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New Watchmen poster drops out of the sky

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:18:51 UTC

Following hot on the heels of last night's Scream broadcast, Warner Bros. has kicked out a new Watchmen movie poster for us to look at. If you're afraid of heights you may want to move on to the next story, but if you're brave enough (or can bounce off sidewalks) then proceed ahead...

New Watchmen, Twilight, Friday the 13th footage shown

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:23:19 UTC

Last night Spike TV broadcast the 2008 Scream Awards. If you didn't catch it you missed out on watching a ton of actors come out and plug their upcoming movies just before presenting an award, followed by a quick cut-away to someone in the goth/industrial/punk crowd. Three upcoming 2009 releases had new material shown during the broadcast: Watchmen, the remake of Friday the 13th and Twilight. And by God, I'm going to show them to you because that's how I roll. First up, Watchmen. There's a few new nice moments in this footage including one of Rorschach leaping up into The Comedian's apartment, Dr. Manhattan dissassembling a tank using his powers and Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre kissing while a nuclear bomb goes off in the background. Director Zack Snyder certainly seems to be following almost exactly to the comic book's imagery:

Next comes the first real footage from Friday the 13th. If you know your Jason Voorhees then you'll probably find that the only real difference between the old F13th and this new one is that Jason now can move fast, which in my opinion ain't a sacriligious thing to do.

And bringing up the rear is Twilight. Again, some new stuff intermixed with footage we've already seen from the trailer:

Watchmen sneak preview screened to online press

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 21:07:36 UTC

I've been reading reports on various movie websites about a special screening that took place last night on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles for Watchmen. In attendance was the film's director, Zack Snyder, to introduce the 25 minutes of early footage. And the good news is that the reports across the web by my fellow online collegues are very positive and surprise, surprise, Watchmen might just turn out to be a great movie experience. The first footage seen contained the first 5 or so minutes from the start of the movie. The story kicks off with the murder of a 60-year-old man in his New York apartment. This dude is The Comedian, one of this world's costumed superheroes, and in his case I mean an assassin on the government payroll. After an unknown intruder breaks into The Comedian's apartment and a fistfight breaks out, the Comedian is tossed by his assailant out through one of his apartment's windows to his death on the street below. Then the film kicks into the opening title sequence and we catch up with 50 years of alternative history, a what if montage of visuals showing what may have happened if superheroes existed. This sequence wowed those that saw it and it should open the concept to the average person who hasn't been previously exposed to the ideas of Watchmen in its original comic book format. Next came a sequence showing the blue-skinned character of Dr. Manhattan (played by Billy Crudup) as he sits naked on Mars reflecting on his origin as the world's most powerful being. If I'm messing up your head by saying this guy is blue and on Mars, don't sweat it, it'll all make sense when you see the movie. The last sequence showed two of the heroes breaking out one of their friends from prison. Nite Owl and Silk Spectre (Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman) are running through the prison fighting off convicts and trying to make their way to Rorscharch (Jackie Earle Haley). I was there on the set last year when they filmed these scenes and I saw the actors wearing their superhero costumes and punching stuntmen. Every bit of what I saw looked awesome and I'm jealous as hell that the peeps in L.A. got to see what the finished product looked like. Barring any fallout from the lawsuit launched by 20th Century Fox against Warner Bros., Watchmen is set for a March 6, 2009 opening. I'll be there opening night.

Watchmen's video journal

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 17:52:54 UTC

Warner Bros. has been doing a terrific job of building up anticipation for its superhero movie to end all superhero movies, Watchmen, by releasing regular video journals showing us behind-the-scenes footage from the production. The sixth and latest journal doesn't disappoint either. Director of Photography Larry Fong explains how he filmed Watchmen and how its approach to a serious storytelling of superheroes lent itself to a one-camera production. Along the way we have interviews with producer Deborah Snyder and director Zack Snyder as well as quick glimpses of the Batman-esque hero Rorscharch breaking some fingers to get information as well as the motion capture suit that Billy Crudup wore to achieve the CGI blue-skinned superman, Dr. Manhattan. It's cool stuff kiddies so watch and count the days down until March 6, 2009.

Watchmen trial begins January 6

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 16:36:34 UTC

Who owns the Watchmen? That's what federal court judge Gary Allen Feess will have to decide upon when the cast of who has the movie rights to the Watchmen comic book series begins in Los Angeles on January 6. 20th Century Fox is claiming that it still owns the rights under the terms and conditions of a 1991 contract with producer Lawrence Gordon. Warner Bros., the company that has made the Watchmen movie, says no way. Feess wants the lawyers for Warners and Fox to use the rest of the year to line up their ducks and get the discovery and deposition part of the case done with. The judge probably wants this case to go to trial ASAP because Warners has picked and put a lot of money into opening Watchmen on March 6, 2009, precisely two months ahead of the start of the trial. Fox has even gone so far as to say that they aren't going after some bucks from the rival movie studio; instead, they plan on blocking Warner Bros. from releasing the movie, period. The film has cost Warners about $125 million dollars so far. You can find out more about the film on MovieSet's sitelet for Watchmen.