Zach Snyder's interpretation of Watchmen in due in March 2009. In case you're wondering, Watchmen is the DC mini-series-turned-graphic novel that revolutionized comic books in 1986. It was writer Alan Moore's intent to add a layer of depth that hadn't been previously seen in the medium, in his own words, a "superhero Moby Dick...something that had that sort of weight, that sort of density." Watchmen was not only a critical and commercial success--it had the distinct honor of being the only comic book story to win a Hugo Award or to be named as one of the 20th century's Best Novels by Time Magazine--its unique tone began to influence much of contemporary or "pop" entertainment in general.

The influence of Watchmen can be observed not only in the 1980s comic book genre but also in film and television. Before Rorsach's success, conspiratorial-minded protagonists like Rorschach were never deemed safe for mainstream entertainment, not to mention heroes that were slightly deranged. Writers had never quite perceived superheroes or costumed vigilantes in the "real world" dealing with politics and utterly human dilemmas; the most realistic depiction of superheroics to that time was perhaps 1978's Superman movie. Even more groundbreaking, however, was Watchmen's amorality. Never before had a comic book delineated qualities of good and evil so tragically, so honestly, that it truly achieved the status of great art. After all, even Frank Miller's groundbreaking The Dark Knight, preceding Watchmen by a few months, still painted Batman as mostly sympathetic. Watchmen objectified and humiliated its characters for a greater point.

To say that Christopher Nolan's edgy The Dark Knight film would be impossible to make today without Watchmen's influence is an understatement. If not for Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's highly ambitious efforts, comics and superhero stories might never have grown up. Every great superhero story you see today that challenges the conventions of pulpy art owes much of its vision, and practically all of its courage, to this Moby Dick of costumed freaks.

Who Will Watch the Watchmen?

Now in 2008 the Watchmen film seems like a quaint idea--50% or more of the audience that saw its first trailer during screenings of The Dark Knight had no idea what the story was or why it was significant, while the other half trembled at the thought of wishy-washy Hollywood attempting to adapt such uncompromising material. The last time Hollywood attempted to make Watchmen into a film in the late 1980s screenwriter Sam Hamm was chosen to handle the project and turned in a draft that utterly rewrote and betrayed Alan Moore's original ending to the book. (See it for yourself at http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/wtchmn.txt) Sadly, Sam Hamm was arguably the best writer for the job at the time since he wrote the Tim Burton-directed Batman films.

These studio compromises have certainly turned off Alan Moore's enthusiasm for comic book adaptations of his work. Cinematic interpretations of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell and V For Vendetta have not only edited important parts of Moore's writing, but betrayed the foundation upon which the writer designed them. Watchmen is Moore's most beloved project, so it's predictable that he would resist the idea of turning it into a movie. What has been unpredictable however, is just how aggressively Moore has distanced himself from the upcoming project. He is demanding that his name be removed and that all royalties are given to artist Dave Gibbons. Moore told reporters that he would not even watch Snyder's interpretation, just as he wasn't planning on watching Terry Gilliam's original remake. Gilliam by the way dropped out of the project, agreeing with Moore that the source material was unfilmable.

Wait a minute, Alan! How can you not be sold on Zach Snyder's abilities? This is the same director that lovingly recreated the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller panel for panel on screen. Frank Miller has only good things to say about 300 and Paul Rodriguez's adaptation of Sin City, which were both coincidentally film recreations and not merely movie adaptations. Artist Dave Gibbons states that in the late 1980s a true Watchmen film that upheld the values of the source material would have been impossible. Now eight years into the new millennium, comic books have matured to the extreme. Frank Miller's works have been kept respectfully Rated R. Even Nolan's The Dark Knight is a high PG-13 with sordid violence, psychological terror and a gangster movie's pacing. Batman's own Tim Burton recently admitted that Nolan's films are more honest to the original comic, done so in a way that simply wasn't possible in the conservative age of the late 1980s.

The World's Smartest Comic Book Man

What does all of this mean for Zach Snyder? Everything, because for once, a comic book director is walking into a picture deal with a full advantage. He may not have absolute control over the project, but he does have the respect of the studio and the permission to film the project as honestly as he deems fit. The fact that Snyder is such a comic book geek is ideal--presumably he will fight for the little things as well as the broader vision that will just as easily scare new audiences into respect as it will satisfy comic books loyalists.

The biggest issues I see Watchmen facing is (A) the story's morally ambiguous ending and (B) the story boarding and cinematography. Snyder and other cast members have strongly indicated that the ending will remain true to the original book, even if some details may have to be re-imagined. This may sound dubious, but trying to imagine the book's literal ending on screen is a bit confusing and may be too complicated to attempt. Alan Moore stated that the story was written exclusively for the comic book medium, making certain subtleties impossible for adaptation. Secondly, the story boarding and cinematography concern me. Dave Gibbons is simply not the artist that Frank Miller is, nor is his work as cinematically friendly. Watchmen was drawn with a generous degree of naivete, allowing us to view the ridiculousness of superheroes even while dissecting their human parts into the basest elements. Staying true to the artwork may actually hinder the film; this explains why Snyder intentionally changed tight spandex into a Batman-esque military-Broadway hybrid worthy of Joel Schumacher.

Snyder might actually improve the vision by adding more elements of film noir into the picture, essentially satirizing the standards of action films, just as Moore and Gibbons sought to satirize the standards of comic books. Screenwriter Alex Tse is reworking the newest script by David Hayter of the X-Men franchise. Hayter's script did receive a half-hearted recommendation by Alan Moore, saying that though he can't recommend it, it is the best adaptation of the source material humanly possible. Who is Alex Tse? Your guess is as good as anyone else's, since his only professional credit is Sucker Free City, a made-for-Cable movie about multi-ethnic gangs in the city of San Francisco. Hopefully Tse will bring a very unconventional Hollywood mentality to this fiercely independent project, while Snyder will continue to visually dazzle us with his own unique form of cinematic worship--a visionary style of homage, one that can be fittingly labeled as glorified retro.