Comic books geeks across the world are wondering whether Warner Brothers film version of the Watchman graphic novel will be wonderful. Last week they received a glimmer of hope when Kevin Smith (DOGMA), having received a special invitation to an advance screening of director Zack Snyder’s film, proclaimed on his MySpace blog that the film was “f-ing astounding.” Smith was mum on details, due to a non-disclosure agreement he had signed, but he did say:
Snyder and Co. have pulled it off. Remember that feeling of watching Sin City on the big screen and being blown away by what a faithful translation of the source material it was, in terms of both content and visuals? Triple that, and you’ll come close to watching Watchmen.
EW.com follows up with a post noting that the film’s anticipate March release may be in trouble due to a legal dispute between WB and 20th Century Fox, which claims they own the distribution rights. Snyder has supposedly fashioned a three-hour cut that WB wants him to trim to under 2-and-a-half. Fans fear that if WB is forced into some kind of revenue sharing deal with Fox, there will be added pressure to cut the film down, in order to increase its chances of selling as many tickets as possible (shorter running time equals more screenings per day).