Watchmen update...

[the shutdown man]

Yeah, that Rorshach pic was a really early test image, long before they started filming. It wasn't just made for the DVD, it was hidden in one of the 300 trailers that showed up online earlier this year.

[Buddy]

Would you look at the picture of the Max Headroom chap beside Moloch

Can't find it.. can you post it here??

[johnnystress]

http://watchmencomicmovie.com/images/frewer.jpg">

[johnnystress]

Link: http://watchmencomicmovie.com/watchmen-movie-cast-crew.php" target="_blank">Cast and Crew

[johnnystress]

Just looking at the cast photos..

Dan Dreiberg , Adrian Veidt and Sally Jupiter seem way too young

[Matt Timson]

Well, they do have to play them young and old- so I guess they'll wear make-up to make them look old.

[johnnystress]

True enough

But is it too much to ask that they couldn't raise Robert Shaw from the dead to play the Comedian?

[the shutdown man]

I hadn't realised that Stephen McHattie was playing Hollis Mason. I like that guy.

[Goaty]

Yes, they will be their young versions, and thanks to make-ups, for older versions.

[paulvonscott]

"For me, I'm still not impressed, they look like a movie set, something a bit fake looking about them, the buildings don't look 'solid', you can kinda see it's a facade..... or something like that."

Ah the magic of movies.  Sets and props often look unreal in the light of day or even on TV and in photos.  But film them right and they shine.

If I'd only seen 300 I would have been a bit dubious about Snyder (apart from the skill it should in directly translating a comic book) but I loved Dawn of the Dead, the guy can do characters.

[TordelBack]

Snyder's 300 at least showed a real committment to getting the visuals of a (fairly vacant) comic onto the screen - as do the stills for Watchmen, right down to the purple tones.  For all its faults, 300 also had some genuinely memorable scenes and lines, with widespread pop-cultural adoption ("This is SPAARTAAAAA...").  

Again though, it's not Watchmen's visuals or catchphrases that are its USP - it's its unprecedented use of the potential of the specific medium of comics for fecking with the reader's perception of time and memory.  So we'll have to wait and see how he handles that.  Personally, I can't imagine how it could be done.  But at least they seem to have got the static visuals right, so that's a start - the same good start that Jackson's brilliant LotR enjoyed.

Sets and props often look unreal in the light of day or even on TV and in photos.

Funnily enough, my experience of visting sets has often been the opposite - they looked very cool in reality, but distinctly ropey on screen.

The monumental set for (nothing at all like) Hadrian's Wall in the recent King Arthur snoozefest was just stunning in the flesh, so huge we took a buggy to drive round it all, but it managed to look like naff flat CGI fakery on the screen.  Equally, the fully-built real-timber stable block looked like someone had knocked it together with polystyrene.

[Goaty]

Yeah you right about Snyder and his characters, as with Dawn of the Dead, his way with character of "CJ" to become very classic character in the film!!!!

[paulvonscott]

"Funnily enough, my experience of visting sets has often been the opposite - they looked very cool in reality, but distinctly ropey on screen."

Well, that's down to the cinematography I imagine.  I'd hate to judge all films by King Arthur.

[TordelBack]

Well, that's down to the cinematography I imagine.  . I'd hate to judge all films by King Arthur.

Darn tootin'.

[satchmo]

Matt Frewer was in Dawn of The Dead, I've always liked him and he's perfect casting for Moloch.