Posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 by Russ Fischer
For over twenty years, DC has wanted to capitalize on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons‘ best-selling and standard-setting mini-series/graphic novel Watchmen by releasing additional stories featuring the same characters. Ideas about prequel series have been discussed since even before Watchmen‘s publication, with writer Alan Moore floating the idea of a Minutemen prequel series in ’85, and other options being discussed afterward.
Moore backed away from those ideas, and he and Dave Gibbons eventually walked away from DC altogether based, in part, on language in their contract for Watchmen that related to ownership of the characters. In 2010 DC offered to give Watchmen back to Moore if he would write additional stories, but he declined. At the same time, DC Comics co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee said, “DC Comics would only revisit these iconic characters if the creative vision of any proposed new stories matched the quality set by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons nearly 25 years ago, and our first discussion on any of this would naturally be with the creators themselves.”
With no option of new stories by Moore and Gibbons, DC has gone ahead with other creators. Rumors of a Watchmen prequel have flown for months, with artwork occasionally hitting the internet and just as soon being hit with cease and desist orders from DC — the best admission that the prequels are really happening.
Indeed, today DC announced Before Watchmen, a set of seven interlocking prequel miniseries that will feature Watchmen characters such as Rorschach, the Comedian and Nite Owl. Details from the press release follow. (Updated with gallery of images for the new series.) Read More »
Why hasn’t there ever been second series of Watchmen comics? It’s not as though Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons actually own the characters. Well, apparently, any talk of a sequel had been squashed, time and again, by Paul Levitz, former president of DC comics. He was very protective of the title, even denying the creators of the tie-in videogame to invent any new material at all. This was sacred stuff to him.
Now, though, he’s not in charge of the comics at all and is the Contributing Editor and Overall Consultant of DC Entertainment, the spin-off and movies arm. He’s not going to be able to do anything, directly, to stop any Watchmen sequel. More importantly, though, it seems that Dan DiDio, SVP-Executive Editor of DC, has made it his mission to realize not only a sequel series but also several prequels. Why? I suppose he’d say Why Not? And there’s good reason to believe they’ll be coming to screens as well as pages, too.
Watchmen first appeared on my radar years ago when I’d heard that one of my favorite directors, Paul Greengrass, was slated to helm the big-screen adaptation. I’m not a huge comic book reader, but I’d heard so many complimentary things about the graphic novel that I was induced to buy myself a copy and check it out for myself. What I discovered was that the book lives up to all the hype: Moore’s (and illustrator Dave Gibbons‘) 1986/1987 comic book series spun a gripping, dystopic tale of an alternate reality, one in which costumed vigilantes have taken to the street to quell civil unrest, and the U.S. and Russia are on the brink of nuclear annihilation, held back barely by the existence of the ultimate nuclear deterrent: Dr. Manhattan, the one “superhero” that actually possessed super powers.
While Moore’s book has been referred to by many as possessing cinematic qualities, it’s also repeatedly been referred to as “unfilmable.” After all these years, a convergence of fortuitous events have allowed director Zack Snyder to take his vision of the graphic novel to the big screen. My appreciation for the book led me to eagerly anticipate this film’s release, starting with the first trailer all the way up to the first 20 minutes of the film shown at NY Comic Con. Did Snyder achieve the impossible? Was he able to make cinematic sense out of Watchmen? Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 by David Chen
In this episode of the /Filmcast, Dave Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley geek out about the new Terminator Salvation trailer, ponder the fate of the Green Hornet project under Gondry’s direction, and get pessimistic about a Total Recall remake. Dave also chats with Watchmen illustrator Dave Gibbons about his inspirations behind the original graphic novel. Special guest Russ Fischer joins us from CHUD.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next Monday night at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST on Slashfilm’s live page as we review Watchmen.
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Warner Bros is holding Watchmen events at a few Apple Stores in New York and California. Here are the details:
Apple Store SoHo (NY) - Friday, February 6th at 7:00pm: Dave Gibbons will discuss, demonstrate illustrations and answer questions about Watchmen. Apple Store San Francisco (CA) – Tuesday, February 17 at 7:00pm: Dave Gibbons will discuss, demonstrate illustrations and answer questions about Watchmen. Apple Store Santa Monica (CA) - Tuesday, February 17 at 7:00pm: Zack Snyder and visual effects supervisor John “DJ” Des Jardin will discuss the creation of the CG character Dr. Manhattan in the new film.
Posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons has released a wonderful table top book collecting the art behind the making of what many consider to be the greatest graphic novel of all time – The Watchmen.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not an art of the making of the movie – this is a unprecedented behind the scenes look at the making of the comic book. If you’re a fan of the graphic novel, I can’t stress enough how cool this is. I was going to take a bunch of photos of the inside of the book, but I decided to record this 4 minute video showing some of the content inside instead:
“Providing the ultimate companion to the comics masterpiece, artist Dave Gibbons gives his own account of the genesis of WATCHMEN in this dust-jacketed hardback volume, opening his archives to reveal excised pages, early versions of the script, original character designs, page thumbnails, sketches and much more, including posters, covers and rare portfolio art. Featuring the breathtaking design of Chip Kidd and Mike Essl, WATCHING THE WATCHMEN is both a major art book in its own right, and the definitive companion to the graphic novel that changed an industry.”
The 256 pages are filled with artwork and notes that will have you flipping through the book over and over again. It’s the type of table top book that you open and randomly flip to something you’ve never seen before. At least, I feel that is the way this book is meant to be experienced.
The best parts for me come from the first third, where a lot of the more conceptual artwork and doodles are contained. It is here that you get to see the real origin of the Watchmen. The book is now available in book stores everywhere for $39.95, but Amazon has it on sale for $26.37, which includes free Super Saver Shipping.
It wouldn’t be the 6th of the month if we didn’t get a new Watchmen video diary. Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons takes you on a walking tour through the production design of Zack Snyder’s film adaptation in the latest video which is available on UGO. I wasn’t really excited about this project until I first saw all the incredible detail of the New York City set. And in this video diary Gibbons focuses on all the little details that come off the page onto the screen. Watchmen hits theaters on March 6th 2008.
Watchmen has surprised even the harshest of critics so far. Even original artist Dave Gibbons has praised the film’s production for it’s accuracy and amazing detail that Zack Snyder is putting into the big screen adaptation.
So what about creator Alan Moore, who has been extremely vocal in the past against the adaptations of his comics? Has he drunk the Kool Aid as well? Nope. Moore spoke with Wizard about the upcoming film, and here is what he said:
“I spoke to Dave [Gibbons] the other day. I got a piece of paper-they must’ve learned something from the V for Vendetta debacle. I got a piece of paper a couple of months ago saying, “I, the undersigned, hereby give you permission to take my name off of the film and to send my money to Dave Gibbons.” So I sent that back to them all signed and sealed, which means that now I don’t have to rant and spew about the film. I’m just simply not interested in it. Dave phoned me up, and it’s always nice to talk to Dave, but he understands that I’m not really interested in “Watchmen.” So when he phoned, he asked me if I was interested in being kept up to date on it, and I was saying, “Well, it’s always nice to talk to you, but not really.” I don’t really know much about it. I believe that it’s going ahead. I won’t be watching it, obviously. I can at least remain neutral to it as long as they’re taking my name off of it and not playing these silly, ultimately futile games like they were doing last time, which worked out so well for them. No, I’m keeping well away from all of that.
Director Snyder told fans at Comic Con 2007 that the best he can hope for is that Alan Moore will someday watch the DVD and say, “You know, they didn’t fuck it up that bad.”
“We all want to please Alan, and I think that’s a noble thing to want to do. There’s nothing wrong to get the guy who frickin’ created the thing to not hate it, I don’t think that’s an outrageous thing to want,” said Snyder. “I think the approach is to assume that the movie is better, and that’s a mistake. I would never make any assumptions.”
Watchmen has surprised even the harshest of critics so far. Even original artist Dave Gibbons has praised the film’s production for it’s accuracy and amazing detail that Zack Snyder is putting into the big screen adaptation.
