We’re roughly a month away from the film’s premiere, and the leaks of “Watchmen” news are coming our way faster than “Los Campesinos” albums … which is actually only twice a year, but that is light years in album release terms, so lay off. We start with the final poster for the anticipated film.
For some reason, the final “Watchmen” poster just doesn’t get our motor running. Maybe it’s because previous images offered a more telling example of each character’s nature. Or maybe because it essentially looks like a bunch of disgruntled superheroes standing in the rain. Wait, that is exactly what the story is about, more or less. Insert your own profound analogy that the poster is intending to display here.
As if that wasn’t enough to work you into a fanboy lather, we also have word that Zack Snyder is becoming the parental version of M. Night Shyamalan for his film career. What the hell does that mean? Well, it means that he has cast his son, Eli, in “Watchmen.” Eli will play the young Rorshach in a flashback scene that offers viewers a taste of the painful childhood the sociopathic anti-hero endured.
“My son was in ‘300’ too, as the young Leonidus — he fights the dad, and then he punches a kid in the face,” Snyder told Nylon Guys magazine , “I feel like he’s together enough actually, that he can handle [the ‘Watchmen’ role].”
The character isn’t one for the faint of heart, but when Snyder was asked how in depth he took it for Eli, he replied, “I didn’t try to get to deep into it. Though there is a woman yelling at him, ‘I should’ve had that abortion!’” Damn it, do we smell the next generation’s answer to Eminem?
And as if us petty humans didn’t have enough to envy about Dr. Manhattan, Snyder confirmed with that the superhero’s radioactive unit will be on-screen for all to witness.
“It’s an R rated movie, right?” Snyder told MTV’s Splash Page. “What you see in the trailer has to be a little bit squished around so it can get on TV. I think in the final film you’ll see it’s true to the graphic novel. He’s naked.” Great, so the ending with a giant freaking squid is changed, but Snyder sticks to the integrity of the graphic novel when it comes to Billy Crudup’s CGI-enhanced penis. Bravo, Mr. Snyder, bravo.
Snyder also discussed the difficulty of combining CGI effects with Billy Crudup’s acting. “That’s the thing with Dr. Manhattan — He still goes through this huge emotional journey in the movie and you need someone that can take that thread and pull it and pull a performance out of a really abstract environment and [Crudup]’s done an amazing job as far as I’m concerned.” This is something that we have no doubt about. Crudup has always been able to handle complex roles. Watch “Waking the Dead” if you need a reminder.
We’re trying to process all this information, along with Snyder choosing My Chemical Romance to do a Bob Dylan cover, and stay on point with the film. But Snyder has assured everyone that he has stuck to the original story, so we will believe him. After all, this has been a young year full of miracles, right? We have an African-American President, and the Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl. If Snyder can manage to make the greatest graphic novel of all-time into a decent film, hell, we’re ordering drinks for everyone in celebration of a 2009 wonder hat trick. Maybe Snyder will pay the bill. Probably not, considering Fox will be reaping tons of the film’s profit.
PS, there’s also this viral Flickr account with extra Watchmen photogoodies including this meta New York Gazette file clipping on Dr. M.
