Director Zack Snyder and co-creator Dave Gibbons are joined by the Watchmen: Malin Åkerman (Silk Spectre II), Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan), Matthew Goode (Ozymandias), Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian), Carla Gugino (Silk Spectre), and Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) at Comic-Con 2008.

Zack Snyder: Watchmen has been knocking around Hollywood for a while. I was in post on 300 and got a call from Warner Bros. asking me if I would be interested in making this into a movie. And I said yeah…. seems like a crazy idea. Once they asked me, I kinda felt responsible; even if I said no, they would’ve moved on and then whatever happened to the movie I still would’ve had my chance and if I blew it…

If the movie for whatever reason, didn’t turn out, it’s still my fault. Might as well make it my fault any way. That’s when we started working on it. It’s a labor of love, to try to get as much of the graphic novel into this movie as I could.

The cast has been super awesome in help me at every turn pointing out ‘the little circle next to my head, that’s what he says’. That’s worked out kinda cool. I liked that they at least read the graphic novel. I gotta say the truth is that all of them…. it’s weird to have a bible for the movie. It’s a strange experience, when you make a movie you have the script, and that’s the movie. To have this bible you can go and look at, to say we should try to get this part in the movie. That’s a rare experience.

The thing that’s been kinda cool about these guys is that they have really absorbed the material in a way that when they want to talk about their character or a certain interaction, it’s always based on what is Watchmen-y, what is consistent with the book, and I mean that in the best possible way, in a loving way. In that respect they’ve been a super great cast, to help me as a filmmaker get this thing shot and realized, so I thank them for being my partners.

Then we decided to go to Canada to shoot the movie, we shot in Vancouver. I was up there in pre-production when this (Comic-Con) rolled around last year. Malin and Jackie came up on stage. I just sat here and ranted, because I had nothing to show. Everyone was like ’show footage!’ and I was like, I haven’t shot anything yet. Except that Dave drew us that cool poster last year, it was all I had. I came out and held it up, it was all I had.

We spent basically the last year shooting. We talked about trying to get a trailer on Dark Knight. Originally we talked about, what’s that going to be. I read on some blog that like ‘I know what it’s going to be! It’s going to be the word WATCHMEN, and that’s it. And then the date.’ I was determined not to do that. I mean it’s easier, if that was acceptable I think I would’ve rather done that, I knew it wouldn’t be so we put some shots together. And that’s pretty much the visual history of the movie up till now, other than what I’m going to show you in a minute.

Moderator to Gibbons: What was it like watching your art come to life on set?

Dave Gibbons: At any moment, I expected I was going to be pinched and I was going to wake up. It’s a dream. To have something step out your head and become real.

What really did it for me was the Owl Ship, to step inside the Owl Ship. It first existed as a pencil scribble. And to smell The Comedian’s cigar, have The Comedian slap me on the back and proudly show me one of his guns. Just amazing. I was completely thrilled, it all went be too quickly. It was like a kid at Christmas.

Moderator to Gibbons: Thoughts on the backlot and sets?

Dave Gibbons: Again it’s just incredible to be in the middle of it, to tangibly be touching. It’s the everyday things that impressed me as much as anything. In the middle of a lumber yard, it did feel like Manhattan. The thing that really blew me away was they had a martial arts class called ‘Judo Master’, and Judo Master was originally going to be one of the Watchmen that never made the cut. The thing I’m rather proud of with the set, is there’s a lot of graffiti on it, I wanted to graffiti it up. We didn’t have time. I’ve got a little trademark, a ‘G’ for Gibbons. And after I left, one of the props guy plastered this little ‘G’ up all over. So when I see the movie, it’s like this movie’s got my signature on it.

Moderator to Gibbons: On contacting Alan Moore to urge him to ‘get over your bad self’ and visit the set?

Dave Gibbons: I see there is an elephant in the room.

I mean, really, I wish that Alan can feel the same excitement that I’m feeling. I wish that he hadn’t had such a bad experience in the past, because I’m certainly having a really good experience.

Moderator leads into the footage.

Zack Snyder: It’s some of the shots from the trailer that we kinda extended to show maybe more of the non-PG aspects of the movie. When Manhattan is marching through Vietnam and blowing the guys up, it’s not quite as friendly as it is in the trailer. I just wanted to put a couple shots together to say, this is how we’re doing it. Roll it.

[Watchmen footage plays]

Moderator to Snyder: On how the material could be relevant today

Zack Snyder: A lot of things in the graphic novel that comment on mass culture and how the world has evolved now. I think that making the movie about the war on terror or some sort of modern take just seemed wrong in a lot of ways to me. It’s cooler if people go ‘hey, that makes me think’ rather than me telling them what to think. That’s the last thing that I want to do. That’s what the book does, in the end it asks you a lot of moral questions that you have to answer for yourselves. I think that’s what the Watchmen is.

Moderator to Crudup: On playing a omniscient character

Billy Crudup: I know what this question is already.

And I’ve answered it. [audience laughter]

There were two major obstacles, one- Dr. Manhattan is unlike anything I have a frame of reference for. First you have to try and take a point of view of what he’s capable of. How he goes about living a mundane life and a pretty exotic life all at the same time. The second is how you pretend to be the six-foot four buffed out master of matter, while you’re a five-foot nine forty year old jackass, playing dress up. So those were my two main obstacles and I did the best I could.

Audience for Haley: On playing Rorschach

Jackie Earle Haley: It was a blast, it was challenging, it was mind numbing. I mean, this character, there’s a lot to him. I studied the script, I studied the book. I had long conversations with Zack with regards to the character, his multiplicity, who he is and what he’s about. I even spent a lot of time with you guys on websites, looking at the threads, looking at the blogs. I learned a lot from you about what Rorschach is. It was empowering when I finally got into the outfit. It was a blast.

[audience erupts in laughter as a costumed Batman take the mic]
To Snyder: Your favorite Watchmen character?

Zack Snyder: Good question Batman. That’s not really a fair question though. I will say, I like them all for different reasons, hows that? [audience boos]

OK, everyone likes Rorschach the best, so that rules him out. Everyone also likes The Comedian because he’s a badass, and morally, you know. So those two I can’t vote for. Also, you have the girls- awesome, but also a cop out. It seems obvious doesn’t it? Maybe I’ll just stick with the girls, you know what, I like the girls best.

Audience to Crudup: What goes into being a blue man, and were the rest of the Blue Man Group jealous that you got it?

Billy Crudup: Well I don’t know, because we’re not on speaking terms anymore. A lot of fitness, I had to get in shape. Changing my molecules and all that, it’s stuff they don’t teach you in drama school. Basically, sucking it up and dealing with the humiliation of looking the way i did. And enjoying the creative process of working with these guys on such a badass piece of material.

Moderator to Wilson: On falling out of shape and the Nite Owl costume

Patrick Wilson: The costume was pretty awesome, they did such an incredible job, and that’s a whole different topic of the changes that David came up with. It was pretty cool when everyone else had to get all ripped, I could sit back with a carton of Häagen-Dazs, couple of beers and call it a day. Good gig. I love Dan, I miss Dan. That’s the first time I’d really seen Dan, because you don’t see him in the trailer. I swear to you, playing him– you pull for Dan, I just fell in love with the guy. What’s so amazing to me, because, he’s flabby, he’s morose, he’s down on his luck, he’s lost– all these really negative words.

And yet when you look at the first few panels, especially when Rorschach and I go down to the Owl Chamber. There’s a shot of him saying ‘you don’t think that’s a little paranoid?’ and he’s got this sort of little smile on his face. I love the fact that that’s something you don’t get, it’s a whole different level when you get to see the artwork. For me that was so informative. It’s not like I tried to do the same poses, but it helped me so much to see a guy that can be played so down, but he has this light in his eyes. The artwork, the drawings that Dave came up with are so informative as an actor. Because you see him smiling and you see him fight for it. That really keyed me into Dan. Not playing him as just this downer. His relationship with Hollis how he adjusted to the post-superhero life. You pull for the guy the entire film. Once you got on board, it was the greatest rollercoaster. So every day I got in that suit was gift. You looked like a badass, you felt like a badass, and that’s probably what Dan felt like for a guy that was pretty lost. As soon as he put on the suit he felt like a man. It gives him an identity. It was just awesome.

Audience to Snyder: Balancing out the darkness of the book.

Zack Snyder: Why would you do that?

Yeah, the book is dark. We never thought ‘oh gosh, is the movie too dark’? Are we going to be plodding down this dark road so far that people slit their wrists and call it a day in the theater. You have these optimistic characters trying to find their way, it is a reflection on all of us. Trying to find his way. And the answer is so vague, it’s a moral question that gets answered, but there’s no real answer. It becomes up to you. What is darkness in a movie. Is it a metaphor, is it real? That’s the question of Watchmen. Is it dark just for the sake of dark. SAW is dark, because people get their arms sawed off… but um, people get their arms sawed off in our movie, but, for different reasons. Moral reasons. To teach a lesson. No answer, I rambled, sorry.

Audience to Snyder: Adapting the graphic novel in a three hour script

Zack Snyder: That was a challenge. There’s the supplemental material inside the graphic novel, under the hood stuff. All that stuff which has no images, I wanted to try to get some of that in the movie. Just the pictures alone would get you a five hour movie.

In there you saw Dollar Bill with his cape caught in the revolving door. It’s an interesting sort of superhero moment, the idea of capes are an issue. When you talk about superhero mythology those are moments of importance. In the adaptation, you gotta have a basic structure. You are going to end up with stuff that’s not in there, that’s just the way it is.

Audience: On maturity of films like Dark Knight, 300, and possibly adapting other graphic novels

Zack Snyder: Dark Knight is just a good movie right? That’s the thing pop culture has to deal with now, is that comic book movies don’t exist just as popcorn, summer, or mindless. It’s important that they talk about humanity. About stuff that is serious. Not only are they about serious topics, but serious filmmakers, serious actors are making these cool movies. I don’t know what else is out there. There are a lot of other graphic novels out there. I would love to see one day, Frank (Miller)’s The Dark Knight made into a movie. There is a new wave of superhero movies coming. Maybe. I don’t know. How’s that? Maybe we should watch the shots again.

Audience to cast: On working against green screen

Carla Gugino: I worked very little on green screen…

Billy Crudup: I worked very little on green screen as well, Except for Mars. it’s more expensive to shoot there. They said it’s a ‘big budget picture’ but they can’t go to mars. Anyhoo, it was a huge challenge. Imagine the challenge. Well, it was much harder for people playing opposite me. to Look at me with 120 dots on my face, with a helmet glowing blue with battery packs….

Malin Åkerman: It was very attractive

Billy Crudup: She was really classy about it too. she laughed in my face for the first week.

Malin Åkerman: You have to tap into your imagination at that point. When you’re on Mars, your actually looking at green screen and then to be able to stand there and say ‘ahhh it’s so beautiful’ when your looking at this green wall. you def have to go back to your childhood days and find your imaginary friends.

Billy Crudup: Or you really like green.

Malin Åkerman: Most of it was pretty realistic. We’re the only ones who had the challenge of Mars, it was amazing now to see it done and finished. It brought tears to my eyes, it looked so fantastic.

Carla Gugino: I also think what should be mentioned is that the characters are so full and so complex and there’s so much going on. I’ve done green screen a lot. If you don’t have a character you can invest in so fully, you end up feeling lost and like nothing is real. In this case, there’s so much internal life in all of these characters. that there are moments that really give you a lot support.

It’s such a phenomenal group of actors who love transforming into these characters and when you’re opposite anybody, you have each other, and you have the vision of Zack, our fearless leader to take us down the road. As an actor I want to be able to jump off the cliff and know that someone will tell me if what I’m doing is awful because that’s a part of finding something great; To have a vision that you can trust. It doesn’t come along all the time, someone who has such care, such specificity, such passion. So all the other stuff sort of falls to the wayside.

Moderator to Dean Morgan: On The Comedian

Jeffrey Dean Morgan: There were days I’d go home from work and I’d be a little bit in a daze. He does some particular things that I wouldn’t naturally do as a person.

But like Dan’s character I think we all pull for The Comedian. [audience laughter]

Every day was a challenge. I felt that getting into the costume and sticking a cigar in my mouth helped a great deal into getting to the mind to kill people. That seemed to help.

I’m not going to lie, there were days where it’s like, ’shit, that was a lot of stuff today’. Stuff with Carla, we had a couple days of shooting that will stay with me for a long time.

Moderator to Goode: On Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias’ accent

Matthew Goode: Oh god, I’m going to get mobbed now. I really had no idea about Watchmen at all when I first got it. I was in the middle of shooting a very, very English period drama playing a slightly ambiguous homosexual. And I got these two sides, one with the Lee Iacocca scene and one when I’m telling someone I’ve killed 15 million people. If you don’t know the book, that’s like ‘what the fuck is this?’

So I phoned a friend, as one does in these situations, he is an American, he was no help at all, but he got on to wikipedia, and he was like, ‘Well buddy, it looks like you’re playing another gay. But the good thing is, looks like he’s a stoner’.

I read the script and the bible that is Watchmen. So in regards to the mythology, he’s sort of a real mystery, and how do you start fleshing out all of that stuff…. so to get to the fucking answer to your question, we actually shot the Lee Iacocca first, and in the sort of two weeks of which I had off, doing my Veidt method training– I was a bit bigger then– I’m just a skinny shit now. I had my own vision quest moment in Vancouver, which I’m sure if you’ve been there, you’d know what I’m talking about. In that moment I was like, ‘wouldn’t it be really interesting, Zack’, a light bulb came on, well maybe it’s possible his parents are Nazi’s and that’s the reason they gave his wealth away. Maybe he was born actually in Germany but then came to America, which therefore maybe– a lot of fucking maybe’s– maybe he’s living up to the American dream so he has a public and a private persona, as well as his alter ego.

So it might be that he has a very clear cut American accent, when he’s doing his stuff as Adrian Veidt and his corporation stuff. And when he’s with Watchmen he has a half American half German thang goin’ on. I don’t, it seem to make sense.

I just hope that… it does, because I know I didn’t.

Audience to Snyder: On the Smashing Pumpkins track from the trailer

Zack Snyder: Tonally, it made sense in relationship to Watchmen. I also think it has irony based on lineage (from the Batman Forever soundtrack). In the end that’s what Watchmen is. It’s self-aware but never reveals it knows what it is. It’s not movie, because it takes place in 1985, and that the song was not written yet, that I know of. I don’t know if it’ll appear on the soundtrack. It’s on iTunes. But it’s a cool song.

Audience to cast: On character development

Malin Åkerman: I have to say that when I first read the script, I was not familiar with Watchmen. I loved the script. It was one of the best scripts I ever read, because the character was so full and so real. The thing about Laurie is that we’re all real people that have our good sides and our bad sides.

Laurie is a real woman aside from the fact that she can kick ass and fight crime. She really is this girl, who is forced into this profession by her crazy, lovely, mother… I can’t believe I’m saying you’re my mother (to Carla Gugino), that’s crazy. For me it was more this woman who is trying to find her own identity, and everyone in life goes through that. I feel like I could relate to it from the very beginning, even though she is completely different than anything I’ve ever imagined, she’s still a woman at heart.

Carla Gugino: Sally’s such an amazing character to play because she’s this exhibitionist costumed crimefighter who loves attention. And film noir, 1940’s, pin-up, Vargas, I’ve always loved and gravitated to so that was really fun on an aesthetic level. When the flashbulb goes off you see this very intense act happen, where you see this glimpse of light and you see what she could’ve been if life had taken a different turn. That’s what to me this is absolutely timeless. The rest of her life is a struggle to regain that sense of light, and she tries to do it certainly through her daughter. To be a 67 year old alcoholic mother who is incredibly controlling, and still wants to be the star, was something that I haven’t experienced before. I feel like she was still living in her glory days, so she still saw herself in her prime. It was really one of the most amazing characters I’ve gotten to play. Sally’s not in it that much, so it was very specific in how to lay out the trajectory.

Audience to Snyder: Rumor of assembling concept and pre-production stuff from Aronofsky, Greengrass, Gilliam for the DVD

Zack Snyder: I had not heard that. It sounds super cool. And I would probably buy it if it existed. I will look into that. Why not? If you could get it. Someone should write a book. I charge someone to right a book. Get on that, right now.

Matthew Goode: I don’t know what the format is but can I just ask one? Can we see that again?

[Watchmen footage plays]