Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:11PM4 comments ›
Wed Jul 30, 2008 — by Van Jensen
Zack Snyder on the 'Watchmen' Director's Cut
Editing room floor holds loads of material
Director Zack Snyder has said he's trying to stay faithful to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's Watchmen graphic novel, but that has left Snyder with a whole lot of material and a whole lot of cutting ahead of him.
Slash Film does a good job of sorting through Snyder's comments about his film adaptation, leading to some speculation on what could be in store for future director's cut releases.
It was already announced that there would be an animated Black Freighter movie being released around the time when Watchmen hits cinemas, but apparently the extent of its involvement in the Watchmen mythology won’t end there. Snyder made mention that they’ve also filmed the transitions featured in the graphic novel that take the main storyline into the Freighter comic. So even though those wouldn’t be a part of the theatrical cut, they would show up the “super duper director’s cut,” as would the other creations they’ve been working on.
Being that the film is already running at about 3 hours, and Warner Bros. wants to cut it down to 2 and a half, this makes me wonder if they’ll actually be releasing two different director’s cuts: one with the original cut of the film, and one with the extended new cut. If that were the case, that would mean the extended version would probably be running at about 5 hours or more. As much as I love all things Watchmen related, that does not sound ideal. I would love to see Snyder’s full 3 hour cut, but adding in more content beyond that seems excessive. I understand the desire to incorporate the outside footage, but I don’t want to see the flow of the storyline get repeatedly chopped up by hopping between that and stuff that’s only thematically related. I assume it’s issues like these that made creator Alan Moore claim the graphic novel was unfilmable. Some of the things he did with the comic are things you just cannot translate straight to a movie. Which isn’t to say I’m not excited to see the extra footage; I just think the segments will operate more smoothly as its own entity.
Much more at the link, including quotes from Snyder.
Jump to comments (4)
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Comments (4)
Vinnie Bartilucci (2:22 PM on Wed Jul 30, 2008)
I think a good way to include the extra stuff is to mirror the format of the book - a series of "documentaries" that are nothing but particular plotlines. I'm betting a good chunk of Rorshach's treatment in prison will go. Include all of it as a standalone story, like the issue of the series was. you can watch each and get the extra information they'd provide, but you won't get the feeling you're watching a five hour film.
But hey, whadda I know?
Cartoono The Magnificent (2:20 PM on Wed Jul 30, 2008)
Maybe he should stop using so much slo-mo! That would probably save an hour right there!
Tom Fitzpatrick (4:47 PM on Wed Jul 30, 2008)
Maybe they'll release it as a "extended version" of dvd like they did with the Lord of the Rings.
But I'd prefer to sit through 3 hrs than see anything be cut out. I'm afraid that the theatrical version might be like the Daredevil movie. Where the Daredevil the Director's cut was so much better than the movie.
Richard Pachter (4:18 PM on Thu Jul 31, 2008)
I'll take the jumbo, please.