About two years ago i was introduced to the world of Alan Moore by a long term, slightly obsessive fan of his work. At first glance i thought oh great yet another graphic novel/comic book. Was i mistaken? Very much so. It has taken these two years for me to fully appreciate how rich, complex and multi layered his work is. Often a few pages of his writing can go into just one or two frames on a page.
Watchmen was written/released in 1986-1987 and is generally considered to be his magnum opus. Only after rereading it for the third time do i feel I'm finally getting to grips with it. Watchmen remains the only graphic novel to win a Hugo award and was also featured as one of Time magazines 100 best english language novels.
Which is why i watched the following trailer with both trepidation and hope. Hollywood is currently attempting to translate this from the page to the big screen. I say attempting due to the fact that quite frankly every other Moore novel that has been made into a film has been butchered. Case in point: From Hell, The Extraordinary League of Gentlemen and V for Vendetta. Beautifully written and illustrated pieces that were lost in translation. Moore has spoken in the past about his dislike of the Hollywood versions of his work; that his novels/comics were never meant to be made into movies.
Watchmen has Zach Snyder at the helm and it's partly due to this that i watch hopefully. Synder was responsible for 300 and the remake of Dawn of the Dead; both of which i really enjoyed. The release date is set for June 2009
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