Watchmen details revealed, Gerard Butler cast

Watchmen details revealed, Gerard Butler cast


Filmstalker.co.uk


July 28, 2007


by Richard Brunton



The Watchmen poster is revealed and Zack Snyder has been talking about the much anticipated adaptation of perhaps the best comic book in the world. Over at Comic-Con he showcased the artwork, which looks as if it's directly from the graphic novel itself, and also talked about the film, as well as where Gerard Butler would appear.

At Comic-Con he talked about the film and revealed a couple of key points, points that just might even go some to making Alan Moore interested and perhaps happy, and that's no mean feat.

He says that the film version of Watchmen will be R-rated, it will conform to the source material as much as possible, and by that read much more than any other comic book movie adaptation does, and he tells us that the release date will be - 2009.

He also produced a strong comment about the film that keeps me thinking that he can really do something good with Watchmen, /Film have him saying:



Quote:
"I think the mistake, i mean approach is to assume that the movie knows better. Its like when someone says 'oh we made a movie and you should be happy that we did.' I don't assume that at all. I have the upmost respect for the material."


That's spot on, it is definitely the mistake that most of the films we see make, and the successful ones seem to have paid much more heed and care with the original source material.

Considering what he did with 300 (Filmstalker review) then you can't help but wonder if he really could bring together this Watchmen film and make it something truly special. Once again he says that the storyboarding will come directly from the comic, as with 300, and they'll develop from there. Oh, and Doctor Manhattan will be full CGI.

Over at CHUD they had a one on one with the Director and uncovered something about the much promised role to Gerard Butler. It seems that he is being looked at for the Black Freighter part of the film.

For those of you not familiar with Watchmen, during the story there's a parallel storyline of a boy reading a comic called The Black Freighter, one which looks at a man who has to survive alone on the seas after a terrible pirate attack, eating his dead seamates, and trying to head back to his family and home. The journey provides some insight into the motivation of the main character and the state of the human mind.

Apparently Zack Snyder would neither deny nor confirm that Gerard Butler was set to play this character in the side story, but he did say that there have been two scripts submitted to the studio, one with The Black Freighter storyline, and one without. He is pushing for the complete version, and even if we didn't see it on screen, we would get to see it all on DVD.

I think this is an all or nothing situation, and by now the studio should have realised this. Sign off on the full script, get the budget for creating The Black Freighter, but by all means only add it to the DVD, that in itself would create a huge hype and revenue stream on the home market release.

However they cannot think of not doing this storyline, and if they do then it looks like Butler is set for the role.


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