Watchmen Week: Director Zack Snyder Speaks!

Watchmen is finally here. You've probably already got your ticket. But before you settle down to make your own opinions on what will surely be one of the most heavily discussed and debated films of 2009, get the inside story right here, right now.

As Watchmen Week draws to a close here at Roll Credits, we speak to the film's director Zack Snyder about the pressures of handling one of the hottest properties in cinema history - and why Robocop was his biggest influence...

"The studio asked me to make the movie take place now... Like Dr Manhattan goes to Iraq" Zack Snyder

How do you honour the original source material while also updating it for a new audience?

When I got the original script, the studio had asked me to make the movie take place now, with the war on terror. Like Dr Manhattan goes to Iraq. I felt like that wasn't anything anyone wanted to hear. So then, when it came to visualizing the 1985 version, there was no way to avoid [the fact] that people have cinematic reference for superheroes now.

When the graphic novel came out there weren’t that many superhero movies; culturally, it was action films at that time. My hope was to have the movie [surprise audiences who are] just thinking, ‘These are characters I’m not totally familiar with but they’re going to go on the same types of adventures that I’m used to’. That was the feeling I got from the book. And then, as you get into it, you realize that it’s something else.

Dr Manhattan: could have been part of the War on Terror if the studio had prevailed

But surely there had to be some updates?

Say, for instance, if you had [kept] the design exactly as they’re drawn, and put Nite Owl in a spandex outfit as opposed to a modern latex foam suit; then they’re not real superheroes in the iconographic sense. Someone who is unfamiliar with the graphic novel would go to the movie and just go, ‘This isn’t what a superhero looks like to me. These guys look like they just came from a costume party’.

They’re still superheroes. The problem is, psychologically and in a pop culture sense, they’ve been ousted or denied. The whole thing, as far as pop culture goes, becomes a joke. Where I wanted the experience to be, 'Wow, this is okay. This is a movie about superheroes'.

Nite Owl had his suit updated so he didn't become a laughing stock...

We heard there are many versions of Watchmen, not just the theatrical cut...

There are! We’re hoping at the time of release of the DVD in July that they release the Director’s Cut, which is 3 hours long, and that in Fall they’re going to do the Black Freighter cut. You know, we shot all the ins and outs of the Black Freighter, which is basically the comic book within the comic book, so the final result of that is like a 3 hours and 25 minute version of the movie which is everything. You know, it’s the kitchen sink version!

Ozymandias: knows the DVD will have all the elements sacrificed for the theatrical cut

Watchmen has elements of satire combined with darker, violent themes. Was it difficult to strike a balance?

Part of the reason why I wanted the movie to be violent was because I wanted [it to be real]. You see Spiderman and he tends to bounce back from a lot of hardships, and even the guys that he fights tend to not really get hurt.

I wanted [Watchmen] to be uncomfortably violent because of what their job is. The job of a superhero is to subdue or be judge, jury and executioner to some violent act or stop a crime in progress, make a moral judgment about that. So I just felt it was important to make that statement strongly.

The Comedian: Snyder fought for his violent acts to stay in the movie

Was the choice of music in the film important to its tone?

A lot of the music is referenced in the graphic novel, and that set a tone for me of what other music to include. So, the other choices were based on songs that I felt produced a visceral response to [the novel] intellectually and emotionally. Those songs were on my iPod when I was drawing the movie too; I painstakingly went through all my music libraries and created this sort of playlist of music. Then I used that music to draw and then by the end it was hard for me to get those songs out of the movie actually. They were embedded into the material in some weird way, like [Bob Dylan classic] Times They Are A-Changin’…

I guess Bob is a Watchmen fan because he knew about the book and he knew how his music had been referenced in the book and so when I said that we needed all the stems from Times They Are A-Changin’ because we were going to make it a 6-minute song out of a 3-minute song, he was happy to do it!

Silk Spectre II: her character benefits from a carefully chosen soundtrack

Apart from the graphic novel, did you draw on any other cinematic influences?

I think it’s kind of hard to not have some sort of an Oliver Stone vibe from the movie only because he’s made movies about all the eras that are touched [on] in the movie. I’m a big Paul Verhoeven fan so I love Robocop. It’s one of my favorite movies and the tone of Robocop to me is more similar to Watchmen than say, JFK, because it’s that sort of using a genre or a kind of iconology to say something else.

In the same way that the comic book references the comic book genre. I’ve talked to Dave [Gibbons, the graphic novel illustrator] about it and I’d say, 'We’re going to do the war room like Dr Strangelove' and he goes, 'Well we wanted the war room to be like Strangelove!' And I’d say, 'I’m going to do a shot where Rorschach is walking kind of like Taxi Driver'. [He'd say] 'We loved Taxi Driver'. You know it’s not like I was inventing stuff. Everything I thought I was thinking of was stuff that came from the material anyway. You can’t help that.

Rorschach: has many similarities with Robert De Niro's Taxi Driver

Alan Moore usually disowns any movie version of his work. Do you anticipate he’ll like the movie or will he even see it and do you care?

I’m a fan of his work so that part is slightly upsetting. I mean, Alan was off the movie when I got involved. Though I will say that there had been versions of the script that he had liked that I thought are nothing like the movie we made, in the sense that I feel like [our] movie is much closer to the book. I doubt [Alan will] ever see the movie. My only hope is that it just generates interest in Watchmen as a work of literature.

Interviews by Sheila Roberts

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So there you have it. Over the past few days we've heard from cast and crew about just why Watchmen is so damn good. You'll find my review posted here at the beginning of next week and I'd also love to hear what you think. Is it worth the hype...?