Tom Cruise is Not Ozymandias
I was just surfing around on the Internets, and I found an interesting interview with director Zack Snyder, whose forthcoming take on “300” looks rather promising, and who’s also scheduled to direct the big-screen adaptation of Alan Moore’s “Watchmen.” Word is that they could begin filming as early as this summer. In the interview, there’s a bit of talk about casting rumors and such, most notably that Tom Cruise was, at one point, in talks to star as Ozymandias. Here’s the link.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I think Tom Cruise would probably suck in that role. No way would I believe him as the smartest man alive. His public persona is so big these days, it’d be hard to establish him as anything other than Tom Cruise in a weird costume. The whole suspension of disbelief thing would be much more difficult with a big, smiling, crazy, uber-famous man in one of the lead roles. A couple years ago, I heard much more promising casting rumors, with word circulating that John Cusack would play Nite-Owl and that Simon Pegg would play the role of Rorschach. I’m sure that both of those ideas have been scrapped, but those at least sound like a sane man was making the decisions, rather than whoever is in charge right now. Seriously, don’t even talk to Tom Cruise. The guy’s bonkers.
Other interesting news from the interview above: The Curse of the Black Freighter (that pirate comic that runs along the main narrative in the book) is going to be included, and the film’s going to, more than likely, hold an R rating. I couldn’t imagine it being rated anything less.
What do you think? Who would you cast in these roles?
As much as I love Watchmen, I just can’t see it being made into a good movie. Maybe if it was some type of HBO mini-series or something. But there’s no way you can cram all of the great stuff from that book into 2 and a half hours. I want it to be good, but overall I just don’t see why you would even want to make the movie in the first place.
What he said.
Eliminate Dr Manhattan or whatever his name was and I bet it’d be a lot more doable.
I could see making a movie inspired by the comic – capture the spirit without the big alien thing and time is a weapon of time garbage.
But I love the idea of it as an HBO series. How sweet would that be, to do it as a season? If Spike TV spends $1 million per episode on their Blade series, surely a network would bankroll a Watchmen series?
SURELY??!?!
The thing about adapting finite comics into movies is that there isn’t more than one take on the characters out there already. Watchmen doesn’t really have a “spirit,” it has Alan Moore. Unlike Spider-Man or X-Men or Superman or Batman, there is only one way Watchmen has ever been perceived: as written by Alan Moore. Inevitably, something written by Alan Moore won’t be as good when it’s adapted. Unless, of course, you go the Sin City route and have the comic creator heavily involved in the movie making process, and we all know that ain’t happening.
i wouldn’t make it at all. it seems like trying to film “the sound and the fury” or something. i mean, i’m just as giddy as the next guy when comic properties move into different realms (when i saw the street fighter vs. marvel action figures, the 8 year-old inside of me all but exploded), but some comics are just so problematic to translate from medium to medium that the question becomes less “how?” and more “why?”
The “why” is to make money, of course.
There are way more potential movie-goers out there than there are Watchmen lovers. And there are plenty of Watchmen lovers who will go out of curiosity. And there are also plenty of Watchmen lovers who will go to stock ammo for their knee-jerk hatred of the movie.
I think it would be fun for whoever is making it to try to adapt it, creatively speaking. Alan Moore was making a statement on society using archetypical characters. It’s a story.
How can you say there is no spirit beyond Alan Moore? How terribly insulting to Alan Moore to suggest his story is dependent upon association with him. I would imagine he would find such a comic-industry version of hero worship disgusting. No one ever wrote V for Vendetta other than Moore, but that was a fine take on the book.
That said, I do agree that there’s just too much story for me to have optimism that it’ll be a good movie. But I’ll definitely go see it.
I like how it’s become so widespread of an idea to do Watchmen as a mini-series. I remember first readint the idea at chud.com and thinking it made sense.
I’m glad no one is calling for getting rid of the Black Freighter. I’d say that’s a way more crucial part of the story even than Manhattan.
I don’t think the “too much story” argument is very valid, considering longer stories than Watchmen have been adapted successfully into movies.
I think the movie could be doable, and they could do a fine job with it, but it doesn’t seem like there would be enough commercial appeal unless, as Jim Doom said, you remove the more sci-fi elements. Even so, I think the movie could still be good.
As for who should play the characters? I’d say Freddie Prinze, Jr. has a shot at two or three roles.
Ron Howard with a wig as Rorshach.