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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Watchmen

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07:52 / 11.10.04

Would John Cusak be willing to get fat for the role?
Have you seen him lately? Not exactly a stick figure. I was troubled by his double chin in a recent movie, not because double chins bug me, but because Cusak's supposed to be a young, kickboxing, clash shirt wearing single chin guy forever.

Haus of Mystery

13:24 / 12.10.04

Aww Mike - everyone wears Clash T-shirts nowadays.

Just rent the Sure Thing and bask in Cusackian glories past.

17:31 / 22.11.04

This is looking more and more like a go.

Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy) will direct Watchmen, a film adaptation of Alan Moore's classic superhero graphic novel, for Paramount Pictures, stepping in for Darren Aronofsky, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The news confirms a rumor reported last week on Ain't It Cool News.

David Hayter wrote the screenplay for Watchmen, which Paramount was eager to put into production. With Greengrass aboard, the project is now eyeing a possible 2006 release date, the trade paper reported.

Writer Moore and artist Dave Gibbon created the comic in 1986, and Aronofsky had been attached to direct, but bowed out because of scheduling conflicts. Aronofsky is shooting The Fountain, starring Hugh Jackman, the trade paper reported.

Courtesy of Sci-Fi Wire

Murray Hamhandler

19:08 / 22.11.04

The Lying in the Gutters column this week seems to be suggesting that Jude Law will, in fact, be playing Rorschach.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

19:25 / 22.11.04

I heard the Broune Supremacy/Bloody Sunday guy to direct, as well.

Alternatively, read the comic while holding it up in front of your face moving it from side to side really fast!

19:56 / 22.11.04

Jude Law would be perfect for Veidt, but apparently he's a huge fan of the book, so having him involved would probably be good. I haven't seen any of Greengrass' stuff, but he doesn't excite me in the way that Aronofsky did. I didn't get the studio's logic that they couldn't wait for Aronofsky, they've been waiting 20 years, what's another year or two.

And on a similar note, Paul McTiegue, the Wachowskis' assistant director, is apparently going to be directing a V For Vendetta movie. V is the 1984 of comics, and I'm not really happy that someone who seems to be such an obvious crappy action movie director is tackling it. Obviously, everyone can surprise us, but just looking at his resume, I've got a bad feeling. V should not be an action movie.

Haus of Mystery

20:01 / 22.11.04

The Lying in the Gutters column this week seems to be suggesting that Jude Law will, in fact, be playing Rorschach

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

No.

06:20 / 23.11.04

The Hollywood branch of the Illuminati will not be sated until ALL of Alan Moore's creations have been dug up and ritually sodomised.
Next, D.R. and Quinch on Nickelodeon!

12:44 / 23.11.04

So, Alan Moore is the new Philip K. Dick?

Good, Phil's corpse could use a rest....

12:51 / 23.11.04

jude law as rorschach = very bad casting indeed. simon pegg = much better. real nutshellification of jude law's immense handicap as an actor - too pretty. no-one with that face would EVER have to struggle in life, and uglers like me find it entirely impossible to empathise with him. great tabloid or pin-up fodder, but a deep and varied actor, or convincing leading-hero-man? or, apocapsycho virgin vigilante, scourge of the streets? hehahahahehehhah

15:14 / 23.11.04

That's exactly why Jude Law would be perfect as Veidt. Much like his role in I Heart Huckabee's, it would take advantage of the fact that he doesn't have to struggle. If he plays Rorshach, all the press on the movie is going to be about how Jude Law got ugly for it.

15:17 / 23.11.04

yeh totally - he'd make the perfect veidt (if he could convince as a toughie for a few microseconds).

15:44 / 23.11.04

Hmmm,
Paul Greengrass is an interesting choice- it could be good?
I really enjoyed The Bourne supremecy- and wasn't expecting to? Lots of nervey handheld stuff and really fast edits? Could fit with the nervous tone.

However he's not a 'name' director like Gilliam or even Aronofsky- so idiot studio chiefs who don't know what they have could easily control him/ push him around in order to make another LXG or From Hell- maybe they want to...

I'd be cool with Steve Buschemi being Rorschach- even if it is a little obvious- but Jude Law- my head hangs low....

foolish casting director!

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

16:03 / 23.11.04

Come on, Jude Law's got a Rorschach tattoo! What have you got, huh?

Old quote: "Darren Aronofsky? I'm on the phone NOW!" said Law, clearly excited. "Adrian Veidt, King of Kings!" And then, as if to show off his Watchmen fanboy credentials, he whispered conspiratorially. "I'm tattooed with Rorschach, did you know that?"

16:09 / 23.11.04

I'd be cool with Steve Buschemi being Rorschach- even if it is a little obvious- but Jude Law- my head hangs low....

Yes. Because a Buscemi-played conspiracy/'End of the world is nigh' nut wouldn't be identified by the audience as Rorschach's other personality as soon as he appeared on the screen.

miss wonderstarr

16:29 / 23.11.04

I was at secondary school with Law and he did have a hard time, which is why he left that school. Then again, arguably he brought it on himself by being a twat. However, we should remember firstly that handsome 30-somethings aren't necessarily handsome all their lives, and secondly that they have to deal with others' resentment.

Anyway, Law is surely too young to play Ozymandias. As for Rorschach, if it matters that we don't recognise him as Walter Kovacs, why not just go the Lucas/New Hope route and cast unknowns? I can't believe there aren't fantastically talented but as-yet undiscovered actors out there who would not just look perfect but be entirely in tune with the original graphic novel. Does this have to be a star-fest, as though it was Ocean's-Twelve-Minutes-To-Midnight-On-The-Nuclear-Clock? Maybe to bring in the broader crowd it has to feature a few big names, but we don't need every single mask to be immediately recognisable.

16:38 / 23.11.04

fair enough- i'm thinking too literally, maybe an unknown is the way to go- but then on that tip Jude Law's psycho was one of the best things in Road to perdition so it could be pulled off with him? No guarantee though- who else?

James Nesbit is always a good actor to throw into the who could play that part game - criminally under used- I'm not saying a definite but adds something interesting to the mix...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:12 / 23.11.04

I can't believe there aren't fantastically talented but as-yet undiscovered actors out there who would not just look perfect but be entirely in tune with the original graphic novel.

Oh, me neither. To be honest, I often prefer films with, if not unknowns, at least people I'm not familiar with- it makes suspension of disbelief that much easier to achieve, which is, after all, what I'm paying for.

Makes online speculation a lot less fun, though.

Regrettable Juvenilia

19:43 / 23.11.04

James Nesbit as Night Owl II. John Hannah as Rorschach. Hugh Bonneville as Dr Manhattan. Brenda Blethyn and Emily Mortimer as mother and daughter Silk Spectres. Hugh Grant - or, if we're really fucking lucky, James Wilby - as Viedt. It's all coming together in my head now...

20:59 / 23.11.04

you're a sick man flyboy..

i've started something horrible

sorry

11:29 / 26.11.04

I googled watchmen images & this was the first thing to come up- yes thank the lord its a fake but it still made me shudder...

13:48 / 26.11.04

Tim Roth as Rorshach.

Scott Bakula as Nite Owl.

13:50 / 26.11.04

Eddie Murphy as everyone (with heavy prostheitcs used).

Keanu Reeves as Eddie Murphy.

14:35 / 26.11.04

To go back to the question posed in the abstract: why are they doing this?

More to the point, why do some of you want this to happen? It's baffling.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

14:40 / 26.11.04

Do not harm teh sacred text!

16:28 / 26.11.04

Willem Dafoe = Rorschach.

You know it makes sense.

17:35 / 26.11.04

Stoatie, I know you're playing, but I must stress that my bafflement at the project has nothing to do with preciousness.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

17:40 / 26.11.04

Look again!

22:24 / 26.11.04

I'm sure it'll never get made. Old what's his face is off the project and it's back in limbo. It's too dated and far too dense to make into a film. A tele vision series makes sense but not in cost wise. Then again they are making Hellblazer, with Keanu Reaves, set in LA.

V for Vendetta would work as a tele series, but again is too dated.

It's funny how a lot of writers have said in the past that the great thing about comics is that they can do things that you could never do in film - that there is no budget constraints, only those of an editor and imagination - and here we are, making films of just about anything in tights.

Producers should be made to watch Captain America and Justice League cheapo film/tv before making a decision.

Also, never understood the logic - make comic into film as you have an established fan base, make film as different as the source material as fan base are a minority and therefore aren't important, alienate established fan base.

As long as there are people that say that Daredevil was a good film, then they will continue to make them.

08:16 / 28.11.04

why do some of you want this to happen? It's baffling.

I'd like to see them try, and I wish them good luck. Just maybe the people actually creating it will work off the good ideas they got from the comic, and just maybe they'll manage to convey them to an economically significant bloc of people. It'll never be the comic in the same way you can't express, say, a sculpture to the same effect in film. I think it'll end up coming off like an M. Night Shyamalan film, if we're fucking lucky, but I have hope. I also have no intention of paying for it in any way, shape or form (save perhaps 20 minutes - 2 hours of my life), so I feel I can afford a surplus of hope, in addition to my regular order of cynicism and a bottomless cup of mockery.

09:42 / 28.11.04

Sorry Suedey!

15:03 / 28.11.04

I fear any attempt to turn Watchmen into a movie would be utter crap unless it was an absolute genius steering the boat and the studio stayed the hell out of it. It'd have to be at least three hours long, though...

Today's special effects can handle it fine, sure, but I think the actors who would be best for the roles would never even think about touching th emovie, plus they've gotten a bit too old. Really, I can't see anyone but Dan Aykroyd in the part of Dreiberg. Buscemi as Rorschach, sure... Malkovich as Manhattan? You see.

But yes, I'd prefer this movie doesn't get made. I'm completely happy with my Watchmen trade paperback as it is. It's one of the greatest comics ever made, and it was made expressly for that medium, not for film. It'd lose an awful lot in the translation.

But everyone here has surely already said this.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

15:09 / 28.11.04

I hope they make it specially for TV!

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

15:10 / 28.11.04

Like that JLA movie. That was great.

18:35 / 28.11.04

They could get the same cast in as well, the guy that played Jonn Jonzzzz would be a great Manhatan.

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