Two-Episode Watchmen Series Set as a Prequel 65
We were a bit disappointed when we heard the recent two-episode Watchmen series announcement since it was to be set as a brawler. However, it seems that these two games will be set as a prequel with the ability to play either Nite Owl or Rorschach in the days before superheroes were outlawed. "If you're wondering who could possibly replace the much-revered Alan Moore in the scripting department -- as the story is the linchpin upon which the whole Watchmen experience pivots -- comic fans will be glad to know that respected comic veteran Len Wein (co-creator of DC's Swamp Thing and Marvel's Wolverine characters) is on board to provide the dialogue, and original Watchmen illustrator Dave Gibbons is lending his insights as the game's adviser. Due out around the same time as the film's theatrical release, the game will be released in multiple parts designed to lead the player up to the graphic novel/film's events."
Man... (Score:4, Funny)
I hope Alan Moore's been taking his blood pressure medication today.
Prequel. Good, bad, he's going to be grumpier than normal about things...
Re:Man... (Score:5, Funny)
Aw, shucks. If only they had pushed the prequel even farther back in the storyline, to its ultimate pre-clusion: Watchmen Babies: V for Vacation! [google.com]
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From what I remember, Alan Moore has expressed very little concern about what is done with his stories in other media. I don't have a link handy, but I recall an ancient interview with the AV Club over on The Onion in which he essentially said that what other people did with his stories really wasn't his concern and he had enough of his own work to keep him busy. He'd just let it go and take the paycheck.
You can call it selling out but it sounds like one of the more rational ways of handling it. How else ar
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You can call it selling out but it sounds like one of the more rational ways of handling it. How else are you going to stay sane during the dark days of 'LXG'?
Oh, I don't know... Maybe by not selling out? People can't just come along and do whatever they want with his work, they have to purchase the rights and such. He is either signing said rights away (and is thus to blame), or never truly held the rights to begin with due to some inane contract he signed with the original publishers (and is thus not necessarily to blame, unless for short sightedness).
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Ok, that's some good news at least (Score:4, Interesting)
when we heard the recent two-episode Watchmen series announcement
I was wondering how in the hell you'd do The Watchmen in a single 2.5 hour movie. It'd be worse than the Fantastic Four movies. Here's the heroes, here's the bad guy, here's 10 minutes of action, there's the door.
Anyone have a reference where it says The Watchmen will be two movies?
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Saw the preview before Dark Knight. It looks like is going to be beautiful. How faithful it will be is anyone's guess. Not sure how faithful it could be. IIRC, the comic was lots of talking and stuff about relationships. Ah well, i'll be there opening night.
Re:Ok, that's some good news at least (Score:4, Informative)
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Hmm... yes, that's because they are doing The Black Freighter [comingsoon.net] and Under the Hood as a seperate DVD set to coincide with the movies release.
Shameless self-promotion: see my re-creation of the Tales Of The Black Freighter story here:
http://boredomfestival.wordpress.com/2007/12/11/tales-of-the-black-freighter/ [wordpress.com]
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Well, my Koran was old E. C. Comics... such as Tales from the Crypt which Black Freighter is loosely based on (both the art and the story could have appeared in an old Vault of Horror with no changes). So... my favorite comics were already horribly desecrated, and yet the sun still comes up each day. C'est la vie...
In fact, I've always s
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Although TFS is poorly written (hello, I must be new here), the "two-episode Watchmen series" mentioned would be the subsequently discussed games, not the movie, of which there will be just one. Not counting the Black Freighter stuff, noted elsewhere.
My only worry at this point is that they've spent so much time and money recreating the look that they will have forgotten the story.
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I was wondering how in the hell you'd do The Watchmen in a single 2.5 hour movie.
I was wondering the same thing. I took a quick pass at how Snyder could squeeze 12 issues into two hours [writingiscake.com], and it just doesn't make sense even with the Black Freighter removed.
I wish they had done this as an HBO mini series or something, but alas. The trailer looked pretty, so we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed.
It's funny... (Score:3, Interesting)
.
Too bad nobody thought to use these for a PC game... a Watchmen American style RPG could be fun....
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Too bad nobody thought to use these for a PC game... a Watchmen American style RPG could be fun....
How about a Watchmen JRPG?
"DAMNIT, ADRIAN, YOU CAN'T CATCH BULLETS FIRED BY DRAGONS FROM ORBIT."
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Needs more ellipses.
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...Here...you...go...!
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JRPGs aren't really RPGs, they're slightly interactive cinematics.
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Mayfair's DC Heroes, I remember that one. God that was an awesome pen and paper rpg. Did heroes right.
Chewing The Cud (Score:2, Insightful)
Why is it that the entertainment industry must chew the cud of its past successes over and over. Why is it seen as acceptable, and even desirable, that a work be "brought to the big screen". Frankly it's obscene.
Watchmen was a great comic. A fantastic graphic novel. No one "Should make a movie of this". Or a game. Or a TV show. Great works do not need to be paraded before the masses in order to be vindicated in some ridiculous fashion. Fans do a disservice to their favorite work by suggesting this.
Famous wo
The answer is.... (Score:1, Insightful)
... no one cares about anything you just said because we all know you and everyone else will go see the movie regardless of how bad it is or is not, and they will all make a tankerload of money from it.
Re:Chewing The Cud (Score:5, Informative)
Have you even _seen_ the trailer? The scenes in there are panel-for-shot recreations of the comic.
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/watchmen_trailer_to_comic_comparison
Re:Chewing The Cud (Score:5, Insightful)
Watchmen was a great comic. A fantastic graphic novel. No one "Should make a movie of this". Or a game. Or a TV show. Great works do not need to be paraded before the masses in order to be vindicated in some ridiculous fashion. Fans do a disservice to their favorite work by suggesting this.
There's a difference between exploitation and exploration. I saw a wonderful adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories' as a play, and it went places that even the (wonderful) original didn't. Every medium has compromises, and as long as the work is adapted well, it can be rewarding.
Well, by the way, does not include standard Hollywood tricks. Orson Scott Card's ruminations on the subject of why you change and when come to mind.
Watchmen will not work on the big screen. They will defile it. Expect the Happy-Meal version, with Dr. Manhattan in a leotard throughout, A cigar-less Comedian, and a kung-fu fighting Rorschach who find happiness in the end. Silhouette will make an appearance, and you know in exactly what context. Ozymandias will probably die a brutal death after his plot is foiled at 6 seconds to midnight. It will be a gruesome spectacle, like watching a car hit a truck in slow motion. Why would anyone want this?
Possibly. However, Manhattan is already showing up nude in the trailer and the Comedian has his cigar- I'm guessing you haven't seen the trailer, because those are poor examples. Or have read the recent articles, where they state explicitly that it still ends with the villain accomplishing his nefarious goal, in spite of studio pressure.
Alas, that goal might not be the squid, so I'm holding judgment on the subject.
I get your point, I really do. I've seen too many bad adaptations, too. But there can be good adaptations, and the odds look decent for this.
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it still ends with the villain accomplishing his nefarious goal, in spite of studio pressure.
Awesome! Hopefully the ambiguity about whether or not he's a villain is still present. It would be pretty cool to have real Americans actually talk about moral relativism in response to a flashy movie. Batman may have just prompted some of that, but it's the kids' version compared to the Watchmen comic.
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TFA is about the same-day-released videogame based on the movie based on the comic book. Hope you have some medication handy.
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First off, at least two of the things you mention are specifically disproven in the trailer.
But yeah, screw this adaptation to new media crap! What the hell was James Joyce thinking? Clearly the only way to do justice to a good piece of art is to shrink-wrap it in its original context so that only a privileged few are able to bask in its full glory.
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No one could ever possibly be concerned that a movie adaptation might emasculate a story for commercial viability, because that's never happened, especially not to an Alan Moore book.
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You cannot emasculate the story. You can only emasculate the adaptation.
Re:Chewing The Cud (Score:4, Informative)
Zack Snyder (director of 300) used the comic as his storyboard and even brought Dave Gibbons in to assist with artwork. While we all know there isn't a chance in hell of this happening, Mr. Snyder has said that his ultimate goal is to make a film that Alan Moore will watch and thing represents the comic.
Is there a chance this movie will fail, and horribly so? Of course. I'm not going to be that jackass who doesn't give it a chance though. Watchmen is one of my all time favorite works of fiction (not just comic), and I will be very disappointed if it sucks, but if it doesn't then it will introduce that many more people to the ideas and world of Watchmen, something which I think is a good thing.
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Zack Snyder (director of 300)
Uh-oh! Interest... waning...
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Re:Chewing The Cud (Score:5, Informative)
The movie of Fight Club was arguably better than the novel, and even the author agrees.
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Remember the 1st rule of book club!
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The movie of Fight Club was arguably better than the novel, and even the author agrees.
...and there's talk of a musical, with Trent Reznor... no joke.
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"Show me a movie adaptation of any publication that is better than the original?"
Godfather.
"it will likely be a watered down version of the graphic novel"
Not sure they could do anything other than water it down; it would take 12 hours to put everything in it an would cost a billion dollars.
From everything I've read and seen, the movie people are trying to do a faithful adaptation, though I have reservations about some of the stylistic choices.
If it seems good, I'll go see it.
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Watchmen was a great comic. A fantastic graphic novel. No one "Should make a movie of this". Or a game. Or a TV show.
Why not? It's how Japan does it. An author writes a paperback ("raito noberu"), and if it's successful, maybe he'll pursue a manga adaptation. Or get a studio for an anime production.
Granted, it's a somewhat different situation, and I will never be able to "appreciate" the originals until I learn Japanese. But, as many ways as there are to ruin a series (horrible dubbing of an anime, or
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That's what I meant - I'm looking forward to Haruhi in October! But, in the context of the parent I was replying to, that translation couldn't be anything but a travesty to the original, no?
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I just saw the trailer (watched it many times) and it looks incredible.
The Comedian has a cigar...and a slight grin as he burns a VC to the ground. (Viet Cong not Venture Capital).
One point however, the assailant of Ozymandias had his gun changed to a walkie-talkie in homage to Spielberg on the trailer.
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What people like me are scared of is that movies become the one and only medium. For quite a lot of people if it's not on the big screen it doesn't exist. I mean look at this discussion. I have never seen a musical or a play, even if it were based on something I like. But I bet I will never be called elitist if I refused to go to "watchmen on ice".
Also I never met anyone who never saw a film in the same way I never saw a stage musical. Yet there are loads of people who never read a comic book. Film adaptat
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If I had mod points you would get every single one of them, my friend.
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*** SPOILER *** (weeell, you never know who reads a thread...)
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Things don't magically appear on 'the big screen' they have to be conceived and recorded first. Would you demand that a work must remain in its original format from the moment it was written until the sun runs out of hydrogen?
Sometimes there were stories that didn't originate as screenplays. Simply because they weren't originally intended for screenplays doesn't mean that it is somehow wrong to try and adapt the story.
Watchmen Motion Comics on iTunes (Score:3, Informative)
Superman to Brainiac, re: Kandor: Let my people... (Score:2, Interesting)
... grow - Len Wein.
Wish they'd do The Watchmen TV series (Score:5, Funny)
I dare ya (Score:2)
We were a bit disappointed when we heard the recent two-episode Watchmen series announcement since it was to be set as a brawler.
I dare you to make less sense.