Before Watchmen - Adam Hughes

I wasn't crazy about the idea of "Before Watchmen".
But I am crazy about Adam Hughes and I LOVED this cover.....

One Extreme Or The Other.....

It doesn't have to go this far...

As I kinda feared, Watchmen opened well, but the box office dropped suddenly.
Is this the death knell of comic book movies?
Hardly.
You cannot compare Watchmen to say Batman or Iron Man or Spiderman.
I don't think you will see product tie-ins like with the "colorful" superheroes.
Can you imagine a Rorschach Happy Meal?
Or a Comedian dress up set?
Nope, kids aren't supposed to emulate the Watchmen.
It's an adult story.
But Batman, The Hulk, Wolverine, now there are your commercial tie ins.
I think the movie industry had better think twice before "darkening" the more popular heroes.
The Dark Knight was just about as far as Hollywood needs to go and stay profitable.

Actually I keep wondering if we may be looking at a backlash soon.
I watch "Batman: The Brave and The Bold" and I love it.
It's not the dark brooding Batman. It's the 50s and 60s detective with gadgets.
But he's still bad.
They show a lighter Batman, but I don't get it confused with the Dark Knight.
BTW, I absolutely loved Batman: The Animated Series and I think both cartoons work, just on different levels.

Maybe we are making our heroes too dark.
Some of course, it suits.
But a darker, edgier Fantastic Four?
Heck, lets just get Frank Miller to do the Power Puff Girls.
Lets make it all so dark and bloody and gory that you really can't tell the heroes from the bad guys without a scorecard.

We need the dark avengers like Bats and the Punisher.
But we also need the "boy scouts".
I know I seem to keep harping on this, but I feel pretty strongly about it.

Maybe I'm schizophrenic since I liked Watchmen and The Rocketeer.
I like Batman AND Superman.

But there has to be a middle ground.
And no it's not Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin.

I Watched The Watchmen

Yes I saw Watchmen this weekend.
And despite the negative reviews I have read, I really liked it.
Usually I dont know if I love a movie till I see it a few times.
And I'll probably watch it again.

It's not over the top action, although there are some REALLY good action sequences.
What impressed me the most was the storyline and the way the actors played off each other.
I didnt see a weak performance.
The movie didnt drag at all for me.
One of the big "Kiss of Death" moments in a movie is if I look at my watch and go " Geez...still another hour left?"
In this one I glanced at my watch and went "Geez...an hour has gone by already?"

Watchmen did well in it's opening weekend, pulling in a three-day total of $55.7 million.
It also pulled in $27.5 million overseas giving it a total overall worldwide gross to $83.2 million.

As far as it being almost frame by frame with the book....
So what?
Look at "Wanted".
It was Wanted in name only.
This IS the Watchmen brought to life.

One word of warning though, please...PLEASE do not even try to make a sequel.
I know how Hollywood is.
This is a one shot stand alone movie.

Watchmen Reviews

The reviews of the Watchmen are rolling in and.....

"Watchmen" is a bore. Sad to say, the much-anticipated adaptation of the world's most celebrated graphic novel is long, dull and sinks under the weight of its reverence for the original. "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

"From first frame to last, "Watchmen" holds you in its thrall. Director Zack Snyder ("300") is in full command of the tangled and challenging material, laying out the serpentine mythology in a way that will please the book's rabid fans who have been waiting and dreading this movie, while revealing to newcomers why Time magazine ranked it as one of the 100 best novels."
http://www.mercurynews.com/

"Director Zack Snyder is beginning to look like the best thing to happen to the action movie in this decade. His previous film, "300," took the battle of Thermopylae and re-created it, combining stylized visuals with a feeling for history, culture and character. His new picture, "Watchmen," follows in the same vein, but goes deeper, achieving a psychological sophistication that "The Dark Knight" aimed for but didn't quite reach."
http://www.sfgate.com/

And that's just a few of the reviews.
From what I have read, the film critics seem fairly evenly split.
I guess box office and fans of the book will decide it's future.

Even if the film is horrible, expect the first week to open like gangbusters.
If it's bad, the second week's box office will drop like a rock.
But wih the economy the way it is, the box office may not be a very good benchmark.
So the only thing you can do is go see it yourself and see if it lives up to the hype.
Or the book.

Comic Books Online

Just a few things from around the web....

Have you been to AIBQ?
With over 642 comics online, it looks to be a comic book collectors dream.
I havent tried it yet, but it looks like you click on the catalog link, click on the comic you want and BANG you download it.
If you want to check it out, the link is here.


And talk about comic books going mainstream, MSNBC has an article titled "9 comic book characters to watch in 2009".
It's a cool little slideshow with Wolverine heading up the list followed by Batman, Supergirl and so on.
The link is here


And similar to the above AIBQ, there is ComicBookDB.com, which is kinda like the IMDb, except for comic books.
Very nice page layouts and well worth a look.
You can access it here


So there, I didn't complain about Fox or The Watchmen or the media calling us geeks.
I just gave out free stuff.

Superhero Top Ten. Who's More Popular? Superman...Batman?

Back in the old days, all we had to determine comic book superhero popularity was sales.
Now we have the Interweb!
And I tell you, doing some research on who is the most popular comic book character is a little strange.

1. Batman
Of course with the awesome movie and dying (what..twice recently?) I figured this would happen.
2. Robin
Robin? The Boy Hostage? He hasn't even been in a good movie. Unless you count the amazing "Grayson" fan film.
3. Spiderman
Even Obama couldnt help Spidey get up over Bats.
4. Superman
Superman Returns....meh
5. Iron Man
The movie rocked, no question.
6. X-Men
Through ups and downs, bad and good, I've always considered The X-Men to be Marvel's flagship.
7. The Incredible Hulk
Second movie was decent. And the Hulk stirs that "Forget logic, I just wanna pound something" feeling we all get from time to time.
8. Wolverine
He goes anywhere from maniac with razor sharp blades to Byronic hero. And he has a movie coming out.
9. Watchmen
I really expected them to be higher.
10. Wonder Woman
One of DC comics Trinity. And if they EVER finally make a movie.......

Notice that with the exception of Robin, and maybe Wonder Woman, all of these have movie tie ins?

Watchmen Update and "Geeks"

Here's another update on the ongoing Fox versus Warner Bros. " Watchmen" case.

LOS ANGELES — Who’s watching the “Watchmen”? Come March 6, it may not be moviegoers.
A federal judge, having ruled last week that 20th Century Fox has distribution rights to “Watchmen,” an eagerly anticipated superhero movie shot by Warner Brothers, said he was inclined to decide after a hearing scheduled for Jan. 20 whether the release of the film should be blocked.
At a morning conference, lawyers for both studios heard the judge, Gary A. Feess, elaborate on his ruling, issued last Wednesday, that Fox owned an interest in “Watchmen,” a film Warner was preparing to release on March 6, in association with Legendary Pictures and Paramount Pictures.
Full story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/business/media/30watchmen.html

You know I really wish these articles would stop referring to Comic Book Movie fans as "Geeks".
I mean really, did ONLY geeks go to the fourth highest grossing movie of all time "The Dark Knight"?
It grossed $996,826,853.
Or Spider-Man 3? $890,871,626 gross. Or Spider-Man, $850,000,605.
That's just the comic book movies.
Let's not forget that out of the top twenty highest grossing movies of all time, 19 of them were Science Fiction, Fantasy or Animated.
So just a few "Geeks" with tons of money are going to these films, or lots of ::gasp:: "ORDINARY" people are going to them!

Watchmen Judge to Rule in Favor of Fox

I'm in the "just shaking my head" mode now that I found this article at Wired......

Christmas Bombshell: Watchmen Judge to Rule in Favor of Fox
By John Scott Lewinski
If the lawyers at 20th Century Fox really wanted to kill Watchmen when they filed a copyright claim against the Warner Bros. production, they got the perfect ammunition as a Christmas gift Wednesday from a federal judge in Los Angeles.
The New York Times is reporting that U.S. District Court Judge Gary A. Feess will soon rule in favor of Fox -- granting the studio a copyright claim to the movie franchise, which had been in development at several Hollywood studios over the years before Warner Bros. finally got the job done with director Zack Snyder.
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/12/christmas-bombs.html

I read awhile back about a possible boycott of Fox if this action goes through. And yeah I may be small potatoes here compaired to the big Comic sites, but I'm ready to jump onto that bandwagon with them.
I'm really looking forward to this movie and I would hate to see some petty legal action like this stop it's release.

According to the L.A. Times, the release date might just get pushed back.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/12/watchmen-ruling.html

Of course Warner could always settle.....
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003925125&imw=Y

But one thing Fox needs to realize. The people that they are ticking off here are the notorious "fanboys" (And I don't use that term in a derogatory fashion).
They were raised on and embrace the idea of fighting against what they conceive as evil.
In the old days it was bad guys with guns, but now the bad guys hide behind governments and corporations.

Watchmen, part 7

Another movie poster for the Watchmen, this one featuring Nite Owl.
I hope they get to use these posters......

Doomsday for Watchmen?

Doomsday for Watchmen?

Who will watch Watchmen? Nobody, if 20th Century Fox gets its way.

After a major court victory, the studio has announced a bid to block the release of Warner Bros.' anticipated adaptation of the seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Fox originally tried to develop the project more than a decade ago, but didn't manage to get the film off the drawing board. The studio claims Warners never properly acquired the rights to Watchmen, and, in a major twist, instead of seeking a share of the would-be blockbuster's box-office gross, Fox is seeking to kill the flick entirely before it unspools in theaters March 6.

Cue the agonized cries of fanboys everywhere.

A federal judge in Los Angeles agreed with Fox lawyers that there's enough evidence to keep the lawsuit going forward—and keep the film's release in limbo.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b24472_doomsday_watchmen.html

Watchmen, part 6

Some very cool posters for the upcoming Watchmen movie, this one featuring the Comedian.

Watchmen, part 5

Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) is a character appearing in the comic book limited series Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, published by DC Comics.



Named Ozymandias in the manner of Ramesses II, he is a modified version of the character Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt from Charlton Comics.



His name recalls the famous poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which takes as its theme the fleeting nature of empire.
Matthew Goode plays Veidt in the upcoming film.
During earlier pre-production and attempts to make the film, Tom Cruise and Jude Law (a fan of the comic) both expressed interest in playing the role, but they left the project after several delays and budget costs.

Watchmen, part 4

Silk Spectre is the name shared by a mother and daughter fictional superheroine pair who are central characters in the Watchmen.
They are often said to be modified versions of the character Nightshade from Charlton Comics; however, Alan Moore has stated that he found Nightshade "boring," and that Silk Spectre was modeled on characters such as the Phantom Lady and Black Canary.
Malin Åkerman and Carla Gugino will be portraying Laurie Juspeczyk and Sally Jupiter respectively in the upcoming film.

Malin Åkerman

Carla Gugino

Watchmen, part 3

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural) will portray The Comedian (Edward Morgan Blake) in the Watchmen film.
The character is loosely based on G. Gordon Liddy.
His alter-ego, Edward Blake is a play on the name of movie director Blake Edwards. The character design is said to have been based on actor Burt Reynolds.

Watchmen, part 2

Patrick Wilson is portraying the second Nite Owl, Dan Dreiberg, in the upcoming Watchmen film.

Stephen McHattie will portray the elder Nite Owl, Hollis Mason.

John Cusack, who is an admitted fan of the graphic novel, expressed great interest in playing the role.

Watchmen, Part 1

Watchmen is a 2009 film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' twelve-issue Hugo Award-winning comic book limited series Watchmen, directed by Zack Snyder. The film stars Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode, Stephen McHattie and Carla Gugino. Set in 1985, the film follows a group of former vigilantes as war begins to break out between the United States and the Soviet Union. The film began shooting in Vancouver in September 2007 for release on March 6, 2009.Like his previous film 300, Snyder closely modeled his storyboards on the comic, but unlike that film, he chose not to shoot all the film using chroma key.

Following the novel's 1986 publication, the film adaptation was mired in development hell. Producer Lawrence Gordon began developing the project at 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. with producer Joel Silver and director Terry Gilliam, the latter eventually deeming the complex novel unfilmable. During the 2000s, Gordon and Lloyd Levin collaborated with Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures to produce a script by David Hayter (who set it in modern times). Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass were attached to Paramount's project, before it was canceled over budget disputes. The project returned to Warner, where Snyder was hired to direct in 2006. Fox is now suing Gordon for failing to pay a buy-out in 1991, which enabled him to develop the film at the other studios.

A DVD based on elements of the Watchmen universe will be released; it will include an animated adaptation of the comic Tales of the Black Freighter within the story, starring Gerard Butler, and the documentary Under the Hood, detailing the older generation of superheroes from the film's back-story. An extended edition of the film, with Tales of the Black Freighter edited in a manner reminiscent of the comic, is also possible.