Speaking exclusively to Empire at the UK premiere of his record-smashing epic 300, Zack Snyder – a man who lives in a world where everything is “awesome!” – had a few words to say about his confirmed next project, Watchmen. When asked whether the successes of the last week have helped to push the project – still in the pre-production stages – towards that all important green light, his reply was simple: “Well, I hope they do. I really don’t know what else to do!”.
As Watchmen is arguably the most talked about and revered graphic novel of all time, taking it to the screen is a huge undertaking, but Snyder is already busy at work. It was only last week that an image of the masked Rorschach appeared on the web:
“That’s actually Wes Coller who’s one of the Associate Producers on 300”, revealed Snyder, when asked about the test shot. “So, we were knocking around the office and I told him to put an overcoat on and I took a picture. We then took it outside to Grant Freckelton (300’s Visual Effects Art Director) who was having his lunch, and I asked him to knock it up for me. Put the Empire State Building there, put the moon there…it’s a start, but it was really just for fun.”
The vital casting of Watchmen has been plagued by so many rumours it’s a wonder even Snyder knows what’s going on. Following the denial of Tom Cruise’s involvement in the project, the latest name to surface is Ron Perlman, who’s rumoured to be heading for the role of The Comedian. Hellboy in Watchmen? “Awesome! I love Ron Perlman. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but it would be cool. Awesome!”
“There are a lot of people interested and there are a lot of people ready to announce. I’m not going to say any names yet, but it’ll be soon…very soon”.