The "last mad dash" before Watchmen: Zach Snyder Q&A
The 300 director chats about the teaser poster, resurrecting Nixon and a whole lot Moore.
Production on the long-awaited cinematic treatment of the legendary Watchmen commences in only a few weeks, but Director Zack Snyder (300) took a little time with Wizard's Kiel Phegley to enlighten us before he heads off to Vancouver.
"The whole thing is a mad dash," he said, "but it's fun. Good times. It's crazy."
Once on the subject of art and visual design, Snyder went into loving detail, starting with the teaser poster that was created by original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons.
"I had talked to Dave before, because I sent him a copy of the script and he actually drew some panels for me, which was pretty cool. Then I said, 'Hey, man, I'd love for you to do some concept art.'"
Phegley mentioned an interesting element in the poster's background--a photo of Richard Nixon.
"That was me," Snyder admitted. "In the graphic novel it says, 'Shaking hands with the vice president,' right? I switched it to Nixon because it's more iconographic. So then [Gibbons] was like, 'Okay, cool. Let’s get Nixon in there.'
"It's funny, the thing that's cool is the response: If you're a fan, it's like a lost cover. That's what it feels like, and that's what we were going for."
Besides doing the poster, Gibbons also is serving as a "sounding board" for Snyder, providing input on the script and visuals, which is highly valued by the director.
"I think that it's awesome to have that," said Snyder. "He did give me some notes on the script, and they were all awesome, and I took them all. So it's good."
Snyder also is relying heavily on Gibbons' original artwork, in the book itself.
"I kind of storyboard. I draw. Then I'll look at the compositions that are in the graphic novel and the details that are in the frame, all those kind of crazy obsessive details, I try to whack those in as much as I can."
His "obsessive details" are taking on a concrete life in Canada. From the sets...
"We're building a huge backlot up here in Vancouver. It's a New York City backlot, and we're shooting tons of the movie on this. Then plus we've built these huge sets like [Edward "Comedian"] Blake's apartment and Adrian ["Ozymandias" Veidt's] office, and stuff like that."
...to the costumes...
"I haven't seen anyone in their costumes full blown yet, but I have seen a lot of tests, and it's slowly getting closer and closer. I've seen the prosthetics on Nixon, which are looking awesome."
Then, of course, there's the touchy subject the fanboy director will be living with for the next two years: only the less controversial half of the Watchmen creative team is involved with the film.
"I think my big thing is that we totally respect his wishes to not be involved in the movie," Snyder said of Alan Moore. "I'm just going to try and not make any assumptions about how he feels about the movie because I think that's a danger and exactly what he doesn't want. I hope, like I say, that he does get a chance to see it one day. My thing is, I'm not trying to replace the book. My hope is that more people will read the book because the movie comes out. Maybe it's like a giant ad for the book."
As for advertising the movie, the official website has Gibbons' teaser poster, but no message board or comment section yet.
"That's coming," promised the director. "We're going to start to develop the website. It's one of those things where when the website gets too tricked out too early and then people are like, 'Oh, they haven't updated this website in like a year.' The movie doesn't even come out until '09 so it's quite a ways off."