[SDCC:] WATCHMEN PANEL

Hey there, loyal readers. Kevin M. here at the Watchmen Panel on this bright and sunny Friday morning! The filled to capacity room is brimming with excitement at the start time edges ever closer. Most have been waiting for over an hour, but, hey, it’s Watchmen. Two minutes to go at this point, so stay tuned for live up-to-date coverage!

And here we go!

Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jensen took the stage giving a little backstory on Watchmen and talked briefly about the book’s following and introduced guests, director Zack Synder, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffery Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson and Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons!

Snyder recapped the origins of the movie, discussing how the film went through a number of directors before he was offered the film by Warner Bros. while working on “300.”
“It’s been a labor of love to try and get as much of the graphic novel into this movie as I could,” says Snyder.

Gibbons talked about being on the set and seeing his work literally come to life before him.
“I expected at any moment I’d be pinched have to wake up,” remembers Gibbons. “To have the Comedian slap me on the back and proudly show me one of his guns is just amazing.”

Jensen asked Gibbons if he ever thought about calling up Alan Moore and talking to him about the movie and asking him to give it a try.
“I see there is an elephant in the room,” jokes Gibbons. “Really, I wished that Alan could feel the same kind of excitement and joy that I’m feeling. I wished he didn’t have such a bad experience in the past because I’m having such a great experience.”

Snyder then setup the clip:
“It’s some of the shots from the trailer that we kind of extended to show a little bit more of the non-PG aspect of the movie. When Manhattan is marching through Vietnam and blowing guys up, it’s not quite as friendly as in the trailer. I wanted to put a cuple shots together to say, ‘This is how we’re doing it.’”

Starts with image of Rorschach looking at the camera with his mask shifting.
Then Manhattan blowing up people in Vietnam.
Blood on the happy face pin.
Rorschach exploring Comedian’s room, uncovering the dead hero’s gun cache.
Night Owl looking at the blood stained pin.
The meeting of the heroes.
Manhattan and Spectre on Mars with his watch-like structure raising from the ground.
The Transformation of Manhattan.
Spectere uncovering Night Owl’s hovercraft.
Night Owl and Spectre kissing as an atomic bomb goes off behind them.
Quick scenes of Manhattan in a bar, Ozymandius, and a more graphic look at Doctor Manhattan transforming as his disintegrates followed.
Comedian going through the window and falling to his death ended the clip show.

“There’s a lot of things in the graphic novel that comments on mass culture and how the world has evolved now,” explains Snyder of why he kept the movie so close to the novel. “I felt that making a movie about the war on terror and jamming these character into our modern problems felt wrong to me.”

Crudup was asking what it was like playing a character bald, blue and omnipotent, when he is obviously none of the above.
“I know what this question is. And I’ve answered it,” joked Crudup. “There were two major obstacles: Doctor Manhattan is a character I have no frame of reference for. The second is how you pretend to be the six foot four master of matter, when you’re a five foot nine jackass.”

Questions then turned to the audience.

The first fan asked Haley how he prepared to play a character as strange as Rorschach.
“It was a blast, it was challenging, it was mindnumbing,” says Haley. “This character, there’s a lot to him. I studied the script. I studied the book, I had long conversions about the character—who he is, what he’s about. I even spent a lot of time with you guys on the Web site looking at the blogs looking at the threads. I learned a lot from you guys about who Rorschach is.”

Another fan asked Crudup what was it like being a Blue Man and were the Blue Man Group jealous they didn’t get the role?
“I don’t know because we’re not on speaking terms anymore,” jokes Crudup. “But a lot of fitness, I had to get in shape. Changing my molecules and all that, stuff they don’t teach you in drama school.”

A fan dressed as Rorschach asked Snyder if thought the trend of comics being directed toward a more mature audience would continue.
“It’s just cool that you’re saying a more mature audience with that costume on,” jokes Snyder. “I mean, ‘Dark Knight’ is just a good movie. I think that’s the thing pop culture has to deal with new. Superhero movies, comic book mvies, they don’t just exist as summer, popcorn mindless entertainment. It talks about humantity it talks about a bunch of stuff that’s serious. There’s al ot of other graphic novels I’d like to see: one day Frank’s Dark Knight made into a movie. I think there is a new wave of superhero movies coming.”

Another fan asked if it was difficult for the cast to bring the emotion considering they worked with a lot of green screen.
“We actually worked very little with green screen,” says Gugino.
“Except for Mars,” adds Crudup. “It’s expensive to shoot there. They said it’s a big budget picture but they can’t go to Mars.”
“You have to tap into your imagination at that point,” says Akerman. “You definitely have to go back to your childhood days and find your imaginary friends. Most of it was pretty realistic. We were the only ones who had the challenge of Mars. It literally brought tears to my eyes, it looks so fantastic.”

Jensen then asked Morgan what it was like playing the Comedian, who he says isn’t really funny.
“I thought he was hilarious,” laughs Morgan. “There were days Id’ go home from work and I’d be a little bit in a daze. He does a couple of particular things that I wouldn’t naturally do as a person. It was a challenge. Every day was a challenge. I found putting on the costume and putting a [cigar] in my mouth got me in the mood to kill people. Carla and I had a couple days of shooting that will stay with me for a long time.”

A fan asked about character development about how the panelists got into their characters.
“I have to say that when I first read the script I was not familiar with Watchmen and loved the script,” says Akerman. “It was one of the best scripts I ever read because the characters were so full and very real. The thing about [Spectre] and most of the characters except for blue man is that we’re all real people that have our good sides and our bad sides. Laurie is a real woman except for the fact that she can kick ass and go out and fight crime. For me, it was more about this women who was trying to find her identity throughout and I think everyone goes through that in life.”

A fan asked about a rumor about the DVD going to contain a look at the 20-year process of putting the movie together.
“I had not heard that,” says Snyde. “Sounds super cool. I would probably buy it if it existed. I’ll look into that. Why not? It’ll be cool to see. Someone should write a book. I charge someone to find a book. Get on that, right now.”

The panel ended with another viewing of the clip show.