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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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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Cool Art: The Birth of Rorschach

By NinjaInk

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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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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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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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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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Watching the Watchmen - Featurettes on all the main characters

I have quite literally just been sent these four featurettes from the people who made them. They deal with the main characters and the last on is about Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons. Lots of interviews, behind the scenes footage and other stuff.

Dr. Manhattan / Silk Spectre - Another online Watchmen exclusive. See Silk Spectre and Dr Manhattan in action. Your chance to see them in action, meet the actors and see behind the scenes before the big release on 6 March.

Nite Owl II / Rorschach - A look at the Watchmen characters Nite Owl II/Dan Dreiberg and Rorschach/Walter Kovacs with actors Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley.

The Comedian / Ozymandias - A look at the Watchmen characters The Comedian/Edward Blake and Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt with actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Matthew Goode.

Zack Snyder / Dave Gibbons - An exclusive behind the scenes chat with Watchmen director Zack Snyder and legend Dave Gibbons

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Watchmen Page 5 - Brilliant fan film

This is fantastic. Looks amazing. It was made by Bryant Hodson and FCT rightly call it one of the best Watchmen fan films out there. I want to see more of the pages though! Here is what Bryant had to say about it.

I made this as a final project in a media production class as a senior in high school. I tried to adapt page 5 of the graphic novel, WATCHMEN, into a movie. As you will probably notice, I followed Sin City's production techniques and used some of the score that best fit the mood of the page in my opinion. I did the best I could. Finished it in two weeks time. Let me know what you think. Compare it to the page!

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Watchmen reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter have put this review of Zack Snyder's Watchmen online. To sum up they didn't like it and as you are probably aware it has been getting mixed reviews.

I don't mind if the critic, Kirk Honeycutt, doesn't like it (I have my doubts that it will be the great movie we all hope it will be). However, it does bother me when reviewers knock something because they think it is cool to do so. I'm guessing Kirk hasn't read the comic and I also think he probably loved The Dark Knight because everyone else did.

I think it is this line of his review that irks me the most, "And it is nonsense. When one superhero has to take a Zen break, he does so on Mars. Of course he does."

He later goes on to describe Dr Manhattan with his god like powers but he find the fact he pops over to Mars as nonsense. Any comic book movie, well actually pretty much most films when you look at them closely enough are nonsense. He's just not consistent in his review. Just smacks of lazy reviewing. I also think he gets the Silk Spectre's mixed up. If memory serves it is Malin Ackerman's Spectre (the daughter of Carla Gugino's character) who hooks up with Dan.

"And what's with the silly Halloween getups? Did anyone ever buy those Hollywood Boulevard costumes?"

It's a comic book film about superheroes Kirk. That's the reason for the costumes. I could go on butI've said enough. Here's his review in full. Let me know your thoughts on the matter. I'll post more reviews as and when I find them.

It's not easy being a comic-book hero these days. The poor boys have taken their lumps in "Hancock," "The Dark Knight" and even "Iron Man." Self-doubts, angst and inadequacies plague them. And now comes "Watchmen." Its costumed superheroes, operating in an alternative 1985, are seriously screwed up -- and so is their movie. If anyone were able to make a nine-figure movie, something like "Watchmen" would have been the opening-night film at the Sundance Film Festival.

As stimulating as it was to see the superhero movie enter the realm of crime fiction in "The Dark Knight," "Watchmen" enters into a realm that is both nihilistic and campy. The two make odd companions. The film, directed by Zack Snyder ("300"), will test the limits of superhero movie fans. If you're not already invested in these characters because of the original graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, nothing this movie does is likely to change that predicament.

That's bad news for Warner Bros. and Paramount, which hold domestic and international rights, respectively. Opening weekends everywhere will reflect the huge anticipation of this much-touted, news-making movie. After that, the boxoffice slide could be drastic.

Snyder and writers David Hayter and Alex Tse never find a reason for those unfamiliar with the graphic novel to care about any of this nonsense. And it is nonsense. When one superhero has to take a Zen break, he does so on Mars. Of course he does.

The film opens with a brutal killing, then moves on to a credit-roll newsreel of sorts that takes us though the Cold War years, landing us in 1985 when Nixon is in his third term, tipping us that we're in an alternate 1985 America, where our superheroes have taken care of Woodward and Bernstein and other forces have evidently taken care of the U.S. Constitution.

The opening murder happens to a character called the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who was once a member of a now banished team of superheroes called the Masks. Fellow ex-Mask Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) -- his mask one of perpetually shifting inkblots -- takes exception to his old colleague's death. He believes the entire society of ex-crime-fighters is being targeted even as the Doomsday Clock -- which charts tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that could lead to nuclear war -- nears midnight.

His investigation and renewed contacts with former buddies fills us in on the complicated histories and problematic psychiatric makeups of these colleagues.

It's all very complicated but not impenetrable. We pick up the relationships quickly enough, but soon realize these backstories owe more to soap operas than to superhero comics.

The thing is, these aren't so much superheroes as ordinary human beings with, let us say, comic-book martial arts prowess. The one exception is Billy Crudup's Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan, who in true comic-book fashion was caught in a laboratory accident that turned him into a scientific freak -- a naked, glowing giant, looking a little bit like the Oscar statuette only with actual genitals -- who has amazing God-like powers.

These powers are being harnessed by an ex-Mask, Matthew Goode's menacing though slightly effeminate industrialist Adrian Veidt.

When Dr. Manhattan's frustrated girlfriend, yet another former Mask, Carla Gugino's Sally Jupiter, can't get any satisfaction from Dr. M, she turns to the former Nite Owl II, Dan Dreiberg, who seems too much of a good guy to be an actual superhero, but he does miss those midnight prowls.

The point is that these superheroes, before Nixon banned them, were more vigilantes than real heroes, so the question the movie poses is, ah-hah, who is watching these Watchmen? They don't seem too much different from the villains.

Which also means we don't empathize with any of these creatures. And what's with the silly Halloween getups? Did anyone ever buy those Hollywood Boulevard costumes?

The violence is not as bad as early rumors would have one believe. It's still comic-book stuff, only with lots of bloody effects and makeup. The real disappointment is that the film does not transport an audience to another world, as "300" did. Nor does the third-rate Chandleresque narration by Rorschach help.

There is something a little lackadaisical here. The set pieces are surprisingly flat and the characters have little resonance. Fight scenes don't hold a candle to Asian action. Even the digital effects are ho-hum. Armageddon never looked so cheesy.

The film seems to take pride in its darkness, but this is just another failed special effect. Cinematographer Larry Fong and production designer Alex McDowell blend real and digital sets with earthen tones and secondary colors that give a sense of the past. But the stories are too absurd and acting too uneven to convince anyone. The appearances of a waxworks Nixon, Kissinger and other 1980s personalities will only bring hoots from less charitable audiences.

Looks like we have the first real flop of 2009.

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Watch Rorschach rave...I'm not kidding!

Well the smiley badge was the symbol for acid house and Watchmen so it is no surprise that someone went all techno techno with Alan Moore's creations! Watch in horror / awe / amazement / despair as Rorschach busts a move.

Source: FCT

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Lying in the Gutters at the Watchmen Premiere

The always good Rich Johnston, of Lying in the Gutters fame was lucky enough to get to the Watchmen premiere last night. This is him on the yellow carpet. He chats to Dave Gibbons, Jackie Earle Haley and Billy Crudup.

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Watchmen Interview - Jeffrey Dean Morgan - The Comedian

Interview with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays The Comedian in Watchmen.

1. His character (:40)
2. The sets (:34)
3. About Dave Gibbons (1:08)

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Watchmen Interview - Dave Gibbons

Interview with Dave Gibbons, the co-creator of the graphic novel, Watchmen.

1. Watchmen's alternate history (:44)
2. His first impression of the set (:59)

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Watchmen Interview - Zack Snyder

Interview with Zack Snyder, the director of Watchmen.

1. Turning Watchmen into a movie (:39)
2. The story is a psychological study (:25)
3. Rorschach's psychology (:41)
4. Searching for Dr. Manhattan (:21)
5. Dave Gibbons visiting the set (:58)

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