Zach Snyder ("Dawn of the Dead", "300") has come aboard to develop and direct Warner Bros. long-gestating film adaptation of the 1986 twelve-issue comic series "Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons says The Hollywood Reporter.

"Watchmen", which tells the story of the last remaining superheroes and the events surrounding the mysterious murder of one of their own, was one of the first superhero comic books to present itself as serious literature and popularized the more adult-oriented "graphic novel" format. It is also the only graphic novel to have won a Hugo Award and to appear on Time magazine's list of 100 best novels from 1923 to present.

Alex Tse is writing the script adaptation of the film which has been in development for over a decade, gone through at least four studios and had such luminaries as Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass attached to direct. Snyder landed the job after impressing Warners with "300," an adaptation of a Frank Miller graphic novel that he directed and co-wrote that's due out next year.