Tales of the Black Freighter, trailer rumors, the movies runtime and Comic Con are all on the pages of the blogs all buzzing about Watchmen. It doesn’t get any better than this, as the comic and film world is humming with excitement and anticipation. Follow the links below for all the buzz you can handle!!

Devin Faraci at CHUD…

In the meantime, I want to address something that I have seen again and again on our message boards: a lack of faith in Zack Snyder. First of all, it’s too late to get worked up about him, as the guy has wrapped shooting on the film. Second, it’s hard for me to understand where anyone is coming from on this. Snyder is two for two at this point; even if Dawn of the Dead and 300 are not your favorite movies or even your cup of tea, there’s no denying that they are well-made films. And most importantly, they are very different sorts of films. I think Watchmen may make clear the fact that there is not yet a ‘Zack Snyder’ stereotypical film. Unless maybe you’re thinking of him serving the material in the best way possible is his stereotypical move.

Alex Billington at FirstShowing.Net…

Seeing this photo gives fans a chance to finally realize that Zack Snyder is keeping the real depth and complexity of the entire story and universe contained within Watchmen. Instead of opting for a simpler story focusing on just what’s mainly presented in the comic, Zack’s implementing every last detail, including going as far as actually creating an entire Tales of the Black Freighter animated film based on the graphic novel within the graphic novel.

Gary Susman at EW’s PopWatch Blog…

That backstory will be further explored in a mockumentary called Under The Hood, a side project Snyder is overseeing, along with Tales of the Black Freighter, a grim pirate saga that appears in Watchmen in the form of a comic book one character reads throughout the story, offering a counterpoint to the main superhero plot. Both Under the Hood and Black Freighter will be released on DVD at the time of Watchmen’s big-screen release next March. That’s not quite the same thing as being able to enjoy these stories and refer back to them while reading the main Watchmen story, as you can with the graphic novel, but it’s pretty close. Props to Snyder for trying to replicate as closely as possible the rich and allusive experience of reading the book — and to Warner Bros. for letting him do so.

Source: Ain’t It Cool News

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Authors: Martin Anderson, Seb Patrick, James Hunt
Source: Den of Geek

The co-creator of Watchmen talks about the upcoming movie adaptation and looks back on his career…

“There are hardcore fans out there who’ll be satisfied with nothing less than a word-for-word recreation of the comic book. I didn’t believe that was ever going to happen.”

Dave Gibbons started out as a comic strip illustrator for DC Thomson and IPC, but came to greater prominence as one of the premiere illustrators at 2000 AD comic in the late 1970s, contributing to strips such as Dan Dare, Rogue Trooper and Harlem Heroes.

His greatest fame was awaiting him in the mid-eighties, when his collaboration with Alan Moore on the Watchmen graphic novel was to lead to both cult and commercial acclaim, and the only Hugo award yet granted to a graphic novel. Gibbons’ working methods and technique are examined along with those of Brian Bolland, Duncan Fegredo and others in the recently-released Studio Space book.

Remaining as busy as ever both as a comic illustrator and writer, Gibbons is looking forward – along with the rest of us - to the release of Zack Snyder’s Watchmen movie adaptation in March of 2009…

How much do you think the Watchmen movie is being faithful to the original? Does fidelity matter?

The most important thing is that the Watchmen movie be a good movie. From what I’ve seen of it, I think it is going to be a good movie, and I think it’s going to be as faithful to the original graphic novel as is possible, given the constraints of a movie and the nature of a graphic novel.

I think that as long as it’s true to the spirit of the comic book, and as long as – in broad strokes - it follows the plot and the characterisations…I don’t think you can ask for every individual detail to be replicated.

There are hardcore fans out there who’ll be satisfied with nothing less than a word-for-word, line-for-line, scene-for-scene recreation of the comic book. I didn’t believe that was ever going to happen. Certainly, from what I’ve seen of the movie, it looks like it’ll be a good movie and very faithful to the comic book. If it isn’t, it won’t be for want of trying. Everybody’s using the graphic novel as their bible, and really doing their best to pay tribute to it, I think.

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Author: Neil Miller
Source: Film School Rejects

Today must be Watchmen day around the interwebs, as we have seen not one, not two, but three interesting stories related to the production. Earlier we reported that Warner Brothers was planning on releasing the Watchmen sub-story Tales of the Black Freighter on DVD a few days after the release of the film, which for fans of the graphic novel should come as very good news. We were expecting to have to wait for Watchmen’s DVD release to see the off-shoot story, but will now get it much earlier.

The second story was one buried inside of the Black Freighter announcement, in which Zack Snyder briefly mentions the running time of Watchmen. Snyder told the NYT that “the main picture is nearing three hours long and I know I have a fight on my hands just with that.” Normally this is a statement that would be an instant turn-off for most movie fans, as a three hour runtime is not always a good thing. But in the case of Watchmen, a three hour long film might be necessary in order to tell the whole story the right way. In order to really understand why, it is necessary that you read the graphic novel, which is by no means a short story. As well, with the obvious exception of the Black Freighter sub-story, there isn’t really anything that can be easily cut out without seriously crippling the flow of the story. In that way, I can see where Zack Snyder is heading — and I like where it may lead.

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