???On the dawn of the release of his biggest film to date, director Zack Snyder (300) took the time to sit down with college students across the United States and Canada to discuss his upcoming movie adaptation of Watchmen.
???Snyder was not originally planned to helm the recreation of the graphic novel for the silver screen. In the beginning, Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) was set to overtake the epic work, but left the project, allowing it to fall into Snyder's lap.
???"They [Warner Brothers Studios] actually called me and I was in post [production] on 300 and I got a call from the studio," said Snyder. "They said they had this script for a comic book called Watchmen. I don't think they actually knew much about it, but they thought 'Oh Zack likes comic books, he'll love this.'"
???An avid fan of the graphic novel, Snyder was delighted to finally work alongside Alan Moore. However, soon after signing on, Snyder found himself disappointed.
???"I'm a giant fan of Alan Moore. When I came onto the project, the first question I asked was 'Okay, when do we get to go talk to Alan Moore?'" Snyder said. "I was met with the reply of, 'We don't get to talk to Alan Moore. Alan Moore has famously divorced himself from the motion picture project and, yeah, you don't get to talk to him.' That bummed me out," Snyder said.
???Moore is an infamous graphic novel author whose works include The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V For Vendetta. Moore has publicly denounced any film adaptation of all graphic novels. With the absence of Moore during production, Snyder was free to form the film through his perspective of the novel.
???"In some ways, maybe it's a truer experience for the viewer. What I did is I tried to make the movie based on the experiences I had when I first read the graphic novel back in'88," Snyder said.
???Although it may have been Snyder's interpretation, he credits Dave Gibbons, the illustrator for the graphic novel, for the visual feel of the film.
???"Someone asked me, 'Did Dave help you make the movie?' And even though he was not there on a day-to-day basis, I go, 'Yeah, well he did do about a thousand drawings which help me make the movie.' So in a lot of ways Dave is the visual author of the movie," Snyder said.
???Stepping in like a protective mother, Snyder took the job in order to prevent the studio from turning one of the most acclaimed graphic novels ever into just another generic superhero movie.
???"After reading the script that the studio had, I felt like if I didn't do it, they were going to do it without me. And the way that they were going to do it was going to be basically the direction of a sequel-able PG-13 movie, instead of 1985, set during the war on terror," Snyder said. "Manhattan goes to Iraq instead of Vietnam and the bad guy ending is sort of exactly as you would imagine a superhero movie. It was something I felt, as best I could, couldn't let happen that way."
???With so many other comic book movies being released with toned-down blood and gore, Snyder sought to break away from the traditional PG-13 violence for more gritty and real combat.
???"Part of the reason why the violence is so extreme, I think, in the movie for me is that I wanted the idea of a superhero movie to be broken down at every level, not just psychologically," Snyder said.
???Despite being a fan of the graphic novel for almost two decades beforehand, during pre-production Snyder still felt that he had to make the adaptation his own. For obvious reasons, such as time and content, changes had to be made.
???"In the end, the movies are about your point of view," Snyder said. "A lot of the changes went to pulling up the story to kind of lace those things together stitch it back together. So, that's the majority of the changes."
???Snyder made it clear that he cares for Watchmen like a father does his child. Even the most devout fans should take comfort in that.
