i said this on aicn and i'll say it here:

thank you jesus. watchmen can NOT be done.

i still think that if watchmen HAS to be made into moving pictures then a 12 hour animated miniseries on HBO or cartoon network should be the way to go.

I just don't think Watchmen could be done well as a movie. A studio would be too tempted to try to turn it into something more "accessible" and "commercial" -- like Spiderman. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, anyone?

Watchmen should instead be turned into a mini-series on HBO.

Anyone who thinks it could be turned into a decent movie given the current Hollywood aparatus is fucked in the head.

Ideally, a movie could work if it was directed by David Fincher and shepherded by the same producer who nurtured Fight Club and X-Men to fruition. Fat chance of that happening since that guy was fired from Fox years ago.

Well apparently I am f-d in the head then.

I think it could be made into a good movie and made well. Going by the current statements there's not a snowboarders chance in Scotland of getting it done right.

They want to have WATCHMEN in a theater by the summer of '06, no matter what

Bad news. However, if they had a good team on it who actually loved the project and the Book and had their leashes loosened, then it could work.

I was always interested when Gilliam had the option, even Baron whats-his-face was showed the vision and imagination he had, and he was a huge fan of bringing it to life.

Both Spiderman and X-Men have been crafted by teams who actually like the original material and want to bring it to life, and it's worked, and worked well, within the confines of the movie system.

Oh, and there is the thought that it could be done extremely well out of Hollywood.

All this seems academic though, if they want to do it, they'll just do it whatever way.

i was actually really looking forward to this project. I really like Pi and Requiem For A Dream. The last one especially showed real potential for Watchmen. The gritty and kind of sick athmosphere Darren created seemed excellent for Watchmen. But he's been critized for being to much style over substance and i can't deny the fact that his, Aranofsky's, characters are usually quite flat. But the way i see it is that if anyone could have pulled it off, it would have been Aranofsky.

the premise sounds very interesting:

source: http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hp&cf;=prev&id;=1808402960

The only details that have been released thus far about this project is that it's a "science fiction epic" in a "post-Matrix" vein. I would not presume that the conjuring of The Matrix necessarily means that this is a cyber-sci-fi film (although it could be; Pi was certainly in similar territory). It's also known to involve South America somehow. (6/12/02) A report over at AICN says that the film starts with a battle between the Spaniards and the Mayans, before jumping ahead a thousand years to the year 2,500 when one of the men from the beginning is still alive, and on his way to meet God. It sounds *wild*, but so does a short description of Aronofsky's "Pi" (which *was* quite wild, too). Especially of note over there is a post in the "TalkBack", in which someone suggests that the "Fountain" in question is the Fountain of Youth that Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard, was seeking. Hmmmm... he might be onto something. (7/9/02) If you want a LOT of detail about this project, much of which is definitely "spoilers", Drew McWeeny, AKA "Moriarty" has posted a script review over at AICN. (3/12/04) The script has apparently undergone serious revisions to cut the budget nearly in half, so much of what is online about this film is now obsolete.
but anyway back to reality, i'm expecting a lot of his current project.

Oh, nooo!!!! I expect the worse... sigh!

Oh nooo! I expect the worse... *sigh*

Oh nooo! I expect the worse... *sigh*

I've thought for a while, based on his work with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Solaris, that George Clooney may have what it takes as a director to bring this to the screen. He's still unpolished, so I wouldn't necessarily tackle it right away, but he shows solid signs of being the right kind of visionary.

Sorry for the three repeated posts... technical issue am afraid... it can be fixed? lol

Clooney? Oh no, he is a terrible director. Solaris is Soderbergh�s, not his, and is yet more boring.

Possible directors? Very few: Terry Gilliam resigned (he may have hit the point), my preferences go for David Fincher or Vincenzo Natali.

I like the idea of making it a mini-series on HBO. Like what they did with Band of Brothers. Have David Fincher produce it, he can direct an episode, get Gilliam to direct another episode, Aronofsky directs one, etc.

The major Hollywood studios today would fuck it up as a movie. They would try to turn it into commercialized pap that they could market to kids and teenagers, which would be ironic considering that the crass commercialization of superheroes is a major theme of the graphic novel.

That indeed could be a good solution! But a miniseries wouldn�t get the budget a film could... so the fx and the casting could suffer from that... anyway, best a miniseries than a "light" film... I still tremble and shake like a leaf when I remember From Hell and The League movies...

Watch Band of Brothers. That doesn't look "cheap" at all. It was a rather pricey HBO mini-series, which ran 10 episodes. This is exactly the treatment that Watchmen deserves. In order for this to happen, it would need to be presented to HBO and nurtured by someone with the clout to get this done. Fincher would be an excellent choice for Executive Producer, as he has produced a series before (well, the first round of the BMW Driver film short series). Watchmen could be done very well as a 10-episode HBO mini, and HBO has a relationship with Time Warner (owner of D.C. Comics).

In these times now, Hollywood is just not at all willing to fund edgy challenging stories as movies. All superhero projects will get toned down, made more commercial friendly, and targeted toward the PG-13 audience.

Granted, the director credit for Solaris went to Soderbergh, but Clooney had a big hand in it, and they've collaborated on a number of other projects.

Have you seen Confessions of a Dangerous Mind? The characters have incredible depth, the pacing is razor sharp (and that's going to be the number 1 challenge in bringing The Watchmen to the screen), and the imagery and cinematography were beautiful. And this is the man's directorial debut.

He's got the right vision for it, he's willing to tackle hard sf and social commentary at the same time, and he's got a wry twisted sense of humor.

On the miniseries note, yes, I think that'd work well.

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