Watchmen (film)

Watchmen
A rainy New York City. Six people, five men and one woman, stand there, all but one: a masked man in hat and trench coat, staring at the viewer, a muscular, nude and glowing blue man, a blonde man in a spandex armor, a man in an armor with a cape and wearing a helmet resembling an owl, a woman in a yellow and black latex suit, and a mustached man in a leather vest who smokes a cigar and holds a pistol. Text at the top of the image includes "From the visionary director of 300". Text at the bottom of the poster reveals the title, production credits, and release date.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byZack Snyder
Screenplay by
Based onWatchmen
by Dave Gibbons[a]
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyLarry Fong
Edited byWilliam Hoy
Music byTyler Bates
Production
companies
Distributed by
  • Warner Bros. Pictures
    (North America)
  • Paramount Pictures
    (International)
Release dates
Running time
163 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$130–150 million[b]
Box office$187 million[3][7]

Watchmen is a 2009 American superhero film based on the 1986–1987 DC Comics limited series of the same name co-created and illustrated by Dave Gibbons (with co-creator and author Alan Moore choosing to remain uncredited).[11] Directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay by David Hayter and Alex Tse, the film features Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson. A dark and dystopian deconstruction of the superhero genre, the film is set in an alternate history in the year 1985 at the height of the Cold War, as a group of mostly retired American superheroes investigate the murder of one of their own before uncovering an elaborate and deadly conspiracy with which they are all connected.

For nearly two decades from October 1987 until October 2005, a live-action film adaptation of the Watchmen series became stranded in development hell. Producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver began developing the project at 20th Century Fox, later moving it to Warner Bros. Pictures, the sister company of Watchmen publisher DC Comics, and hiring director Terry Gilliam, who eventually left the production and deemed the complex comic "unfilmable". During the 2000s, Gordon and Lloyd Levin collaborated with Universal Pictures, Revolution Studios and Paramount Pictures to produce the film. Directors David Hayter, Darren Aronofsky, and Paul Greengrass were attached to the project before it was canceled over budget disputes. In October 2005, the project returned to Warner Bros., where Snyder was hired to direct. Paramount remained as its international distributor, whereas Warner Bros. would distribute the film in the United States. However, Fox sued Warner Bros. for copyright violation arising from Gordon's failure to pay a buy-out in 1991, which enabled him to develop the film at the other studios. Fox and Warner Bros. settled this before the film's release, with Fox receiving a portion of the gross. Principal photography began in Vancouver, in September 2007. As with his previous film 300 (2006), Snyder closely modeled his storyboards on the comic but chose not to shoot all of Watchmen using green screens and opted for real sets instead.

Following its world premiere at Odeon Leicester Square on February 23, 2009,[12] the film was released in both conventional and IMAX theatres on March 6, 2009. The film underperformed at the box office, grossing over $185.4 million worldwide against a production budget between $130–138 million; however, the film later found financial success at the home media markets.[13] Greg Silverman (former Warner Bros executive) said that the film did later become profitable.[14]

The film received mixed to positive reviews from fans and critics; the style was praised, but Snyder was accused of making an action film that lacked the thematic depth and nuance of the comic.[15] Over the years, it had gained a cult following. A DVD based on elements of the Watchmen universe was released, including an animated adaptation of the Tales of the Black Freighter comic within the story voiced by Gerard Butler and a fictional documentary titled Under the Hood detailing the older generation of superheroes from the film's backstory.[16] A director's cut with 24 minutes of additional footage was released in July 2009. The "Ultimate Cut" edition incorporated the animated comic Tales of the Black Freighter into the narrative as it was in the original graphic novel, lengthening the runtime to 3 hours and 35 minutes, and was released on November 10, 2009. The director's cut was better received than the theatrical release.[15]

  1. ^ Perez, Rodrigo (July 21, 2008). "Alan Moore Removes His Name From 'Watchmen' Credits, Abdicates All Royalty Checks To Artist Dave Gibbons". The Playlist. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d "Watchmen". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Archived from the original on December 23, 2020. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Watchmen (2009) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  4. ^ "Watchmen". DC Entertainment. February 3, 2012. Retrieved December 25, 2022.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference hrreview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Motion Pictures [ARCHIVED]". Cruel and Unusual Films. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014. Retrieved December 25, 2022.
  7. ^ a b "Watchmen (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
  8. ^ Belloni, Matthew (April 20, 2009). "Date set for 'Watchmen' mediation". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  9. ^ Hoberek, Andrew (2014). Considering Watchmen: Poetics, Property, Politics. Rutgers University Press. p. 127. ISBN 9780813572963. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  10. ^ Brown, Lane (March 9, 2009). "So Is Watchmen a Hit or Not?". Vulture. Retrieved July 17, 2023.
  11. ^ "Watchmen Creator Alan Moore Has Surprising Advice For Writers". ScreenRant. April 24, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  12. ^ Hardie, Beth (February 24, 2009). "Watchmen premiere: The stars come out in London – video and pics". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  13. ^ "Watchmen (2009) - Financial Information".
  14. ^ "Greg Silverman on X". twitter.com. July 31, 2023.
  15. ^ a b Shepard, Jack (February 23, 2019). "Watchmen at 10: The fascinating story of how the 'unfilmable' comic book series finally made it to the big screen". Independent. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  16. ^ Thill, Scott (March 23, 2009). "Watchmen Back Story Unspools in Under the Hood DVD". Wired.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2010.


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