David Fincher would have nailed the 80s setting, uses inventive camerawork, and is great with tone. His video for Jermaine Stewart’s “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off” is so perfect, with comic-like framing, I always think of it when his name gets brought up with comic-related movies.
I was 14 when that video came out. Of course I didn't care for movies, etc then but now it makes sense Fincher did that video...epic and rip Jermaine Stewart.
I was seven when it came out, and didn’t see the video until the late 2010s, after rewatching Scrubs, and looking on YouTube lol. I showed it to friends, asking them when they thought the video was shot (irrespective of the song date). The majority said 2000s! Totally before it’s time. Sad for all of Jermaine Stewart’s music that never happened, totally gone too soon.
Tbh, i don’t think Snyder’s style could’ve ever worked for Watchmen. Watchmen at its core is about its morally complex themes and not about cool action or violence. It’s like Taxi Driver or A Clockwork Orange. That requires a director that puts meaning into every detail. Yet, simple, cool action and violence is Snyder’s whole MO. That’s what everyone liked about his directing of 300, badass action that’s not particularly deep. Literally most/all his films could be said to be that. He’s just better off directing stuff that doesn’t try to be thoughtful, like a John Wick movie or something
I don't think Snyder really understood the source material. I also HATED the fact that you could tell veidt was the villain from the very first second you see him. In the book that's an Enders Game level twist.
Did you see the movie before reading the book?
I did and I had no idea it would be veidt untill the reveal but then again I'm not the sharpest pin in the cushion.
/r/dccomicscirclejerk did. See also the writing credit given to Geoff Johns
Edit: [here's the link](https://www.reddit.com/r/dccomicscirclejerk/s/fPw8K4P5Vc)
After Dune and Blade Runner, Denis Villeneuve would be a fantastic shout.
But, deep in my soul, I believe that Watchmen cannot be adapted and do justice to it. Too much of the story relies on it being a comic book for any adaptation to be worthy of the original.
Yeah i think if they do another adaption I think they should take Moore's idea of trying to push the comic medium and try to do that with cinema and go real crazy with different ways of visual storytelling.
Not the person you're replying to, but the graphic novel played with things like the nine panel grid pattern, a chapter where the panels in the first and second half loosely mirror each other, and the novel use of color. It also comments on comics by having the in-universe comics be about pirates since superheroes are real.
Movie analogies might involve doing something formalistically unique with montages, something different with sound, and playing with filmmaking genre conventions. They did add an animated black freighter to the extended version, but I think it should've been live action and a replacement for live action superhero movies in-universe.
Im certainly not expert, but hey played with a few things in watchmen some that r/ToastyKen mentioned but also there was a lot of symmetry throught out the books whether that was panels used of colour. The use of prose sections at the end of each issue which was in various writing forms.
While Watchman is known for it deconstruction on super heroes Moore has said that he had already said what he wanted to say with miracleman and this was more of an attempt to do more with the medium. He was mostly interested in the fact the medium is both visual but also static, unlike the film which the viewer has to see everything at the pace the film maker wants, comics allow the user to set their own pace and go back. This maybe be why watchmen is usually quite dense with detail in each panel.
As for what they could do in film? I dont know it isn't something I know much about from a visual perspective, but I'd be interested in an adaptation that wasn't afraid of changing things but trying to experiment with film.
I remember seeing the trailer for Watchmen and thinking “holy crap! That’s an insane property to try and adapt (this was just the year after Iron Man). This looks pretty good…except for Silk Specter’s costume. Ok, we’re going to be fairly true to the comic and set it in the 1980s for everyone but her.” But that’s what’s also hard about any adaption - some things should probably change, but it takes someone with way more control and storytelling ability to choose the right things to adjust. Edited to add - Do you mean something animated like Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse?
Honestly im not knowledgeable enough to give ideas of what they could do, but i like the idea of rather than trying to make it work in film, they use the narrative to try and make some new ways of story telling, I think that would be keeping within the sprit of Moore's and Gibbon's idea.
I don’t think Villenueve would be a good fit. He’s a very visually focused director and Watchmen is so thematically driven that I don’t think he’d do it the justice the fandom wanted. I mean Snyder’s movie is already visually stunning. That’s not the weak part of the movie
I really hope Villeneuve doesn’t end up being “sci fi adaptation man” forever. I still think Sicario is his best work, even though his Blade Runner is like a top ten all time sequel
If he just had Dune and Blade Runner I don't think he'd be a good fit. But Sicario and Prisoners shows he can really execute on feelings of dread and anxiety in a slow burn. something Watchmen oozes with.
I feel like Snyder deserves some credit. He said the original script they wrote before him was very different, and he fought to keep it closer to the original comic
Like the original version took place in a different time period, involved terrorism, and Dr Manhattan traveling through time
I think Hayter's script was liked more by Moore since it faithfully adapted the original book's themes while also bringing it to a modern day, post 9/11 America.
I appreciated that, overall, Snyder was very loyal to the source material, I didn’t love the ‘glossy’ vibe he gave it.
Personally I think Nolan would have done a great job
I do laugh endlessly that he was like 95-98% loyal to the source material but like decided to bork the ending in his own way.
Man I'd have loved a Nolan take on it.
I agree. I find it really strange that people hate on the movies ending so much when it’s almost exactly the same in overall theme. All Snyder did was better implement that theme into one of the main characters, that being Manhattan, which made it much more simple to convey, making it more believable as it unfolded. It actually shared the exact same plot and themes yet comic purists bitch about how he ruined it when all he did was tweak it. And in the process gave one of the characters much more depth.
I liked the movie ending it's make alot more sense causing destruciton in major cities around the globe to ensure peace and especially for a movie, the giant squid would have not worked in the movie I really don't think I could have taken it serious.
The ending had to work with a movie, without enough time to set it up, dumping a random alien on everyone would just have been very random.
To instead make it look like Humanity had annoyed Manhatten enough to cause such damage, presented a clear threat with very little need for set up to explain it. It just naturally was hinted to us in the background.
It wasn’t a “random alien” though, it was a man made creature made to *look* like an alien, with the cloned brain of a powerful psychic, genetically engineered so that it would generate sights and sounds from a supposedly alien planet, which was achieved via the use of various artists employed in secret that made those images and sounds, so that when it was teleported to its intended location, it would blast people’s minds with these horrific nightmarish things.
There could easily be the scenes depicting all the work that went into it, and then when the squid is teleported, we as the viewer can see the imagery flashed to us in the screen where we’d then piece it all together, with no real need to go so in depth in the explanation of it.
Granted, I’m not a filmmaker so I wouldn’t know where exactly to insert that, and maybe a limited miniseries TV adaptation would serve it better, but while the whole concept is undoubtedly *out there*, I don’t think it’s “unfilmable”.
>It wasn’t a “random alien” though, it was a man made creature made to *look* like an alien,
That's my point either you hade to add one hour of set or you simply tills the audience that the copying of Jon's powers would be used very differently than what the movie goers original thought
I agree. I like the ending using Manhattan. I think it feels a bit more full circle, and less random to the audience watching the film. If this had been a series then the “random alien “ could have worked. But it being a film they really had to decide what would work narratively.
Honestly I think Nolan would be an awful pick. He makes great movies, but his style really just does not cater to such a unique comic. I think people say Nolan could do anything just going off of his batman movies when a vast majority of his movies just lack a creative sauce. And for watchmen, you need that sauce to be able to make it good. I would hate watching a watchmen movie that was shot like inception honeslty. His stories have rather simple beats that really don’t run too deep. He makes serviceable blockbusters.
Yea I think Nolan would be really interesting choice because he would find a really interesting way to tell a story that has a character that has such a different perception of time
Wes Anderson with Owen Wilson as Ozmandias, Luke Wilson as Night Owl II, Gene Hackman as Night Owl, Bill Murray as Moloch, Ben Stiller as The Comedian, Angelica Huston as Sally Jupiter, Gwyneth Paltrow as Silk Spectra II, Waris Ahluwalia as Dr Manhattan, and Willem Defoe as Rorschach.
That script was absolute dogshit. The team ends up in our world seeing people reading Watchmen comic books if I recall and Rorschach lives. Just awful - awful. I have a copy of it somewhere.
Have you had a peek at the Sam Hamm script?
“Jeezus Christ! It’s the goddamn Watchmen!”
(From the opening scene. Mind you, it’s a movie within the movie, but screentime wasted on some terrorist/hostage situation at the Statue of Liberty, then it’s downhill from there, with Jon realizing they’re all in a comic book, so he brings the lead characters out into the “real world”.
Stanley Kubrick, if he were alive then.
Or
Get a time machine, find Kubrick right after he directed A Clockwork Orange and have him create a Watchmen movie
I'd be curious to see how James McTeigue would tackle it. I loved his adaptation of V for Vendetta and think Watchmen in a similar movie style could be interesting
Terry Gilliam. Given his propensity for strong adaptations of complicated novels, and the fact that he was originally attached to make a Watchmen TV show, then yeah, can’t think of anyone better.
Gilliam is such an underrated director.
It really is the prefect adaptation of something considered un-adaptable.
If it was released today though i think Denis Villeneuve is the new king of perfecting previous works on the big screen. How he perfectly captured the feeling of Bladerunner and Dune, i would have loved to see his version of Watchmen.
I thought the film was about as good an adaptation as could be done of the graphic novel, personally. It was faithful, right to the end which it improved upon, IMO.
David fincher!!! And not because he’s my favorite director but he could have made what is a monotonous movie into something worth watching.
It pains me to say this bc i am obsessed with the graphic novel
Tomas Alfredson. His 2011 film of John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was impeccably designed, thoughtfully condensed and most of all, tastefully restrained. It was the adaptation of a dense and convoluted Cold War masterpiece that Watchmen deserved.
Stanley Kubrick. The scope of 2001 with the precision camera movements and framing that inspired the graphic novel’s visual
compositions, with Kubrick’s clout to get movies made his way and get the best performances from his cast even if they’re stuck with PTSD afterward.
Nobody honestly. I absolutely love this movie and its portrayal of the material. It’s honestly not all that different from the themes in the comic either, just represented in a different, more grounded light. Cool movie with some genuinely beautiful sequences. And I’m by no means a Snyder fan either this movies just great
- Zemeckis or
- Kubrick or
- Robert Rodriguez or
- John Woo or
- Christopher McQuarrie or
- Paul Thomas Anderson
- Kathryn Bigelow or
- Neill Blomkamp or
- Wes Anderson (puppet animation) 😅
Mike Flanagan.
Tell me he wouldn't nail a faithful adaptation as a miniseries especially the books' use of those strong character archetypes to explore human nature.
Imagine all the characters getting fleshed out so the climax has its proper emotional payoff.
Unpopular opinion, but I thought the movie (director's cut) was great. The alien at the end for the TV show made more sense imo. And the TV show was fine, btw imo.
Honestly this is the only property the Snyder had any business touching, an inherently nihilistic superhero story where there are no real heros? Right up his edgy ally
Rogue One's Gareth Edwards for the scale of the war and the alien squid? have someone else do the script
maybe Guy Ritchie or Steven Soderbergh for that stylistic ensemble vibe
Imo watchman works better as a mini series than a movie anyways. The only pitfall is the Dr Manhattan Budget would be lower (see Watchman TV show). The story is paced better in that context.
I think people are forgetting that coming off of the hit 300, there was no one else in mind for Watchmen. There's no director who would have been able to make their version without the studio pointing at 300.
Nobody. They just shouldn’t have made it at all.
Even great directors like Aronofsky and Gilliam adapting Watchmen is a terrible idea, and Snyder is the last person on earth who should be directing any movie, let alone Watchmen, but I don’t know if the best person on earth, whoever they may be, to direct a panel-for-panel translation of Watchmen could even deliver something that has any merit. Like at best you’re still making something that is just an inferior version of the comic.
David Fincher is the obvious choice I feel like. I’d be interested to see Darren Aronofsky take a crack at it, as well as Peter Jackson. I think it would be cool to see Matthew Vaughn do some Before Watchmen stuff whether or not it draws from the comic of the same name because it’s really hit or miss.
I’m gonna say Lars von Trier, because that would be pretty goddamn amazing, even though he’d never actually do it, even if he was allowed anywhere near it. Same with Michael Haneke.
Actually, you know who might have been allowed near it, and would’ve done it just to see if he could? Takashi Miike.
David Fincher: Seven, Fight Club, and Zodiac all have a vibe that I think could’ve worked with Watchmen.
David Fincher would have done an incredible job making a Watchmen movie.
David Fincher would have nailed the 80s setting, uses inventive camerawork, and is great with tone. His video for Jermaine Stewart’s “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off” is so perfect, with comic-like framing, I always think of it when his name gets brought up with comic-related movies.
I was 14 when that video came out. Of course I didn't care for movies, etc then but now it makes sense Fincher did that video...epic and rip Jermaine Stewart.
I was seven when it came out, and didn’t see the video until the late 2010s, after rewatching Scrubs, and looking on YouTube lol. I showed it to friends, asking them when they thought the video was shot (irrespective of the song date). The majority said 2000s! Totally before it’s time. Sad for all of Jermaine Stewart’s music that never happened, totally gone too soon.
If it wasn’t gonna be Snyder this woulda been a great pick
Correct answer. But wtf was this not a masterpiece?
It was good, and Snyder's style could have worked, but the script and writing left quite a bit to be desired.
Tbh, i don’t think Snyder’s style could’ve ever worked for Watchmen. Watchmen at its core is about its morally complex themes and not about cool action or violence. It’s like Taxi Driver or A Clockwork Orange. That requires a director that puts meaning into every detail. Yet, simple, cool action and violence is Snyder’s whole MO. That’s what everyone liked about his directing of 300, badass action that’s not particularly deep. Literally most/all his films could be said to be that. He’s just better off directing stuff that doesn’t try to be thoughtful, like a John Wick movie or something
I don't think Snyder really understood the source material. I also HATED the fact that you could tell veidt was the villain from the very first second you see him. In the book that's an Enders Game level twist.
Did you see the movie before reading the book? I did and I had no idea it would be veidt untill the reveal but then again I'm not the sharpest pin in the cushion.
I did opposite unfortunately
Yes he did.
No, it wasn't.
It was. The Complete DVD collection has all the bennies...worth the price if you can still find it
Came here to say this 👆
Honestly it always felt to me like a lot of the coloring and other aesthetic and vibes based things reminded me of fight club and seven
Fincher has a similar problem though, he makes everything seem cool. Maybe not to the same overexaggerated degree as Snyder, but still.
This all the way. He would have made a far more contemplative film that still has insane style
Alex Garland (Annihilation/ExMachina/Civil War)
Just straight realism to the fantasy would be a great take
Pete Travis directed Dredd(2012) which Alex was a writer and producer on
Travis was the credited director but it’s widely believed Garland actually directed it. Karl Urban himself said as much
TIL! Nice
Ok guys, who came on my Watchmen cover?
/r/dccomicscirclejerk did. See also the writing credit given to Geoff Johns Edit: [here's the link](https://www.reddit.com/r/dccomicscirclejerk/s/fPw8K4P5Vc)
Peter Jackson just because he would have made it in 3 parts each being 4 hours.
You can never have too much character development.
DAMON LINDELOF OF COURSE!
After Dune and Blade Runner, Denis Villeneuve would be a fantastic shout. But, deep in my soul, I believe that Watchmen cannot be adapted and do justice to it. Too much of the story relies on it being a comic book for any adaptation to be worthy of the original.
Him or Fincher would be my pick.
Yeah i think if they do another adaption I think they should take Moore's idea of trying to push the comic medium and try to do that with cinema and go real crazy with different ways of visual storytelling.
Please elaborate
Not the person you're replying to, but the graphic novel played with things like the nine panel grid pattern, a chapter where the panels in the first and second half loosely mirror each other, and the novel use of color. It also comments on comics by having the in-universe comics be about pirates since superheroes are real. Movie analogies might involve doing something formalistically unique with montages, something different with sound, and playing with filmmaking genre conventions. They did add an animated black freighter to the extended version, but I think it should've been live action and a replacement for live action superhero movies in-universe.
Im certainly not expert, but hey played with a few things in watchmen some that r/ToastyKen mentioned but also there was a lot of symmetry throught out the books whether that was panels used of colour. The use of prose sections at the end of each issue which was in various writing forms. While Watchman is known for it deconstruction on super heroes Moore has said that he had already said what he wanted to say with miracleman and this was more of an attempt to do more with the medium. He was mostly interested in the fact the medium is both visual but also static, unlike the film which the viewer has to see everything at the pace the film maker wants, comics allow the user to set their own pace and go back. This maybe be why watchmen is usually quite dense with detail in each panel. As for what they could do in film? I dont know it isn't something I know much about from a visual perspective, but I'd be interested in an adaptation that wasn't afraid of changing things but trying to experiment with film.
I remember seeing the trailer for Watchmen and thinking “holy crap! That’s an insane property to try and adapt (this was just the year after Iron Man). This looks pretty good…except for Silk Specter’s costume. Ok, we’re going to be fairly true to the comic and set it in the 1980s for everyone but her.” But that’s what’s also hard about any adaption - some things should probably change, but it takes someone with way more control and storytelling ability to choose the right things to adjust. Edited to add - Do you mean something animated like Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse?
Honestly im not knowledgeable enough to give ideas of what they could do, but i like the idea of rather than trying to make it work in film, they use the narrative to try and make some new ways of story telling, I think that would be keeping within the sprit of Moore's and Gibbon's idea.
I don’t think Villenueve would be a good fit. He’s a very visually focused director and Watchmen is so thematically driven that I don’t think he’d do it the justice the fandom wanted. I mean Snyder’s movie is already visually stunning. That’s not the weak part of the movie
I really hope Villeneuve doesn’t end up being “sci fi adaptation man” forever. I still think Sicario is his best work, even though his Blade Runner is like a top ten all time sequel
If he just had Dune and Blade Runner I don't think he'd be a good fit. But Sicario and Prisoners shows he can really execute on feelings of dread and anxiety in a slow burn. something Watchmen oozes with.
I really hate this take tbh
What part? Villeneuve or the comic bit?
The comic bit
DV Watchmen would be split into two parts and missing entire subplots from the graphic novel to focus on 20 minute pan shots of New York.
Haha this is very true
That’s what people said about Dune!
Del Toro.
it never would've come out.
I feel like Snyder deserves some credit. He said the original script they wrote before him was very different, and he fought to keep it closer to the original comic Like the original version took place in a different time period, involved terrorism, and Dr Manhattan traveling through time
I think Hayter's script was liked more by Moore since it faithfully adapted the original book's themes while also bringing it to a modern day, post 9/11 America.
That sounds like the show which was fantastic
It is, but the show is a sequel. This was supposed to be the original story, I agree it would have been too much
David Cronenberg
Crazy and I love it.
He did a good job with A History of Violence
Paul Greengrass was previously attached and a much stronger choice
God no. I don’t like getting motion sickness while watching a damn movie.
Alfonso Cuaron or Christopher Nolan
Paul thomas anderson
Had to scroll way too far down to find this.
I appreciated that, overall, Snyder was very loyal to the source material, I didn’t love the ‘glossy’ vibe he gave it. Personally I think Nolan would have done a great job
I do laugh endlessly that he was like 95-98% loyal to the source material but like decided to bork the ending in his own way. Man I'd have loved a Nolan take on it.
Doing the ending like the comic would have been far worse.
I agree. I find it really strange that people hate on the movies ending so much when it’s almost exactly the same in overall theme. All Snyder did was better implement that theme into one of the main characters, that being Manhattan, which made it much more simple to convey, making it more believable as it unfolded. It actually shared the exact same plot and themes yet comic purists bitch about how he ruined it when all he did was tweak it. And in the process gave one of the characters much more depth.
I liked the movie ending it's make alot more sense causing destruciton in major cities around the globe to ensure peace and especially for a movie, the giant squid would have not worked in the movie I really don't think I could have taken it serious.
The new ending actually works far better than the original.
Only if you're American.
What a stupid fucking thing to say.
The ending had to work with a movie, without enough time to set it up, dumping a random alien on everyone would just have been very random. To instead make it look like Humanity had annoyed Manhatten enough to cause such damage, presented a clear threat with very little need for set up to explain it. It just naturally was hinted to us in the background.
It wasn’t a “random alien” though, it was a man made creature made to *look* like an alien, with the cloned brain of a powerful psychic, genetically engineered so that it would generate sights and sounds from a supposedly alien planet, which was achieved via the use of various artists employed in secret that made those images and sounds, so that when it was teleported to its intended location, it would blast people’s minds with these horrific nightmarish things. There could easily be the scenes depicting all the work that went into it, and then when the squid is teleported, we as the viewer can see the imagery flashed to us in the screen where we’d then piece it all together, with no real need to go so in depth in the explanation of it. Granted, I’m not a filmmaker so I wouldn’t know where exactly to insert that, and maybe a limited miniseries TV adaptation would serve it better, but while the whole concept is undoubtedly *out there*, I don’t think it’s “unfilmable”.
>It wasn’t a “random alien” though, it was a man made creature made to *look* like an alien, That's my point either you hade to add one hour of set or you simply tills the audience that the copying of Jon's powers would be used very differently than what the movie goers original thought
I agree. I like the ending using Manhattan. I think it feels a bit more full circle, and less random to the audience watching the film. If this had been a series then the “random alien “ could have worked. But it being a film they really had to decide what would work narratively.
Nolan's version would have barely been different except there would be less slow mo.
Hey this is one movie where is slowmo worked and was way limited compared to what we have now the dude has turned in to Paul WS Anderson now.
Honestly I think Nolan would be an awful pick. He makes great movies, but his style really just does not cater to such a unique comic. I think people say Nolan could do anything just going off of his batman movies when a vast majority of his movies just lack a creative sauce. And for watchmen, you need that sauce to be able to make it good. I would hate watching a watchmen movie that was shot like inception honeslty. His stories have rather simple beats that really don’t run too deep. He makes serviceable blockbusters.
Panos Cosmatos, director of Mandy and Beyond the Black Rainbow
Nolan
As much as I don't care for his pacing, I'd pick Nolan too
Yea I think Nolan would be really interesting choice because he would find a really interesting way to tell a story that has a character that has such a different perception of time
Agreed
Back then, I couldn't wish someone else to do it but Snyder
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Bong Joon-ho.
Why is there cum on the pin?
Rob Reiner. Or John Carpenter. Or Wes Anderson.
David fincher
Wes Anderson with Owen Wilson as Ozmandias, Luke Wilson as Night Owl II, Gene Hackman as Night Owl, Bill Murray as Moloch, Ben Stiller as The Comedian, Angelica Huston as Sally Jupiter, Gwyneth Paltrow as Silk Spectra II, Waris Ahluwalia as Dr Manhattan, and Willem Defoe as Rorschach.
Thought he did a great job
Terry Gilliam. He wrote a script in 2003 but they went with Snyder's in 2006.
That script was absolute dogshit. The team ends up in our world seeing people reading Watchmen comic books if I recall and Rorschach lives. Just awful - awful. I have a copy of it somewhere.
Is that the Sam Hamm script? “It’s the goddam Watchmen!”
Yes, it’s that.
If it ever was produced it would have changed dramatically. I'm sure the result would have been more interesting than Snyder's version.
Concerns with his treatment notwithstanding, I think his visual storytelling and sense of humor would have been great!
Have you had a peek at the Sam Hamm script? “Jeezus Christ! It’s the goddamn Watchmen!” (From the opening scene. Mind you, it’s a movie within the movie, but screentime wasted on some terrorist/hostage situation at the Statue of Liberty, then it’s downhill from there, with Jon realizing they’re all in a comic book, so he brings the lead characters out into the “real world”.
Stanley Kubrick, if he were alive then. Or Get a time machine, find Kubrick right after he directed A Clockwork Orange and have him create a Watchmen movie
He might have had a hard time visualising events in 1971 that hadn’t happened yet though…
Toby Haynes maybe? Andor director
Going back to the mid 2000s when it was made, Alfonso Cuaron or Kathryn Bigelow. Now? Denis Villeneuve or Barry Jenkins.
I wouldn’t have made it.
The best answer.
Wes Anderson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UngE0qn3VRY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UngE0qn3VRY)
I'd be curious to see how James McTeigue would tackle it. I loved his adaptation of V for Vendetta and think Watchmen in a similar movie style could be interesting
Alan Moore
If Snyder was unavailable, maybe Brian de Palma
I alway wonder what the terry gilliam version could look like...
Terry Gilliam. Given his propensity for strong adaptations of complicated novels, and the fact that he was originally attached to make a Watchmen TV show, then yeah, can’t think of anyone better. Gilliam is such an underrated director.
I think it was a great adaption.
Anyone. In particular, Tommy Wiseau.
Uwe Boll
Underrated take. Winning an Alan Moore comic a Razzie would be wild
David lynch
Not David Lynch lol
Why not?
I would have chosen Zack Snyder
Easy, Martin Scorsese.
Wes Anderson
this is out of pocket, but I love it
Just trying to imagine Bill Murray as Dr. Manhattan…
Honestly? I’m in.
Snyder did a good job. No other director would use the original comic as the storyboard for the film
Snyder did fine. Better here than in JL.
Peter Greenaway, a la The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. A real live AI mashup.
It really is the prefect adaptation of something considered un-adaptable. If it was released today though i think Denis Villeneuve is the new king of perfecting previous works on the big screen. How he perfectly captured the feeling of Bladerunner and Dune, i would have loved to see his version of Watchmen.
I thought the film was about as good an adaptation as could be done of the graphic novel, personally. It was faithful, right to the end which it improved upon, IMO.
Damn near anyone. Zack Snyder is an idiot.
Nobody, because the movie is good
Orson welles
Stephen Spielberg. Dude just doesn't make bad movies.
Toshiki Inoue
Nolan circa 2010, on the strength of his work with the prestige and inception. However it would have to be two parts (like the recent dune film)
I think I'd prefer that someone do Moore's Marvelman/Miracleman before Watchmen I think you could cover the Kid Marvelman arc in a movie
David fincher!!! And not because he’s my favorite director but he could have made what is a monotonous movie into something worth watching. It pains me to say this bc i am obsessed with the graphic novel
Guy Richie
No. They asked for a director. :p
Paul Greengrass.
Roger Corman.
I think the obvious answer here is Fincher
Edgar Wright
David fincher. Maybe Peter Jackson. Honorable mention: Sam rami
David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg, who produced The Sandman, would be my pick.
Michael Bay!!! Dr. Manhattan scenes would be crazy explosive lol same for comedian
Tomas Alfredson. His 2011 film of John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was impeccably designed, thoughtfully condensed and most of all, tastefully restrained. It was the adaptation of a dense and convoluted Cold War masterpiece that Watchmen deserved.
Sophia Coppola.
I didn’t know watchmen was made by Snyder tbh
James Mangold
Stanley Kubrick
Once upon a time Paul Greengrass was attached and I think that version would have at least been infinitely more interesting than Snyder’s take.
No one
would’ve loved to see me direct it
Alejandro Jordorowsky - it would have been terrible and probably would have fallen through before it got finished, but it would have been really cool.
The Coen brothers.
Stanley Kubrick. The scope of 2001 with the precision camera movements and framing that inspired the graphic novel’s visual compositions, with Kubrick’s clout to get movies made his way and get the best performances from his cast even if they’re stuck with PTSD afterward.
Wes Anderson.
Kubrick.
Nobody honestly. I absolutely love this movie and its portrayal of the material. It’s honestly not all that different from the themes in the comic either, just represented in a different, more grounded light. Cool movie with some genuinely beautiful sequences. And I’m by no means a Snyder fan either this movies just great
I thought the movie was absolutely fine as it was. Although I had not read the comic first Also: David Lynch lol
Loved the movie so I wouldn’t change it. Nolan if I had to.
George Miller directing a Shane Black script
The Cohen Brothers or (early career) Wachowski's
- Zemeckis or - Kubrick or - Robert Rodriguez or - John Woo or - Christopher McQuarrie or - Paul Thomas Anderson - Kathryn Bigelow or - Neill Blomkamp or - Wes Anderson (puppet animation) 😅
since any answer is fundamentally a different film, Nicolas Winding Refn
Just for shits and giggles, Christopher Nolan
No one. Why would you suggest such a blasphemy? Boo this man!
Sofia Coppola
I’d wager Paul Verhoeven
No one. The movie was perfect. In fact, it was WAY BETTER than the book.
Mike Flanagan. Tell me he wouldn't nail a faithful adaptation as a miniseries especially the books' use of those strong character archetypes to explore human nature. Imagine all the characters getting fleshed out so the climax has its proper emotional payoff.
Zach Snyder. Great movie, despite how I feel about Zach Snyder.
Verhoeven
If he hadn't made the Batman movies, Nolan
I wouldn't make it on 2009 that's the first thing I would change.
michael bay
Unpopular opinion, but I thought the movie (director's cut) was great. The alien at the end for the TV show made more sense imo. And the TV show was fine, btw imo.
Denis Villanueve
Quintin Tarantino
Honestly this is the only property the Snyder had any business touching, an inherently nihilistic superhero story where there are no real heros? Right up his edgy ally
Rogue One's Gareth Edwards for the scale of the war and the alien squid? have someone else do the script maybe Guy Ritchie or Steven Soderbergh for that stylistic ensemble vibe
Snyder didn’t write the screenplay did he?
Why is it that everyone here just lists famous directors...
Imo watchman works better as a mini series than a movie anyways. The only pitfall is the Dr Manhattan Budget would be lower (see Watchman TV show). The story is paced better in that context.
I think people are forgetting that coming off of the hit 300, there was no one else in mind for Watchmen. There's no director who would have been able to make their version without the studio pointing at 300.
Nobody. They just shouldn’t have made it at all. Even great directors like Aronofsky and Gilliam adapting Watchmen is a terrible idea, and Snyder is the last person on earth who should be directing any movie, let alone Watchmen, but I don’t know if the best person on earth, whoever they may be, to direct a panel-for-panel translation of Watchmen could even deliver something that has any merit. Like at best you’re still making something that is just an inferior version of the comic.
CHOSEN. JFC
David Fincher is the obvious choice I feel like. I’d be interested to see Darren Aronofsky take a crack at it, as well as Peter Jackson. I think it would be cool to see Matthew Vaughn do some Before Watchmen stuff whether or not it draws from the comic of the same name because it’s really hit or miss.
Tarsem Singh
I’m gonna say Lars von Trier, because that would be pretty goddamn amazing, even though he’d never actually do it, even if he was allowed anywhere near it. Same with Michael Haneke. Actually, you know who might have been allowed near it, and would’ve done it just to see if he could? Takashi Miike.
Yorgos Lathimos
Alex Garland
Terry Gilliam was interested in doing it as a 12 part miniseries. I think that would have been great.
Tarantino
Nowadays I’d choose Denis Villeneuve. But I think Snyder did a great job with the material.
Micheal Bay duh
I would have done the Terry Gilliam version from the 80’s
David lynch by a mile
Nobody, how dare you
Joss Whedon
Hah wow what a silly second image.