If you’ve never read it, Alan Moore’s Watchmen is to comics what Moby Dick is to American literature. And depsite my previous posts I’m not that hard of a critic on comic based movies as you’d expect. I didn’t know what to expect from the Watchmen film when it was announced. Actually I didn’t think it would ever really get made since there’s been some form a Watchmen movie in development for a long while now. Plus Alan Moore refuses to publicly back any attempt to film his masterpiece (what a curmudgeon!). But with the leak of some press photos today, well it’s definitly confirmed to really be happening in at least my mind.

Zack Snyder who directed 300 is manning this film. And while I didn’t think 300 was all that awesome, I will concede and say it was EXACTLY like the comic. But to be fair I didn’t think the comic was all that awesome. I find Frank Miller vastly overrated (Year One, Born Again, The Man Without Fear and The Dark Knight Returns the only exceptions). So Snyder (at least to me) has a great track record of accurately translating comics into film. Plus he directed the excellent remake of Dawn of the Dead. The photos of the actors in costume only confrim the above statement! Look at that press shot of The Comedian, he’s dead on ! I can’t wait for the Dr. Manhattan photo leak! I wonder if he’ll walk around the whole film with his penis exposed? Billy Crudup isn’t that big a star to refuse!

Speaking of Billy Crudup, he’s basically the biggest star appearing in this film… not exactly a household name. Which is also why I have such high hopes for this film. Not casting 7 huge stars as the Watchmen means this movie won’t be dominated by star notoriety but hopefully with good directing, acting, characters and story. This kind of thing worked for X-Men (Minus Halle berry), so I guess we’ll wait and see.