watchmen feature with zack snyder and matthew goode interviews

7/27/2019 Watchmen feature with Zack Snyder and Matthew Goode interviews

1/5

trTerrrsd,ag I suNDAY, MARCH 1,2OO9


2/5

Movies

A

wt


3/5


4/5

EoI6tt=ct3'o.ooNIUe.toz:)to3Uz

Zack Snyder has gone where no director has gone before to bring comic-book icon 'Watchmen' to theBY FRANK LOVECESpecial to Newsday

he clock isticking on"Watchmen"- finally open-ing in theatersFriday aftermore than 20years of "ToBe Continued

A comic-book miniseries soambitious, so culturally com-plex and so deconstructive ofthe superhero archetype thatTime magazine in 2005 includ-ed it on its list of the 100 bestEnglish-language novels since1923, "Watchmen" dauntedsuch filmmakers as TerryGilliam, Darren Aronofsky andPaul Greengrass as it woundits way through 20th CenturyFox, Universal, Paramount andfinally Warner Bros.

But now'300" director ZackSnyder and screenwriters DavidHayter ("X-Men") and Alex Tse,a feature-Iilm newcomer, havemade a Thermopylae-like standagainst overwhelming odds.If they pull it off - and apreview ofthree scenes and a, background-establishing creditssequence that's a mini-moviellsslfsrrggests they have -"Watchmen' will be watchedover and over. Why? As KingLeonidas might have.screamed,_'This...isSnyder!!!"Not that the genial andunassuming director himselfsuggests anything ofthe sort."It's been an intense, exhaust-ing process," says Snyder,43."I was happy to do it, and Icouldn't be happier with theresult, but it's the hardest thingthat I've ever had to work on."And unlike many lilmmakersfresh off a $245-million world-wide hit, he gives spontaneous

props to his studio. "WarnerBros. understands what I'mtrying to do. I think they're thevoice of reason sometimes. Yaknow," he adds, "what I'vealways wanted to do is makemovies. I would do it for free."(Note to his agent: Nevershow this to a studio.)Staying true to the novelA faithfirl adaptation oftherevered miniseries (see story onnext page), thb two-hour,37-minute "Watchmen" followsthe fates ofseveral non-super-powered masked crime fightersand one genuine superhumanfrom 194.0 to 1985, when the bulkofthe storytakes place. Amid anescalating Cold War, PresidentRichard Nixon has repealedterm limits and made costumedvigilantes illegalThe Comedian (feffrey DeanMorgan), a sociopathwho is oneof two government-sanctioned

heroes, is murdered by an un-known assailanl When out-Iawed hero Rorschach (JackieEarle Haley), a madman-savantAyn Randianin atrench coat,investigates, the mystery eventu-ally ensnares hero-turned-philanthropist Ozymandias(Matthew Goode), the voluntari-ly vanished Nite Owl (PatrickWilson) and Silk Spectre (MalinAkerman). She's now the con-sort of the government's otherhero, the freakish Dr. Manhattan(Billy Crudup), a godlike molec-ular manipulator who livesunstuck in time and space.Snyder "would work 12-,l5-hour days" to bring all thisto the screen, Goode says."He's got hundreds of peoplearound him needing answersto things, and there's no wrongquestion - you can ask himanything. He's never tired, he'sexcited to be doing the job he'sdoing - and he still takes time

to play football with his kids."Snyder even stoically sol-diered on when 20th CenturyFox filed a doomsday lawsuitover ownership issues. (Foxand Warner reached a settle-ment in fanuary.)"It was a little bit scary for awhile," Snyder Says. "It's onething to say,'Oh, anotherstudio is gonna release thennvie.'It's another thing en-tirely when they're saying,'Oh,we're gonna shelve it for alltime."'A Goode castThe cast, which includesMatt Frewer, Stephen McHat-tie and Carla Gugino, was -chosen less for marquee valuethan for 4cting chops. "I wasvery worried about my cast-ing," Goode says, believingthat he was "not the physicaltype for [Ozymandias). YetZack was adamant and reassur-


5/5

BEHIND.THE-SCENESHEROICS

C Comics"'Watchmen"i : ':. was first published as ai,: i l2-issue miniseries in 1986,ttP,.#''i$' ana'87. It was collectedthe latter year as a trade paper-back called colloquially, if notstrictly accurately, a graphicnovel, and has never gone out ofprint - selling about 100,000copies in 2007 alone. This year,coinciding with the movie, DC'sprint run will be about I million.By 1985, British author AlanMoore was an industry star,thanks to his literary-horrorrevamp of DC's Swamp Thing.Then he proposed a murdermystery that would anchor astory deconstructing the super-hero mythos, taking it to itslogical conclusion as authorita-tive paternalism - oftheNietzschean, small-s supermandictating how things must be, forour own good.

Moore wanted to use existingheroes DC had acquired fromthe defungt publisher CharltonComics, but managing editorDick Giordano instead suggestedMoore create new ones. ArtistDave Gibbons came aboard, andtheir creation became a classicthat won four Eisner and sevenHarvey Awards, the industry'stwo highest, in 1988, and becamethe first comics story to win theHugo, the Oscar of sci fi.In addition to the film, theCGl-animated DVD "Watchmen:Tales of the Black Freighter,"adapting a comic-within-the-comic that served as counter-point, comes out March 24.Warner Premiere's "WatchmenMotion Comics" Webi$odes,which began appearing in )uly,are being collected on DVD andwill be released Tuesday._ FRANK LOVECE

big sceening and made mefeel at ease."Snyder, for hispart, says Goode "fitthe bill and did anamazing job. Wewere having a hardtime casting [therolel, because weneeded someonehandsome, beautifuland sophisticated,and that's a toughcombo." Likewise,for The Comedian:"It's hard to find aman's man in Holly-wood. It just is. Andfeffrey came in andwas grumpy andcool and grizzled,

This is reallysuper! Seethe trailer for"Watchmen."

have looked sillyon-screen. (Theendingremainsintact thematically.)Others grunibledover studio adscalling Snyder"visionary" - as if"300" didn't have adistinct vision.That criticismriles Goode. "It maybe too early to callhim the next RidleyScott," he says ofSnyder, "but visual-ly he's freakingextraordinary. Any-body who says he'snot, after they seethe fust 15 minutes,

PatrickWilson, MalinAckerman andJackie EarleHaley, above,and BillyCrudup, below,are the heroicforces in"Watchmen."

and I was, like,'OK, jeffrey isperfect!'" they'll be eating their hats."And unless you're-Matter-Somefancontroversyarose Eater Lad ofthe Legion ofover Snyder choosing to forgo Super-Heroes - the verythe "space squid" climax that antithesis of "Watchmen" -worked in print but likely would that just won't do.

Fo{oCl.o5olzmqoczona)INoO\o

watchmen feature with zack snyder and matthew goode interviews

Documents