Director Zack Snyder on everything Watchmen.
He’s not messing with a good thing.
“[I decided] I wasn’t going to f**k it up to try and make a movie that is commercial or cool or what everyone would consider exactly what an audience would like or want … It goes through the whole thing – the violence and the sexuality and all of it going as far it can go in both directions, to say that on one hand we are used to violence without consequence. Everyone is fine, no one gets hurt everyone gets up and PG-13’s it down the street, which I find super- irresponsible.”
And he wasn’t gunning for a franchise.
“I think in some ways I f**ked that up a little bit, the whole commercial aspect of Watchmen, but on the other hand I think the movie has a better chance the way it is … I think [the studio] realized half way through the process that there wasn’t a version of Watchmen that I could make that they could make into a franchise and would be fun and kind and a good romp for them that just wasn’t going to happen for them. I don’t know how to do that – you probably picked the wrong guy if you don’t want it to be Watchmen-y. When they realized that they were like okay do it then, go all the way.”
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Instead he’s putting it on DVD.
“I did try to work with my partners at the movie studios to create a theatrical version of the movie that was not 3 hours long, which the director’s cut [DVD] is 3 hours and 10 minutes long. The Black Freighter [DVD] is 3.5 hours long with the Black Freighter cut into it … they said, ‘Look we will finish all the shots for you, we’re not going to chintz you out on the director’s cut.’ With that kind of relationship I was like, ‘Let me get you a cut that works’ … I’m proud of the cut that is in theaters.”
Snyder won’t lie … he was “lazy” about reading the series.
“I knew about it when it first came out but it was one of those things where I missed the first three issues, and I was kind of lazy in my comic book reading. So instead of searching for that I thought I’d wait. When it came out as a novel I said ‘OK I’ll read it.’ I guess it goes back to the idea that I wasn’t ready for it. I didn’t expect it. I expected it to be a comic book. I thought Alan Moore is cool, this ought to be good. Dave [Gibbons] drawing this ought to be cool. When I read it, the impression I got was, ‘What the f**k is going on with these superheroes? They are crazy.’”
KEEP READING: The killer cast …
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He landed a killer cast, too.
“Jackie [Earle Haley] actually sent me a DVD he prepared of a little scene from the movie he made. It was awesome. I want to put it on the DVD, but I don’t think he’ll let me. It is partly him being interrogated and partly him being arrested, and he did it in the living room of his house. So it’s got a super low-tech quality to it but it is super cool, too. After that I was like I can’t look at anyone else.”
That also includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Billy Crudup.
“The thing with Jeffrey [Dean Morgan] was that the Comedian needed to be a man’s man. It is a difficult role because he’s got to be a teeny bit charming. Sadly, and scarily when we do our independent polls people were like ‘I like the Comedian the best’ or ‘I like Rorschach the best. Those are my two favorite characters.’ I’m like, ‘What is wrong with you? The Comedian is a bad man. Don’t like him!’ They are juicy, though. Yeah, he’s Denny and he’s sweet and he’s haunting[Katherine] Heigl. To this day he’s still haunting her [on Grey’s Anatomy]. Billy [Crudup] is an amazing actor and I tricked him into being in the movie. That was well done by me. Only after he was hired did he find out he had to wear pajamas with lights all over them.”
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Even Bob Dylan was onboard.
“When I was putting the movie together I went through tons of songs and all of my old music and old playlists. When I was drawing I had this on my music, I had pretty much the exact soundtrack that is in the movie … I knew there would be a title sequence with a song on it and I had drawn it with “Times They are a Changing” in mind but we had to remix the song because the original version is too short. That is a six minute song in the movie and the original is three minutes and 35 seconds. We had to get the stems from [Bob] Dylan and get all the original tracks separated and then rebuild the song ourselves. We had to hire another harmonica player … then we had to give it back to him [Dylan] to see if it was okay.”
He wanted the music just right.
“’Hallelujah,’ [from] that love scene [with Laurie and Dan], I originally had the Allison Crow version of that song, a version I’ve always loved, but in the end was just too romantic. Everybody thought that I meant it, they thought the love scene was serious, not that it isn’t serious but that song was too – her version was too sexy. I was like yeah I’ve got to go back to the Leonard Cohen. For me it is incredibly ironic, even with that version of the song it is incredibly ironic. I don’t care what version of “Hallelujah” is on that love scene it is ridiculous, but in a great way. With Leonard Cohen it is like you can’t miss it now can you?”
KEEP READING: The “Sound of Silence” …
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And appreciates the “Sound of Silence.”
“It is in only one other movie, The Graduate … [Simon and Garfunkel] saw the scene and thought it was cool and let us have it. That is the kind of song to me, which is interesting, because “Sound of Silence” is the kind of song you think you’ve heard in a million movies. And then when you realize it has only been in one other movie and they’ve turned down thousands of movies who wanted to use it. That is kind of the experience of Watchmen it is something you are very familiar with, but on the other hand it is very, very foreign and difficult.”
He gives credit where credit is due.
“I think [The Dark Knight] helped it hugely. I think it is an interesting counter point to the movie because it is a serious filmmaker with serious actors and a serious movie, to be taken seriously by pop culture and critics and intelligencia. ‘What does it mean. Blah, blah, blah.’ In some ways it is the pinnacle of what is possible with a superhero movie so it is kind of interesting that Watchmen sort of comes on the heel of that in the sense that – I think the Watchmen blows that up again. It says now that you’ve taken it seriously and elevated to high art it is time to sort of take it apart again and re-examine now without a smile or a wink what the fuck this mythology is about.”
KEEP READING: More ‘Watchmen’ Interviews
