Empire Magazine recently sat down with "Dawn of the Dead" and "300" director Zack Snyder who filled them in on the latest goings on with "Watchmen". An adaptation has been long in the works for the Alan Moore comic book set in the mid-80s when superheroes are outlawed and finally, after various problematic starts and stops in recent years, it looks like things are getting better again.
"We're getting ready to turn a script that we like into this studio. They're pretty excited about it...I think the script that Alex (Tse) has done for us is the closest to the graphic novel it's been [since development started], for better or for worse. I feel like Alex has done an awesome job. It's keeping all the things that are cool about the comic" says Snyder.
Snyder isn't planning to update it from its Cold War setting to the present day, despite objections from higher ups - "1985's a problem for people. The Cold War's a problem for people. But these are things I've been trying to [tell people] would be cool. I like that Richard Nixon is the president in it. I think that's important. Those kinds of things tell you exactly what kind of movie this is - it's not Fantastic Four, you know"
He also says don't expect a "300" or "Sin City" like heavily stylised approach to the "Watchmen" visuals - "There are places like Mars and Antarctica [which will need to be blue screen] and then there are certain places where you need to feel the reality"
