Zack Snyder Talks ‘Watchmen’s Changed Ending

The New York Times has a sit-down with “Watchmen” director Zack Snyder and reveals… well, not a lot, really.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a short movie by any stretch, but it’s the tightest version that I could give them and not feel like I raped it a little bit,” Snyder said. A friend of ours saw the movie last Thursday and confirmed to us that the film is indeed, two hours and forty five minutes, which is kind of amazing when you think about it.

Sure, “Watchmen” needs at least that much to tell the complicated story in earnest, but it is a brand new feature and yes, it’s a very popular graphic novel – perhaps the most popular – but still for Warner Bros. to show that much confidence in a product that is untested in the film world is still remarkable.

Though Snyder has mentioned in the past that he had to kick and scream to get his own way in terms of length. But initially, he got what he wanted (including 100 days shooting in Vancouver and casting off-the-beaten path) because Warners said, ” ‘O.K., we don’t understand ‘300,’ and it made a lot of money,’ he said.

The director also discussed the controversial changed ending, but he stood behind his decision.

“I think it keeps the movie on point a little more than it would if we had the squid, then I think we would have had to go explain and talk about. I like the squid in the graphic novel. Everyone thinks I hate the squid and I don’t get ‘Watchmen.’ ‘Snyder’s crazy, he’s ruining it. He changed the ending’ – which I did not, I will say. Like, if you really talk about, What is the end of ‘Watchmen’? It’s the exact same ending that there is in the book, there’s no two ways about it. I think for me, the squid just represents a 30-minute right turn that, in order for it to make any sense at all, you would have to take. What I was concerned with, if I took that 30-minute left turn to explain the squid, you’d be talking about taking 30 minutes of other stuff out of the movie. And right now, I’m on the edge with just how much Rorschach I have, and how much Nite Owl, and how much Dr. Manhattan, just as far as their character stuff. I wouldn’t want to lose a minute of that stuff.”

Ok, not that much revealed, but the Times does give up a good, “what could have been” scenario: “Watchmen” illustrator Dave Gibbons tells the tale of when producer Joel Silver had interest in the project and he wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of the all-powerful Dr. Manhattan. “I leave it to your imagination what kind of movie that might have been,” Gibbons snorted. We’re getting Dr. Freeze déjà vu, *shudder.*

Nerds and nitpickers like us should be so thankful for Snyder. BTW, Firstshowing has this pretty cool new “No Masks” poster that even we like, so we thought we’d post.