# "Watchmen" movie a go, for real this time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924 "2006-08-23T18:34:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/1 "2006-08-23T18:34:20Z")
According to Wikipedia, yes: [Watchmen (film) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen_%28film%29) We’ll see… there’ve been a lot of earlier false alarms. I’m not sure it’s even filmable, but if they can do a good job, I’m willing to let them try. What say you? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/2 "2006-08-23T18:41:08Z")
Hurhm. ---
**Author:** ![nameless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/779978/32.png) [@nameless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nameless)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/3 "2006-08-23T19:06:54Z")
Zack Snyder (the attached director) is not my idea of an optimal person for the job. He’s mostly unknown–apparently his only IMDB-credited experience is having directed the Dawn of the Dead remake in 2004. I would have taken Terry Gilliam (was attached at one point) and Darren Aronofsky (was also attached at one point). I don’t have so much faith in this guy. ---
**Author:** ![Sideshow\_Ralph\_Wiggum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Sideshow\_Ralph\_Wiggum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sideshow_Ralph_Wiggum)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/4 "2006-08-23T19:35:38Z")
> [@nameless](#): > > . I would have taken Terry Gilliam (was attached at one point) Gilliam is the single worst choice to direct Watchmen. Why? Quite simply, the man has a visceral inability to stay on budget. Every single porject that he has worked on as a director has gone massively overbudget, from _The Crimson Permanent Insurance_ bit from _Meaning Of Life_, straight on through to his latest box office bomb _The Brothers Grimm_ After discussing it for many, many. many hours with friends, several of whom are in high positions in the entertainment industry the group concluded that the best way to do a halfway decent version of **Watchmen** would be to have one of the cable channels, most likely HBO do an animated version of it as a mini-series. Not CGI animation, but a direct lift of Gibbons art style. That way you don’t have to worry about finding actors who look like the characters, you just have to match up voices. That way you don’t have tio worry about ratings, as **Watchmen** could fairly easily get an NC-17 rating if made as a feature film. if it was on HBO they wouldn’t have to worry about that. ---
**Author:** ![nameless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/779978/32.png) [@nameless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nameless)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/5 "2006-08-23T19:42:04Z")
> [@Sideshow Ralph Wiggum](#): > > Gilliam is the single worst choice to direct Watchmen. > > Why? Gilliam directed _12 Monkeys_ and _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_. He’s got skills. > [@](#): > > his latest box office bomb _The Brothers Grimm_ So, what, they won’t make a _Watchmen_ sequel if it bombs? What a shame. 😉 > [@](#): > > best way to do a halfway decent version of **Watchmen** would be to have one of the cable channels, most likely HBO do an animated version of it as a mini-series. Gilliam agrees with you. > [@IMDB](#): > > Terry Gilliam considered directing this film as early as 1989, but after several unsatisfactory drafts of the screenplay, decided the material unfilmable as a feature production. Gilliam has said he would consider directing it as a twelve hour miniseries. Anyway, Gilliam’s no longer attached. And I don’t believe in Snyder. Does the man have any short films I could scavenge off YouTube or something? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/6 "2006-08-23T20:41:15Z")
I wish Bruce Timm and Co. would have a go at it. Say, 5 hour long episodes. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/7 "2006-08-23T22:28:13Z")
Hurm. If I had the rights to _Watchmen_, I would refuse to do a straight adaptation of the book. I’d do something vaguely resembling it, which managed to invert all the important thematic points & leave the audience completely unspoiled for the book itself. It’s the most appropriate approach to an Alan Moore story, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/8 "2006-08-24T02:16:25Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > I wish Bruce Timm and Co. would have a go at it. Say, 5 hour long episodes. Yeah, it’d definately work better as a miniseries than a film. 2 hours can’t really capture the spirit of Watchmen. It’s not like V, which revolves around a few characters. It revolves around too many people, let alone the comic book sub-plot(the guy on the island who makes the corpse raft). ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/9 "2006-08-24T03:01:45Z")
> [@Elendil's Heir](#): > > I’m not sure it’s even filmable, but if they can do a good job, I’m willing to let them try. What say you? That be one iffy ‘if,’ is be what I say. **Watchmen** may be filmable, in the sense that they could put characters on the screen and call them ‘Nite Owl,’ ‘Dr. Manhattan,’ etc. But anything resembling the actual storyline? It’s dead, gone with the wind, ain’t never comin’ back no more, rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-storyline. **Watchmen** was an artifact of the Cold War, and derived its bite from examining the superhero mythos in that context. Today, however, society’s peace of mind is threatened by global terrorism instead of imminent nuclear holocaust. With that in mind, I don’t think there’s any way that the story’s original climax could be plausibly presented as the Gordian Knot-cleaving salvation of humanity that it was in the graphic novel. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-movie-a-go-for-real-this-time/369924/10 "2006-08-24T03:34:08Z")
If you did Watchmen, you’d have to adapt it like Adaptation did The Orchid Theif. That is, it’s themes are so integral to the comic book medium that you’d have to make an entirely different story altogether to get something on film. It’d be about movies the way Watchmen was about comics. I mean, sure, you could just tell something with similar characters and plot, but really, what would the point of that be? We’ve already seen the Incredibles.