Having trouble believing Zack Snyder can push a three-hour cut of “Watchmen” past the suits at Warner Bros?
You’re not the only one. Guillermo del Toro (“Hellboy II” and upcoming director behind “The Hobbit”) said he was originally offered “Watchmen” before Snyder, but turned it down cause he thought there was no way the complex story could be told as one movie.
“You know, at one point or another, Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin asked me if I wanted to do The Watchmen and I just couldn’t get my head around The Watchmen being two or three hours long. I always thought that the series depended on almost-miniseries build-up.”
Meanwhile, Dave Gibbons, the original artist who drew Alan Moore’s graphic novel epic, has apparently seen a 3-hour cut of the film – the same one that Kevin Smith saw? – and he apparently raved about it too.
There’s already been plenty of “Watchmen”-duration talk from Snyder himself who said he’s already been battling WB for a longer cut, but with an impending lawsuit, and as an untested franchise*, Snyder seems to be behind the eight ball in this entreaty for a three-hour movie.
*The success of “The Dark Knight” – its length and its prodigious bank – proves nothing for “Watchmen,” frankly. Snyder’s no Christopher Nolan, and he doesn’t have Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal or Aaron Eckhart, not to mention iconic characters like Batman or the Joker behind him (and let alone a character that’s been made into a feature-length film six times now). Comparisons are mostly futile. What he has is a project with a devoted core, and a relatively unknown cast as far as mainstream audiences go (if you don’t think its mainstream audiences that made ‘TDK’ the phenomenon it is, you’re high). Your mom know who Batman is. She knows who Heath Ledger is. She doesn’t know shit from “Watchmen,” its cast or its creators.
Want the 3-plus hour version of “Watchmen”? You’re probably going to have to wait for DVD. There’s talk that Warner Bros. may have to pay out the ass to get over this lawsuit and that could also hurt Snyder’s chances at getting a longer cut that might make audiences stay away.
Oh and related: speaking of “The Hobbit,” it turns out that the original “The Lord Of The Rings” writing team, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens have officially signed on to write ‘Hobbit’ with del Toro. Good news, for fans of the original ‘LOTR’ franchise.
