Watchmen - Deleted Scene - Hollis Mason's Death

This is a better version of the deleted scene that will feature in the Watchmen Director's Cut. It shows the death of Hollis Mason, Nite Owl I. You can get the Director's Cut for Watchmen on DVD and Blu-ray on July 21st.

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Watchmen - The Ultimate Collector's Edition

If you go and buy the Watchmen: Director's Cut on Blu-ray Disc that is all well and good. It was a film I really enjoyed and it will be great to see the extra scenes edited into the film. Below is the scene of Hollis Mason's death.

However, HDR spotted a flier in the pack that gives $10 off the upcoming Ultimate Collector's Edition of Watchmen.

It is due out in December and will span a 5 discs. The director's cut set is three discs, one of which is dedicated to the standard definition digital copy.

The Ultimate version will have a new commentary track from director Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons, 2+ hours of bonus content including Hollis Mason's Tell All "Under the Hood," and the complete Watchmen Motion Comics. If you play it with the sound off you have Alan Moore's commentary track!

Tales of the Black Freighter will be "woven into" the director's cut of watchmen for an all-new creative cut of the film. It also features the complete Watchmen motion comic.
What cut of the film will you be picking up?

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300 sequel may have the return of Gerard Butler?

“Frank Miller's working on something,” revealed producer Mark Canton when MTV spoke to him, telling them that he’s onboard to return for Snyder’s 300 sequel. “That, Zack has said.”

“Things are always looking good with ‘300,’ it’s a blessing and a gift. Zack’s a genius, and no matter where you go it’s the one movie that people around the world seem to somewhat identify with the most,” explained Canton “We’re thrilled for [a sequel]; it’ll be a blast. There’s a new Blu-Ray coming out all over again shortly, so that’s great. It’s like the gift that never stops giving.”

“[The key to the sequel] is about getting it right, you know,” the producer said of their dilemma after having killed off virtually the entire cast in the first film. “Frank is a perfectionist, and so is Zack. And I think they set the bar pretty high.”

Canton had the surprising news that even Gerard Butler's King Leonidas could be brought back from the dead. “Never assume anything; never assume anything,” he repeated when I asked if the original cast were gone for good. “It’ll be what it’ll be. But if we really do it, in this case, we have a visionary creator and a visionary filmmaker.”

I loved 300. Thought it was great, but I really don't see any need for a sequel. Especially if they bring characters back whose whole point was to die a warriors death. However, if it was a prequel then of course it would make sense for the characters to return or maybe it will be another tale told to the warriors waiting to go into battle.

I am also a bit fed up with this visionary creator tag continuously being slapped on Zack Snyder. He has not yet created anything visionary. Dawn of the Dead was a remake, 300 and Watchmen were pretty much the comic book on screen - all creations of other visionaries - George Romero, Frank Miller, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

Is Snyder a visionary? How do you think Butler could return as Leonidas? Should he return?

The “Complete Experience” Blu-Ray disc is out on 21st July.

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Alan Moore - We're turning into steam

Source: Bleeding Cool

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Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC: Deadpool and Watchmen

Deadpool has to be played like this in the film.

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UPDATED: New Photo of Michael Myers from Halloween 2

This image from Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 is a preview of a film clip that will air this Sunday on MTV.

UPDATE: Thanks to Graham Linehan for his rather succinct post on Twitter linking to this post:

May I present the least exciting/interesting/valuable blog post of the week. http://bit.ly/DSbvh

It did make me chuckle and nice to know the writter of the excellent Father Ted, Big Train and The IT Crowd has spent a little time looking at the site. Plus he has met Alan Moore which is just all kinds of cool.

More photos of Tyler Mane as Michael Myers and the teaser trailer for H2. Plus lots more banal things!

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Alan Moore reads Rorschach's Journal - Children weep in fear

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The Graves - In Skull City death is the least of your problems

'THE GRAVES' is the feature film directorial debut of Brian Pulido (creator of comics "Lady Death" & "Evil Ernie"), starring acclaimed horror genre stars Clare Grant (Masters of Horror "Valerie Under the Stairs"), Jillian Murray (The Fun Park), Bill Moseley (Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects), Amanda Wyss (A Nightmare on Elm St., Dexter), D. Randall Blythe (singer, Lamb of God), Patti Tindall (Death of a Ghost Hunter) and Tony Todd (Final Destination I & II, the 'Candyman' series, NBC's "Chuck") as the Reverend Stockton.

'THE GRAVES' is produced by Mischief Maker Studios & Ronalds Brothers Productions.

Present day. Arizona. Megan and Abby Graves are inseparable sisters that couldn’t be less alike. Megan is a self-assured, naturally attractive, ass kicker. Abby is a cute, caustic, Hot Topic Goth who’s afraid of her own shadow.

They do share a few things in common: a life-long obsession with comics, pop culture and rock ‘n’ roll. Simply put, they are beautiful geeks.

In a few days, Megan will start a new job in New York. To send her off in style, the Graves sisters go on a wild, pop culture bender that includes a trip to uncharted Arizona in search of a kitchy roadside attraction.

Instead, they’re lured to Skull City Mine, a weather-beaten, abandoned mine town that harbors terrifying secrets. It appears to be haunted -- Its twisted caretakers are murderous -- Victim’s souls are ripped right out of their bodies – and that is only the beginning…

When Megan suffers a mortal wound, Abby must save her sister, but to do so, she must confront her fears and unlock the mystery of Skull City alone.

Can Abby survive Skull City’s threats? Can she rescue Megan or are they doomed to a fate much worse than death?

Check out the official site.

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Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter - New images

MTV Splashpage had these cool looking images from the forthcoming Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter DVD. There will be a super deluxe directer's cut version of Watchmen with this animated segment spliced in.
“Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter” — features the vocal talents of “300” star Gerard Butler — ships out tomorrow on DVD and Blu-ray, and includes the Minutemen pseudo-doc, “Under the Hood,” starring the cast from the film reprising their roles as the original do-gooders gone horribly bad. Along with the headlining movies, the 2-disc set also includes a first-look at “Green Lantern: First Flight,” and bonus featurettes “Story Within a Story: The Books of the Watchmen” which explores the comic-within-a-comic of “Watchmen,” “The Why of the Watchmen” by Zack Snyder, and “The Two Bernies” showing a scene from “Watchmen” not seen in theaters (the latter two only available on the Blu-ray edition of the set).

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Hurm - Rorschach by NinjaInk

Source: NinjaInk

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Dave Gibbons has finished his Watchmen Commentary

Rich Johnston over at Lying in the Gutters had this little piece of info regarding the Watchmen DVD.

Dave Gibbons confirmed to a packed audience at a Borders bookstore this week that he has already completed his DVD commentary for the mega-directors-cut of "Watchmen" that includes the “Black Freighter" story integrated into the main film. Maybe we can expect the finished product sooner rather than later?

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POLL: What did you think of Watchmen?

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Nite Owl saved Thomas and Martha Wayne. Result No Batman in Watchmen Universe

io9 have posted a load of Easter Eggs from the opening credits of the Watchmen film. They also include some bits that had to be cut, but that may be on the DVD.

The one above is my favourite with the first Nite Owl punching out a criminal and saving a smartly dressed trio on the left. Could it be Alfred and Martha and Thomas Wayne?

What other cool things did you spot in the opening credits of Zack Snyder's Watchmen?

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What if Judd Apatow directed Watchmen?

The Watchmen haven't been acting like heroes lately. In fact, they've mostly been sitting around their Los Angeles apartment watching TV. They're the closest of friends, but when nuclear Armageddon threatens, can they put joking aside, face adulthood, and save the world? Starring Paul Rudd as Dr. Manhattan, Seth Rogen as Nite Owl, Jonah Hill as Rorschach, and Michael Cera as the Comedian. Kristen Wiig appears in a nonspeaking role as Silk Spectre.

Slate.com have other What If...? scenarious for Watchmen including Woody Allen and Tyler Perry.

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Watchmen - Review by Jeffrey Wells

I think this is a pretty good review by Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere.

Watchmen's opening main title sequence is as nicely rendered as I'd heard, and I didn't have a huge problem listening to Dylan's "The Times They Are A'Changin'" as it happened. I was taken with the portion that lays out Dr. Manhattan's (i.e., Billy Crudup's) history. The Dr. Manhattan full-blue-schlong footage probably will make it more routine for male genitalia to appear in mainstream movies henceforth. (Although I'm not sure that's any kind of major blessing.) And yes, Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach does deliver in a hard, tight, snarly way.

And the CG depiction, by the way, of JFK's exploding right-temple head wound in Dallas beats Oliver Stone's all to hell.

But is Watchmen likable? No, it's not. There would have to be something really wrong with you to see this thing and come out on the street beaming and saying, "Yeah... liked it! Woo-hoo!" It's too bitter and cynical and disgusted with human nature to be "liked." I mean, take away Patrick Wilson's Nite Owl/Dan Drieberg character and this is one rancid, bitter, foul-of-temper, heart-of-stone, phlegm-in-your-face, puke-in-the-gutter superhero movie, certainly in a spiritual sense.

Is it endurable in the sense you can get through all 160-odd minutes without looking at your watch three or four times? Or even once or twice? The truth is that I didn't look at my watch once, and I took no bathroom breaks, even though I sort of wanted to.

Is it somehow enjoyable? Yes, somewhat -- but again, you have to go into it prepared. You certainly have to be up on the graphic novel, the characters, their backstories, etc. Because the story is more than a little complex. And then you need to read at least a dozen negative reviews and get ready to hate it with a passion. Which is different from going in determined to hate it, which I definitely wasn't. I went in with my eyes and pores open but at the same time prepared and willing to hate it. You know, open to this. And guess what happened?

I didn't "like" it but I didn't hate it. And here it is an hour later and I still don't hate it. I'm fairly certain I'll never see it again, even on Blu-ray. It's too much of a Gordian Knot, too exhausting, too angry, too obsessive. But at least it's balls-out, no-holds-barred obsessive, which you have to at least respect in this age of corporate branding and capitulation.

Did director Zack Snyder err by trying to replicate the Alan Moore- Dave Gibbons-John Higgins graphic novel a little too precisely and meticulously? Maybe, but at least he went for it big-time. Would Watchmen have been better served as a twelve-part miniseries? Perhaps, but Snyder at least tried like hell to make it work as a feature, and he opened his heart, soul and veins in order to do so.

The cut Snyder turned in, I've read, was messed with by Warner Bros. somewhat, but it doesn't feel as if too much of it was cut down or diluted. Watchmen may or may not be your cup of tea (it's not mine) but at least it was made by a kind of madman who gave as little quarter as possible and didn't muck around. I almost love the fact that Watchmen doesn't try to make you feel "good," and that it just tries to be itself. And give Snyder credit for giving it a fairly kapow look all through. I don't know why I didn't mind all the slow-mo stuff, but I didn't. I kind of feel left out in this respect.

I emerged from the theatre feeling subdued but not seething inside. Watchmen never put a real smile on my face, but neither did it make me sit forward and groan and spread my fingers across my face. Yes, it frequently turned me off and sometimes inspired feelings of deep loathing. It provided almost nothing in the way of whole-hog satisfaction, but at least it left me feeling that I'd seen something different.

I knew going in it wouldn't be the same old good-evil, black-white superhero hash, but I wasn't entirely prepared for how unconcerned it would be as far as trying to charm or half-hold onto a mainstream audience.

I mean, I hated it at times. Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Edward Blake/The Comedian has to be one of the most loathsome and inhumane characters in history, and the Watchmen, who are supposed to be semi-good guys, spend much of the film treating him like some kind of loutish bad-brother figure. I mean, the odor just wafts off the screen from this guy. Yecch.

For all the revolting rage and purist revenge fantasies in this film, which are over-the-top vile (this is a movie that channels misanthropic fury and disdain like it's flowing through a firehouse) and the detestable sadism and the right-reactionary political acts that the Watchmen serve (doing the bidding of Richard Nixon, Dr. Manhattan winning the Vietnam War in a week's time by slaughtering the North Vietnamese and Vietcong like flies, Blake savagely beating up a mob of lefty-hippie protestors), not to mention the random savageries (rape, endless bludgeoning, beating the hell or the life out of adversaries)...this is finally a big-studio flick that doesn't give a holy damn about anyone or anything except those who've been on board to begin with.

And I almost liked it for that. I couldn't finally "like it, not being one of the faithful-faithful, but it has my grudging respect. But that's all it gets.

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General Watchmen pictures, figures and things

Just a few of the cool images that Super Punch have collected for the Watchmen film.

Watchmen custom action figures
Watchmen Mighty Muggs
Dr. Manhattan t-shirt.
Dr. Manhattan poster

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UPDATED:Watchmen Graffiti

The familiar “Who Watches The Watchmen?” graffiti from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons‘ celebrated graphic novel — and Zack Snyder’s upcoming Watchmen movie — has been popping up all over lower Manhattan lately. But is it a viral marketing campaign, or fans excited about the film’s looming arrival in theaters?

Source: /film

UPDATE:


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Watchmen - TV Spot shows new stuff

Out of all the TV spots this is the most unique of the collection so far. Besides the different opening, the preview does go on to show some new footage.

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Billy Crudup speaks about Watchmen, Public Enemies, life and humanity.

This is a great interview by Stephen Whitty of The Star-Ledger. Thanks to Pam for sending it over.

When Billy Crudup started getting Hollywood attention a decade or more ago -- for "Without Limits," for "Jesus' Son," for "Almost Famous" -- he set a couple of rules for the interviews he was expected to do.

One, he would not talk about his personal life.

Two, he would not talk about his professional life.

Not surprisingly, this made the usual pre-release publicity junkets an unusually frustrating experience for both him and the person with the tape recorder.

It's a little better now.

"I think, very early on when I was acting, I had a very specific agenda -- work, make money and hopefully get better," says the 40-year-old actor. "But I didn't have any ideological point of view, and all of a sudden I had people asking me for my philosophy."

"So," he laughs, "I tried to come up with (something). And I think I ended up developing a voice before I had a chance to figure out what my voice was, and I was very dogmatic about not polluting anybody's experience of the piece."

It was something he held to for a long time, once saying he'd pay the studios not to have to do publicity; he's still not entirely comfortable with it.

(One place he will still definitely not go today is his love life, which included a messy split from long-time, then-pregnant lover Mary Louise Parker in 2003, and an affair with Claire Danes.)

But things have still changed.

The New-York based Crudup sees the world a little differently now. "Journey" is a word he will use a lot. He's willing, in fact eager to talk -- intelligently, intently, politely -- if not about the romantic details of his life, then about the philosophy behind his work, and his diverse and difficult choices as an actor.

Which is really perfect timing, because his most recent choice is, in many ways, his most daring -- playing Doctor Manhattan, the mostly nude and vaguely godlike blue superhero at the center of Friday's "Watchmen," a sci-fi epic about masked avengers.

It's a huge risk for the studio. Based on a property routinely hailed as the greatest of all graphic novels, it's a complicated story facing some demanding fans (who don't want to see any changes) and possibly confused newcomers (who have several storylines and a league of characters to keep track of).

A risk for its actors, too. Patrick Wilson's Nite Owl battles insecurity and impotence. Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach is a masked sociopath. And Crudup's Doctor Manhattan -- except for a brief flashback sequence -- is a glowing ("I felt like a glorified light fixture"), nearly emotionless, special-effects giant.

And that risk was exactly what appealed.

"Usually, as an actor you start with the practical things about a character -- where does he live, what does he eat -- and that starts to answer your questions," Crudup says. "And the most basic is: What does he want? But Doctor Manhattan is almost literally beyond that. .. I think, in the end, what he wants is to preserve some piece of his humanity -- but answering that question was a real process of discovery."

Crudup's journey to being an actor was its own process. Born in suburban Long Island, he was the middle child in a family that moved a bit (first to Texas when he was 8, then Florida) and had some unconventional approaches to marriage (his parents divorced when he was in junior high, then remarried each other several years later). At first, acting was just a way to stand out a bit.

Actually, he's not that sure things have changed.

"The first time I was onstage was in second grade, playing Uncle Sam in a Fourth of July show," he says. "And I realized I didn't mind going up there and looking silly; I liked the attention. As I grew up, I discovered I had different desires as well, to grow as an actor, to render things more complexly, to be better than I thought I had the potential to be."

Crudup went on to study his craft seriously, eventually getting a master's degree from NYU. "But it's always hard to shake that original necessity you were trying to fill," he admits. "That quest for gratification is always part of my work; it's just a question of what percentage it occupies."

From the start, Crudup's quest led him to difficult plays -- a year after grad school he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia." He's since done Chekhov, "The Elephant Man," and Stoppard's mammoth "The Coast of Utopia," for which he won a Tony.

His taste is just as demanding in movies. Although he'll be playing J. Edgar Hoover in the upcoming "Public Enemies" ("From a big blue superhero to a guy in a dress -- just another day at the office"), he's shunned most conventional fare. Asked to audition for "Titanic," he demurred. Although he's had chances at "a couple" of big popcorn movies over his career, he's always turned them down.

"I never had any idea of what to do with those characters and I just would have ended up overcomplicating things," he confesses. "Those sorts of roles need someone with specialized skills, someone who has masculinity and a clarity, and there are people who do that so much better than I could. Harrison Ford -- he can run from anything and I'll watch it. He is so compelling. He occupies those spaces of heroism so perfectly. And that's not where I excel."

Where Crudup excelled, he discovered, was in playing characters who were neither villains nor heroes, but somewhere in between -- flawed people who struggled to figure out the right thing. Yet what was maddening about them was, even if they did figure out the proper course, they rarely took it.

If you had to sum up Crudup's best characters in one word -- the selfish rocker in "Almost Famous," the gentle junkie in "Jesus' Son," the wandering husband in "World Traveler" -- it would probably be "disappointing."

"Yes, I think that's very true, actually," he says. "Most movies, even when the characters disappoint, there's no danger they won't redeem themselves before the end. I prefer characters who -- well, you don't know if they're going to make it all the way back. You hope they get better but you sort of worry what happens to them after the movie ends."

That taste for flawed characters is in everything the actor does -- only Crudup would, choosing a superhero to play, pass up more mainstream-friendly icons for an R-rated, unpleasantly superior behemoth. And he understands the consequences. So he subsidizes his risks by doing lucrative commercial voiceovers. And he accepts that his own interest in playing, say, a cross-dressing Elizabethan in "Stage Beauty" may not be matched by the audience's.

"I don't go to the movies to be challenged all the time, either," he says. "Sometimes I just want to be satisfied, too. But as an actor and a person, I'm more interested in work that doesn't aim to satisfy as much as it aims to explore a character's journey.. I suppose it's kind of an indulgent enterprise, but it's a chance for me to learn something about people and learn something about myself, to play these characters in search of their own humanity."

Which, in its own weird way, made the spring's biggest, loudest, most special-effects driven fanboy movie the absolutely perfect pick. Because who is more literally in search of his own humanity than Doctor Manhattan, a scientist accidentally turned superhuman? A superior being who's advanced so quickly that he can no longer empathize with the motivations of his old, all-too-human friends?

"Actually, it's such an obvious part for me," Crudup says, laughing. "Because it's another character who's disassociated and deeply flawed -- he's a master of matter but he has no morality. (Writer) Alan Moore's done some really wonderful, subversive things with the genre. Characters like this, you're expecting truth, justice and the American way. You're not expecting a guy who's only interested in how light travels."

Crudup's emotional travels are clearly continuing. He has a five-year-old-son, William Atticus, with Parker; Danes and he broke up (she's now engaged to Hugh Dancy). And while he still avoids talking about his personal life ("It's hard enough to convince an audience I'm somebody else even when they don't know anything about me") he's begun to open up more about his professional career.

"I think I discovered that whatever philosophy I had may have been more a product of the time than the entire way I feel," he says. "Also, the older you get, the more patient you are with different kinds of experiences. I still feel like my job is to act -- I'd still rather expose as little of myself as I can -- but I find it easier now to talk, at least about the material, and the approach and the creative agenda. Maybe it's because I'm kind of bored being a contrarian. Maybe it's just part of the journey."

If you enjoyed that interview head on over to The Star-Ledger and give Steve Whitty some love.

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Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter Preview

This cool little featurette shows some footage from Tales of the Black Freighter along with the voice of Gerard Butler. That's the comic book story that is intertwined with the goings on in Watchmen. It is being released separately on DVD, Blu-Ray, and iTunes on March 24th. However, Zack Snyder has said their will be a complete Watchmen Directors Cut that will have the Black Freighter tale in the mix.
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