Watchmen Script Review at AICN!!!!!!!!

[The Overlord Returns]

Don't know if there are any watchmen fans here, Bu I sureas hell am a big one.

Moriarty has posted a script review of a Watchmen screenplay by David Hayter. It's got me damn excited about the film, as this script sounds tremendous...

go ahead and give the article a read over at aicn



www.aint-it-cool-news.com


thoughts??

[jjreason]

David Hayter did Solid Snake's voice in Metal Gear Solid. He, thus, is wicked cool. So is Watchmen. Im off to read this now......

Wow. Surprising review. I really, really hope this moves along without delay. I need a new copy of the TPB as I haven't read it now for probably 2 years. Definitely time for a refresher.

[Lobito]

What happened with this news??? Are they making watchmen?? I hope so, i want to see Roschac (sp.) again!!

[JediCole]

Well, first off let me thank Overlord for posting this thread. I somehow managed to miss this on AICN when it originally posted. If there is one person in the AICN regulars who's opinion I trust, it is Moriarty. I read his review of the "Timeline" script some time back and worried recently that the project had disappeared. I have since discovered that the film will be released this year, so I can't wait for that! But back to Watchmen.

Some time ago I posted a thread entitled something like, "David Hayter to Ruin Watchmen". This unfortunate error in judgement was based on early reports that Hayter had been tapped to script the ambitious project in favor of returning to the decidedly poorly realized Sam Hamm treatment (I'd read some of that many, many years ago and it would make the unrelased "Fantastic Four" look like Oscar material). What set me off was the undoubtedly misquoted Hayter quotes that appeared in the article. Hayter was painted as a buffoon who had perhaps heard of Watchmen and thought it would be really cool to take those characters and do them up right! To understand the reasoning behind this interpretation you must first understand the "Watchmen" vs. "The Watchmen" dynamic.

Watchmen suffered in one small regard from its pedigree. As a comic book that featured "super-heroes", the most common misinterpretation of the unindoctrinated is that the book was "The Watchmen", a comic about a group of heroes called "The Watchmen". The reality is that Watchmen was the title of the series and NOTHING ELSE! That was the brilliance of the series, it had a real title! And it did not have to constantly point out the connection between the title and the story. In the aforementioned article, Hayter was repeatedly quoted as refering to the project as "The Watchmen", a major red flag in and of itself. Perhaps not enough to condemn his involvement outright, but suggestive of someone who missed the point of the series. Then there was the further suggestion that Hayter considered The Watchmen as a group who got together to fight crime using their combined powers. Ouch! My thought at the time was, "Did you read The Avengers and think you were reading Watchmen?!

After reading the script review on AICN I must now offer my apologies to all in regard to my earlier post. It appears that the reality was that Hayter's words were reconfigured and/or taken out of context. Perhaps even lent new context by someone who did not know a thing about Watchmen and simply added a convenient "The", filling in the perceived blanks. And almost certainly the quotes that led to me thinking Hayter had never even read Watchmen were condensed and combined paraphrasing of actual things he said.

I breath a sigh of relief for the project. The first hurdle has been sucessfully crossed. Now for the bigger one. Convincing the mindless suits at Universal that the script is fine just like it is, no revisions necessary. There is no need to add explosions or car chases. No need to move Moloch or Big Figure (or worse yet, a newly fabricated villain) into the forefront to make the story more digestable for audiences. Hopefully Watchmen (the movie) will walk an unfettered path that has been beaten clear for it by the success of its trailblazing predicessors (X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Hulk amoungst others). This will be the true test of the future of the genre. Technology and filmcraft have finally caught up to the comic book, now the folks with the money at the studios need to learn to do their part.

Originally posted by jjreason
I need a new copy of the TPB as I haven't read it now for probably 2 years. Definitely time for a refresher.

JJR, you do indeed need to get a new copy of the TPB. I met Mrs. JediCole back when Watchmen was still in its monthly run! (It was around issue 5 or 6) and I had to buy two copies each month because we could not share. We always have at least two copies of the TPB on hand at home (in case we need to lend one out) and also own two copies of the limited edition hardcover. Of all of the influences to my writing, Watchmen remains the strongest. But that is another thread entirely...

[scruffziller]

We know now.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

Unless it was just another of Ozymandias' plots to confuse and confound us all.