LUCIDMEDIA

Will We Ever Watch the Watchmen?

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Tuesday, 15 April 2008 04:26

If Watchmen sounds familiar, it should. It’s one of the rare comics to make as big a splash in the mainstream as it did amongst comic fans. The term graphic novel was born into the vernacular to specifically describe this series; the term “comic book”, whether intentionally or not, implied something more juvenile than what Watchmen accomplished. It’s the only graphic novel to have ever won the Hugo Award. It was named one of 100 best English-language books since 1923 by Time magazine. It remains, to this day, a seminal work that inspired creators for the next two decades to expand the boundaries of what the medium was capable of. Along with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, it ushered in a new era of appreciation and creative resurgence for comics.

The 12-issue story takes place in an alternative America in the 1980s, a time when the United States and the Soviet Union are perilously close to open war. In this universe, America won Vietnam, Nixon repelled the 22nd Amendment leading to his current, fifth successful term and costumed adventurers are real. Central to the plot is the fact that superheroes, or “masks” as Rorschach refers to them, were outlawed by the Keane Act in 1977. All heroes were forced to retire with the exception of Rorschach who continues to operate out of defiance to the Keane Act and government operatives the Comedian and Dr. Manhattan. The plot revolves around the death of the Comedian, which Rorschach believes is an attack on the former “masks”, but what’s really afoot is a conspiracy so massive it could literally reshape the future of the world.

With its cinematic scope and extreme popularity, it was only a matter of time until Hollywood realized that there was something here that could appeal to movie audiences. The first person to jump was producer Lawrence Gordon, who secured the rights for Twentieth Century Fox in 1987 and immediately set about trying to get a Watchmen film into production. He approached Watchmen writer Alan Moore to pen the screenplay, which Moore quickly and obviously turned down. The next person asked to take a crack at pairing down the 400 page graphic novel into a 120 page script was Sam Hamm. Hamm turned in his draft in the summer of 1988, nearly one year before another Hamm-written film, Tim Burton’s Batman, would break box office records and add more fuel to the fiery demand for comic related material. Hamm had managed to do the impossible: he put together a mostly coherent script from the Watchmen graphic novel, but he had to make significant alterations to the story in order to do it. The joke around the Fox offices was that Hamm’s script would cost about a million dollars per page; the script was 128 pages long so do the math. Of course, the year was 1988 and a $120 million plus budget was still a line producers were unwilling to cross when greenlighting a film. Given the circumstances, Fox let their rights to the property expire. The inevitable Watchmen film was not left idling for long though because Warner Bros. picked up the rights soon after and put superstar producer Joel Silver (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon) in charge of bring the film to big screens everywhere.

Silver made the intriguing choice of choosing former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam to direct Watchmen. Silver made assurances with Gilliam that raising the significant funds for the film would be easy and that getting a red light for the film was all but inevitable. However, Silver had been overly optimistic about the ease in which he’s be ale to raise funds. The money men hesitated given the fact that both Silver and Gilliam had recent experiences with going over-schedule and over-budget; Gilliam with The Adventures of Baron Munchaussen and Silver with Die Hard 2. Gilliam continued to plug away on the screenplay, first with regular collaborator Charles McKeown and then with Batman writers Warren Skaaren and Hamm, but still, the script wouldn’t come out quite right. The project eventually fell back into turn around.

The idea of Watchmen as a potential film wasn’t broached again until the turn of the century and once again the man behind it was Lawrence Gordon. The timing for Watchmen talk came shortly after the success of the first X-Men movie, and who better to guide this new try at Watchmen, then X-Men screenwriter David Hayter, who was also offered the chance to make his directorial debut. While the creative team was relatively stable, the project was constantly changing studio backers bouncing from Universal to Revolution to Paramount.

In 2004, Darren Aronofsky (Pi) became attached to direct, but like his previous comic-based project, an adaptation on Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, it was not meant to be; Aronofsky passed due to scheduling conflicts with The Fountain, which was then in pre-production. Paul Greengrass (United 93) was next, he made it so far as reserving studio space at Pinewood in England before the movie was canned once again due to budget concerns. In June of last year, it became Snyder’s turn to take a crack at Watchmen as advanced footage from 300 impressed the Warner’s brass so much, that they extended the offer. The rights to Watchmen had reverted back to Warner Bros since Greengrass was attached and they were to itching to get the film, finally, before the cameras. Snyder has stated that his intention is to stay as close to the comic as possible, including the Cold War setting on the novel complete with pre-credit montage of the alterno-history of the United States. Snyder employed comic artists Adam Hughes (Ghost) and John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men) to do some conceptual work last December. Before the release of 300, it was announced that King Leonidas himself, Gerard Butler, would play a key role although what that means has yet to be determined.

So from the bowels of development hell, it would seem that Watchmen, the so-called War and Peace of graphic novels, is once again poised to make it to theatres everywhere. In the twenty years since Moore unleashed his ultimate vision of the superhero medium, it would seem that all the right elements are finally coming together this time to bring that vision to vivid, digitally projected life. Whether it will turn out great like V for Vendetta, or wallow in celluloid filth like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, two other Moore properties transferred from the comics page, will depend greatly on Snyder’s level of skill and commitment. Surely, fans of 300 will argue that Snyder is up to the job. Now all he has to do is what the individual efforts of Gilliam, Hayter, Aronofsky and Greengrass never could: make the movie happen.