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped a bomb on the Japanese. So I had him redraw that painting, that poster with Sally Jupiter [aka the first Silk Spectre, to be played by Carla Gugino (“Sin City”)]. It says “Ms. Jupiter” on it instead of “Enola Gay.” It's a painting of the B-29 flying towards you where you can see the nose art, and then behind it is the atomic bomb going off. So we started talking about that first, and I was just talking to him about it conceptually. I said, “I'd love to see that.” He goes, “Oh, that's cool. Maybe I'll draw that.” Then as we started talking more he said, “Maybe we should get a real painting or a drawing from the graphic novel, or one that feels like it is.” I said absolutely, and then we started kicking stuff around. Then we got the call from publicity who said, “Hey, we should do something for Comic-Con.” We said, “Wow. We've already sort of been talking about something.” We hadn't put any pen to paper or anything at that point, and so then I got on the phone with him and said, “What about the stuff we talked about?” He sent me a sketch, and I saw it and I said, “Wow. Awesome.” Then [John Higgins] colored it, and the rest of it is history. I think that the only tweak that I had is that I wanted “God is real, and he’s American” in the little bit of text at the top of it.

Looking at the poster, I see a photo of Richard Nixon hanging in the background there, which is like a note to the fans saying that the movie is going to be set exactly as the book is.

SNYDER: Yes, correct. That's correct.

Was that you or Dave?

SNYDER: Well, that was me. The Nixon picture—in the graphic novel it says, “Shaking hands with the vice president,” right? I switched it to Nixon because it's more iconographic. It's easier to read. So then [Gibbons][ was like, “Okay, cool. Let’s get Nixon in there.”

The Comic-Con crowd went crazy for the poster. Have you gotten a response from anyone else as this has been spread around?

SNYDER: I have actually. I've gotten a couple of calls. There's this guy who wrote The Physics of Superheroes, James [Kakalios]. He came by and visited us, and I gave him a poster. He was like, “Oh, my God! This is cooler than science! This is the coolest thing I've ever seen!” And a few guys who have been working on the movie—because we've been so deep in it—I've said, “Hey, did you get a poster?” It's funny, the thing that's cool is the response: If you're a fan, it's like a lost cover. That's what it feels like, and that's what we were going for.

The poster is up on the movie’s website, but there's no message board or comment section where people can leave a response. I'm sure that there'll be more back and forth later on when you guys are more geared up, right?

SNYDER: Yeah. That's coming. That'll be coming too. We're going to start to develop the website. It's one of those things where when the website gets too tricked out too early and then people are like, “Oh, they haven't updated this website in like a year.” The movie doesn't even come out until '09 so it's quite a ways off.

Are you storyboarding with the original panels?

SNYDER: Yeah. I kind of storyboard. I draw. For instance, if I'm at a scene where Rorschach and Dan [“Nite Owl” Dreiberg] go to Happy Harry's to interrogate people, I have the script there while I'm going, and then I have the graphic novel which is the scene as well, and I kind of squish the two together. I change the script a little bit if I like a piece of dialogue that's in the graphic novel. Most of the dialogue is in the graphic novel, but every now and then I'll say, “Oh, we left this out. I wonder why?”—maybe it's time [issues] or whatever—and I'll kind of whack it back in. Then I'll look at the compositions that are in the graphic novel and the details that are in the frame, and then with the art department I'll say, “It'd be cool if we have this kind of whiskey or this light thickness to add in the background,” or whatever that little thing is. All those kind of crazy obsessive details, I try to whack those in as much as I can. Then I try within the scene, from time to time at least, to say, “This is a frame that's very similar to the kind of frame that Dave laid out” with Rorschach smashing the glass in the guys hand and the glass flying and the guy screaming, and so I'll grab that angle. Then I just put it in my book and cut out the frame. I glue it in my book next to the frame. That's kind of how I do it. Then I go, “Next shot.” We keep going, and if there's a frame that coincides I'll grab it, and if not I just try and get it close.

As you're going forward with the film are you doing more set dressing and more practical things? I mean, I'm just thinking in terms of the largely CG image of Rorschach with the “300” trailer.



SNYDER: Oh, yeah, we're building a huge backlot up here in Vancouver. It's a New York City backlot, and we're shooting tons of the movie on this. Then plus we're shooting—we've built these huge sets like [Edward “Comedian”] Blake's apartment and Adrian [“Ozymandias” Veidt's] office, all of Moloch [the Mystic's] places and stuff like that. His staircase is being built. All of that stuff is sets. Watchmen Headquarters.

Has any of the cast suited up yet?

SNYDER: No. I haven't seen anyone in their costumes full blown yet, but I have seen a lot of tests, and it's slowly getting closer and closer. Like I'll see Jackie [Earle Haley, who plays Rorschach] with just a white mask on and a hat and that’s it, and I'm like, “Ahhh, so close!” So it's slowly coming together. It's like they keep adding one more piece here and one more piece there. I've seen the prosthetics on Nixon, which are looking awesome. We were doing a full prosthetic on him so he looks like Nixon.

What's it like for you to be able to have Dave as a sounding board, asking what he thinks of the script and some of the visual choices your making?

SNYDER: I think that it's awesome to have that, because in some ways it does give me benchmark that I can understand whether or not I'm off the mark. I pretty much figure that he'd go, “No. I wouldn't say that. It's not right.” And you know what? He did give me some notes on the script, and they were all awesome, and I took them all. So it's good.

I know you're going to be answering this question for the next six months to two years. I know Dave told Alan Moore he was going to be involved with the movie. As you move forward are you hoping that Alan will one day see it?

SNYDER: Yeah. That's what I said at Comic-Con too. I think my big thing is that we totally respect his wishes to not be involved in the movie, and I totally get that. I'm just going to try and not make any assumptions about how he feels about the movie because I think that's a danger and exactly what he doesn't want. I hope, like I say, that he does get a chance to see it one day. My thing is, and I think that this is an important part of it, that I'm not trying to replace the book. My hope is that more people will read the book because the movie comes out. Maybe it's like a giant ad for the book.

These Are The Watchmen

OooOoooO! I'm a huge fan of Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen. It's certainly one of my favourite series of all-time and it's going to be made into a movie, courtesy of Zack Snyder (of 300 fame) at the helm.

Wizard Universe just published this feature about who's been selected to be in the Watchmen movie:


[SDCC] THESE ARE THE WATCHMEN
The names and faces from Zack Snyder’s official ‘Watchmen’ cast

By Brian Warmoth

Posted July 26, 2007 1:30 PM

Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder have their cast set, and fans of Alan Moore’s seminal series turned graphic novel will be watching the Watchmen as they make their press debut in San Diego this week.

Variety released the names of the cast who will portray Moore’s aging superhero team in their time of crisis. These are the actors who will suit up for the sought after roles.

Dr. Manhattan

Billy Crudup (“Almost Famous”)


Rorschach

Jackie Earle Haley (“Little Children”)


Night Owl

Patrick Wilson (“Hard Candy”)


Ozymandias

Matthew Goode (“Match Point”)


The Comedian

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“Kabluey”)


Silk Spectre

Malin Akerman (“Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”

I'm sure there will be a lot of debate over the months (and years) to come about whether some of these actors are well suited for their roles.

Personally, I'm not so sure they got the casting correct. Apart from Billy Crudup, I can't say I know or have seen the other actors in action before, so I can't comment on their acting ability. Based on the LOOK of the actors though, it seems like the only two characters they did a good job in casting was Rorschach and The Comedian.

Ozymandias really needed to be more of a pretty boy...I was thinking Matthew McConaughey or someone looking like that. Night Owl is supposed to be chubby, not lean-built! Not too sure about Billy Crudup for Dr Manhattan though...Crudup can certainly play detached and pathos, but does he have the LOOK?! Guess we'll find out when he's shaved bald, inserted white opaque contact lenses onto his eyeballs and slathered in light blue paint.

Looks like they got the right person, in terms of looks, for Rorschach! Can't wait to see him, since he's the most important central character to Watchmen.

And Jeffery Dean Morgan looks like he'd be a good Comedian too, though I'm more partial to this guy:


Bruce Campbell FTW!