'WATCHMEN' movie updates: Gibbons & more
Co-creator Dave Gibbons files his first report from the set, Jeffrey Dean Morgan chats about The Comedian, and Gerard Butler doesn't know squat about 'Black Freighter'.
Dave Gibbons, artist and co-creator (with Alan Moore) of the graphic novel 'Watchmen' has posted the first "outsider's report" from the set of the new Warner Bros. film.
In a post to the official Watchmen blog over the weekend, Gibbons described emotionally his visit to the set.
Part 1 of 2-part blog post "Dave Gibbons visits the set" includes the following:
"It's perhaps the most surreal experience of my life.
"There they are, in a shadowy clubhouse, standing around a map of the USA, just as we'd imagined them. The smoke of the Comedian's cigar hangs in the air as I drink in the details of the scene.
"Then, a sudden flash of unearthly blue light announces the arrival of Dr. Manhattan and the tableau comes to life. The voices of quarreling heroes rise and fall, a Zippo flares and the map catches fire.
"I'm overwhelmed by the depth and detail of what I'm seeing."
The full report is posted at http://rss.warnerbros.com/watchmen/
Updates from The Comedian
Jeffrey Dean Morgan recently talked with Superhero Flix about his experiences playing Edward Blake, a.k.a. The Comedian, in the movie.
"We're shooting on the New York set now. All I can say is it's the most amazing set I've ever seen in my life and we were doing this night exterior-the Keene Riots and seeing the graphic novel come to life like I saw that night...it gives me chills just thinking about it."
Morgan gushed excitedly about seeing everyone in costume, and said that his get-up, designed by Michael Wilkinson, is accurate to the comic.
"Spot on. His costume is exactly like it is in the graphic novel. It's really cool that experience, I mean for me as soon as I put on the outfit and stuck a cigar in my mouth, I'm him. You don't even want to talk to me anymore. I turn into the character."
Staying true to the source has been made easier, indeed inescapable, by director Zach Snyder, who Morgan called "incredibly passionate."
"He's drawn out literally every frame of this movie before he shot it. I don't know if I've ever worked with anyone more prepared. He's got a copy of the graphic novel in his hand all the time. It never comes out of his hand. He's constantly referring to it. He'll set up a shot looking at the novel. It's insane. It's crazy."
Gerard Butler on 'Black Freighter'
SHEILA ROBERTS at Movies Online recently queried Morgan's P.S. I Love You co-star, Gerard Butler, about the possibility that he'd play the pirate in Watchmen's DVD Special Feature segment, 'Tales of the Black Freighter', should his 300 director, Snyder, ask.
"I don’t know," Butler answered honestly. "I was in a great position where I’d love to have jumped into the Watchmen and done something but I’d plenty to be doing on my own as well, and I’ve already done the graphic novel film so for me not to go and do another one is fine, but I would love to work with Zack again."
Watchmen is scheduled for release on March 6, 2009.
[Thanks to CBR for the blog link.]