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If you had the extended directors cut of Watchmen last Saturday night, odds are you had access to watch the movie along with 100,000 other uber-geeks at Comic-Con as director Zach Snyder gave a live hosted screening of the movie which included 24 extra min. of footage.   

How was this possible you may ask?  Fans with the Blu-ray of Watchmen in their Internet-connected players could use the BD Live technology to view the movie with a running text of Snyder’s words flowing in a white box at the top of the screen.

Snyder answered questions from members of the live audience in San Diego as well as from fans at home, who logged onto Warner’s BD Live Web site and typed questions via computer.

During the screening, he answered questions about costume choices, scenes he cut out – and why, and the occassional super geek questions like “if you where a Jedi, what color would your light saber be?”…..

For those of you interested, his answer was Green. It is also worth noting that when asked what his favorite movie of all time is…he said Star Wars!

Up until this live screening, I haven’t thought the BD Live technology has been too impressive.  Typically you can just logon via Blue-ray and download some small extra’s that likely should have been included on the disc in the first place.  

Anyway, I stepped into the event not knowing what to expect. I was hoping to see a live video feed, but we got the box of text.  It was still super cool, and I’m excited to see the new technology pushed further to include live crowd interaction via the web.  

I’ll be looking forward to the next one!

Tonight I will watch the Watchmen!

Around the country director Zach Snyder’s interpretation of Alan Moore’s classsic Watchmen will officially come out tomorrow 3/6/09, but for those who can not wait many theatres across the country will open their doors for a midnight showing.  I’ll be there as this is probably for me the most anticipated movie since the Fellowship of the Ring came out. My excitement started growing over the summer and just continued to build. It looks good visually so far from what I’ve seen, but I’m curious to see how they tell the story? What will they cut out? Because there will have to be cuts. How much back story will they tell? How will it end?

So, I’m interested to hear what folks think about the movie. Feel free to post your pre-movie hopes and fears, as well as your post movie reviews. I am particularly interested to hear what people who have not read the graphic novel before and don’t already have a love for the work think about the movie.  I’ll try to get one up at some point on Friday but it will probably be the afternoon.

Who is watching the Watchmen?  Looks like we will be…Finally!  We have definitive word on the Watchmen legal case between Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox.  The word is that Warner Bros will be paying 20th Century Fox a large up-front settlement ($5-$10 million range) as well as a percentage of the gross (5%-8%).  In addition, 20th Century Fox will have participation points in any sequel or spin-off of Watchmen.

I for one am just happy that we won’t have to wait much longer for the Watchmen movie to come out.  All the rumors on the net indicated that it may get pushed to much later in the year.  I was also worried that Fox may have a say over the final cut of the movie – which isn’t the case.  Evidently Zach Snyder can still make the movie he wants. Rumor is that he’s cutting much of the 3+ hour movie right now, but that most of it will be available on DVD. 

Anyway, all of us uber-geeks can rejoice!  Watchmen will be here soon.

Judging from the results from this weekend’s box office numbers, many of you went and saw the newest Batman film… in fact probably all of you considering its record breaking weekend. If you were among the millions who did, you not only saw a great film, you had the chance to see for the first time on the big screen the preview trailer for next years film: Watchmen. To say that my excitement level in anticipation for this film is high is quite the understatement. I think the last time I was this excited about a film this far in advance was for the Lord of the Rings films. Watchmen hits theatres early next spring on 3/6/2009.

If you are not familiar with Watchmen it is thought of as the gold standard all other comics are held to. It came out in 1986/7 and paved the way for the future of comics that lead to more adult laden themes. It won every comic book award out there and went on to be named by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English novels since 1923…..

Let that sink in for a moment it is held in the same breath as Vonnegut’s Slaughter House Five, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Orwell’s Animal Farm, Morrison’s Beloved, Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, Faulkner’s Sound and the Fury, Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, Golding’s Lord of the Flies,  and many more books you read as classics going through High School and College.

That should give you an indication that this is not your run of the mill KAPOW and BOOM comic book.

The question begs when the doomsday clock reads five minutes to midnight: “Who Watches the Watchmen”. The quick answer to this question is not its creator Alan Moore. Alan the creative mastermind behind other Hollywood films such as From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentleman, and V for Vendetta abhors Hollywood about as much as he does his former mainstream employers DC and Marvel. He is quoted recently as saying he is not a fan of the director of the movie (Zach Snyder “300”) and does not see how anyone can adapt the award winning graphic novel into a film. To put it simply he has seen his work destroyed previously by those in Hollywood trying to make his work more acceptable and marketable to target audiences. Because of this he has no plans to see the movie and wants his name to not be associated with it.

I must admit I have fears that this book is too dense and has too much going on to be made into a film, but I’ll give it a shot. The first trailer looks stunning and there is no one who can doubt Snyder’s ability to make a film look sensational, but I am among those who are concerned he may not have it in him to create a film that so heavily relies on the characters interpersonal relationships as well as his ability to maintain a hold on all the symbolic imagery utilized in the comic.

If you are interested in learning more about the plot, the creative process and an overview of the characters I highly recommend checking out Jeff Jensen’s article at Entertainment Weekly. He does a great job of summing everything up.Here is the trailer for those that missed it or just want to see it again. The clock is ticking and midnight is just around the corner……..