WATCHMEN Q&A With Zack Snyder
Thanks go out to Grundy for sending me the link on this, a very interesting Q&A with Zack Snyder with questions sent into WatchmenComicMovie.com by fans. And for a fan of the comics like me this just confirms what I already believe that Snyder is our only hope of seeing a great version of Alan Moore’s story on film. Here’s a couple of excerpts:
JDsgirlBev: Watchmen has been in “development hell” for quite some time. What factors came together to made it happen this time?
Zack Snyder: People have been trying to make Watchmen for eighteen years — and it’s a difficult project. I think there are several things that have helped to finally get Watchmen into production this time.
I think for one, as we get further away from 1985, the concept of making a movie set in 1985 becomes more viable — because it’s more of a period piece. Before, it might have just been too close to 1985. Funny enough, as time passed and the project was still in development, most other versions, actually all, planned on updating the story to a modern, or at the time, present day setting. Thankfully, we were able to abandon that approach and set the film back in 1985.
I guess a few other factors came together as well — the success of 300, my appreciation for comic book and graphic stories, and a willing studio that had faith. I don’t know if they didn’t exist elsewhere, but I just know that within the context of what I wanted to do, those three strong elements came together to get Watchmen green-lit.
Beyond that, from my own perspective, I feel like I’ve come to a place where Watchmen is in my personal aesthetic; it poses both challenges and excitement to me. It has a million mysteries, and it has a million awesome images, and it has a cool story and a cool message. I think as much as it’s hard for a studio to say yes to a project like this, it’s just as hard for a filmmaker to put himself out there and to try and make a movie like this.
I think that it was all of those disparate elements coming together and my need to stretch that helped make it all happen.
Yes, one of the greatest things with this adaption is the setting of the movie in the same time frame as the original comic. Not that updating it wouldn’t have worked but it would have had an effect on it, in my mind anyway.
ManOWar: The graphic novel contains quite a bit of symmetry, not only in the artwork, but also in the narration and the dialogue. Scenes happening between characters inadvertently comment on an alternating scene in the next frame. This convention is used quite a bit throughout Watchmen. Are you emulating this technique at all in filming/editing, or do you have another approach?
Zack Snyder: That’s absolutely right; there is a lot of symmetry in the graphic novel. When designing the shots, I have made an effort to make the images balanced compositionally to reflect some of the illustrated symmetry of the graphic novel. In addition to the visual symmetry, we do overlap the dialogue — that convention of having one scene comment on the next. That happens quite a bit in the graphic novel and I tried to keep that in the film wherever I could.
So they’re going to try and convey the same overlapping themes as was done in the comic? Nice! 
Noel M.: What changes have you made to the costumes from the comic and why?
Zack Snyder: We’ve approached each character individually regarding the design of their costume. In most cases, we have remained very close to the graphic novel. Although in some cases, we’ve made adjustments. I think Nite Owl and Silk Spectre have probably been changed the most from the original designs. We felt these changes were necessary because we live in a comic-book cinema world where costumes have been fetishized to a huge degree. The costumes, as they’re drawn, might not be accessible to many of today’s audiences. I also felt that audiences might not appreciate the naiveté of the original costumes. So, there has been some effort to give them a slightly more… I would say modern look — and not modern in the sense of 2007, but modern in terms of the superhero aesthetic. It was also important to me that they appealed to my own taste as a moviegoer. Lastly and possibly most important, I wanted to be sure that they comment directly on many of today’s modern masked vigilantes — who shall remain nameless…
This is one of the things I really want to see. I want to see a proper look at the costumes the characters are going to be wearing so that I can compare them to the originals and see what’s changed and what’s been kept the same. And it’ll be interesting to see how they “comment” on the modern superheros…
And finally, one of the most important things to fans of the comics. Rorschach and more specifically his mask:
TK8103: As we all know, one of the most intriguing elements of Rorschach’s costume is the changing patterns on his mask. How is that going to be accomplished on screen?
Zack Snyder: As you can imagine, the most effective way to render the ever-changing inkblot that is Rorschach’s face is with the use of visual effects. So, we created a blank mask and strategically placed small green tracking markers on it. The markers will be used to track the contours of his face throughout the shot. There is also a hole that reveals Jackie’s [Jackie Earle Haley] eyes not only so he can see, but also to help to the VFX artists later while they animate Rorschach’s face. The opening allows them to see what Jackie’s eyes were emoting. When completed, his open-eyed, green polka dotted face will have been replaced by a CG element, a slowly changing inkblot pattern. We’ve gone through and analyzed the many inkblots from the graphic novel and have assigned them each different emotional characteristics — so that when Rorschach is experiencing something in a scene, the shape on the mask reflects his emotions in a graphic and abstract manner. I have had the opportunity to see some of the early tests and I am very pleased with how it is coming together.
Oh yeah, that’s what I wanted to hear!
To read both parts of the Q&A in full head on over to WatchmenComicMovie.com for Part 1 and Part 2. All of the questions raised have a good answer, and not one of the answers from Zack Snyder had me worried about the finished product, and cover things like the music and The Black Freighter “comic within a comic” (or should that now be “comic movie within a comic movie”?). Now, if Warner could just deal with that lawsuit from Fox and get this released next year, everything will be groovy.
I really cannot wait for this to be released or for the first look at a trailer.
Cheers for the link Grundy.
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