Zach Snyder Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Who wants to see the Watchmen newsstand come to life? Here it is. And guess, what? That's not really New York City. No, fortunately (and unfortunately, kinda), 42nd Street no longer looks like that. Instead, that's a custom backlot built up in Vancouver. And there's more photos to whet your appetite, too, over at Warner Bros.' official site for the film. Looking at the pics, I feel like I'm seeing an establishing montage of the NYC of Watchmen. There's a grimy bus stop with the Treasure Island store behind it. There's the pun-named Gunga Diner. And best of all, there's a re-election campaign poster of Richard Nixon, with Rorschach walking by and some graffiti asking, "WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN?" nearby (see image above). This new update also includes interesting facts about the backlot, such as information on its design, construction ("20,000 donuts were consumed by the construction crew") and requirements ("Street had to work for 1938, 1945, 1953, 1957, 1964, 1974, 1975, 1977, and 1985"). Of course, someone might complain that all this work and money could have gone to a Mars set (which director Zach Snyder said they couldn't afford to build), and real New York locations should have been used instead.

I may be a die-hard supporter of New York films actually being shot in the Big Apple, but there are numerous occasions where I'm forgiving. For instance, I completely get that Watchmen can't film here. Aside from the fact that the story takes place in the 1980s -- an alternate 1980s to be exact -- and aside from the fact that until the end of the graphic novel there is no significant use of any necessary NYC locales or landmarks, the movie is based on a comic book. And it's important for it to look like a comic book movie, because it is a story that's very much centered on a comic book world. I don't mean it should look like a cartoon. It actually should look gritty and realistic at times. But I think having the characters dropped into the actual streets of Manhattan -- even if those streets were dressed up (or down, as it would be) -- it would look even more fake than a constructed set, which might be able to compliment the characters and their costumes better. If Watchmen were shot in the real NYC, my beloved city might look as artificial and lame as it does in Enchanted.

Aside from the long-in-the-works adaptation of Good Omens, Neil Gaiman would like all of his works made into movies by Terry Gilliam. He told Empire last week that he would "always give anything to Terry Gilliam, forever." That includes Sandman, which the writer said should be Gilliam's if he wants to do it. Currently, though, Gilliam is shooting an untitled movie about the "band" The Gorillaz, and then he's back to familiar territory with The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, about a travelling theater production, which reunites him with screenwriter Charles McKeown (Brazil; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) and stars Heath Ledger, Tom Waits, Verne "Mini Me" Troyer and Lily Cole. But according to Gaiman, Gilliam is still trying to make Good Omens, based on the hilariously comic fantasy novel by Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Gilliam is having trouble getting financing for the project; Gaiman said he needs about $70 million, if anybody is interested.

It is great to see Gaiman have so much faith in Gilliam. After the barely tolerable (I did enjoy it) The Brothers Grimm and the barely watchable (I hated my first Gilliam film!) Tideland, I'm a bit worried about my longtime favorite filmmaker. But I must agree with Gaiman that Gilliam would likely be a better choice to adapt his works than anyone else in Hollywood. Certainly better than Joel Schumacher. Gaiman told Empire that he wants the person directing Sandman to have the same passion that Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi had with The Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man, respectively. And that Zach Snyder seems to have with Watchmen. Would Gilliam have that passion? Is he a huge Sandman fan? Who knows? I guess Gaiman, who also said he'd rather have no Sandman movie than a bad Sandman movie.

There are many reasons to see 300. Maybe you're a 14-year old with a love of violent entertainment. Or you're a classics professor who longs to get a splitting headache. Or possibly you're an experimental gay pornographer, and want to see the newest techniques in ab-oiling. Perhaps you're a special effects aficionado who's curious about the state-of-the-art in faux decapitations and digitized blood spray. Or you're a big fan of Frank Miller's work, and Sin City just didn't sate your appetite for writhing, speechless women, mutilated giants and two-dimensional tough guys. Speech pathologists may go to 300 to witness how the two-syllable word 'Sparta' can be quadrupled in length and extended even moreso with each bellowed repetition. Or, finally, maybe the phrase 'moving pictures' has always seemed a bit contradictory, and a movie that unfolds with the glacial pace of a series of oil paintings in a series of nearly-still images sounds soothing.

Whatever your reason for going into 300, I can't imagine leaving it very excited by what you get. I can imagine being excited by the prospect of leaving -- for me, the end credits of 300 rolled up on the screen with the comforting shock of a parole notice delivered in the middle of a prison riot. After leaving, I walked through a crowded downtown to the loudest bar possible in the hopes that an adult beverage would wash the taste of blood out of my mouth; even that level of all-encompassing sensory overload still felt like a fortnight in a Zen temple by comparison. 300 tells the classic tale of the Spartans at Thermopylae, where a small band of Spartan warriors (you should, at this point, have a general idea of how many) led by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) held off thousands of Persian troops. They were few, but perilous terrain and Spartan valor held back the many. There have been multiple re-iteratons of this story onscreen and in print, and 300's source material is a graphic novel adaptation crafted by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley.

You and I may not have seen anything beyond the carefully chosen-for-release production photos and teaser trailers, but the people at Warner Bros. have surely seen it all, and are apparently exceptionally impressed with the storytelling and directorial talents of just-emerging director Zach Snyder and his 300 flick. Granted, Snyder is off to a great storytelling start simply by choosing Frank Miller's 300 as his source material, but we've seen more than enough good comics go terribly awry when the movie world gets ahold of them, so credit must of course go to Snyder if this film turns out to be as impressive as all early indicators lead us to think.

So impressed, in fact, are the people at Warner Bros. who have hooked Snyder and his brand-new Cruel and Unusual Films into a two year first-look deal. And, of course, Warners is behind Snyder's next major comic book project as well -- that is, if you actually believe people anymore when they tell you they're turning Alan Moore's Watchmen into a movie.

Last week, I posted in a comment on another entry that I am not a fanboy. I still stand by that remark, especially since I'm not a boy. Give me a choice between a comic-book adaptation and an Austin-made indie and I tend to favor the latter. I have a definite weakness for romantic comedy at times. I prefer snappy dialogue over splashy special effects. But I suspect that fewer people than ever will believe that I am not a fanboy (or fangirl, to be fair) after I tell you that I spent last weekend at the 24-hour Austin film marathon known as the Butt-Numb-a-Thon, which is heralded by many as a litmus test for major film geekiness.

The Butt-Numb-a-Thon (BNAT for short) is an annual event organized by Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News. Knowles programs 11 or 12 movies at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown in Austin -- half are interesting vintage films, and half are movies that haven't been released in theaters yet. The lineup is not made public, so everything's a surprise. Sometimes, the directors of the unreleased films show up for a Q&A session, or send video greetings to the BNAT attendees. It's mostly a private event, which always occurs on the weekend of Knowles' birthday, from noon one day to noon(ish) the next. For the most part, prospective attendees have to apply for admission (thousands fill out the application, and the theater seats 200), and Knowles hand-picks the guests. It's a party and film marathon all in one, and many attendees know each other from past BNATs or from the Ain't It Cool talkback forums. However, there are always a few empty seats because of last-minute cancellations, so it's possible to get into the event as a standby. I had a lot of fun waiting unsuccessfully in the standby line last year, and decided to try it again. A lottery is used to select the lucky standby tickets, and miracle of miracles, I was the last one picked.

Geek news I found while laughing at Cotterpin Doozer, who has the smartest toes in all Doozerdom:

• The official blog for Hellboy: Blood and Iron has been updated with some new information about the direct-to-DVD animated flick. As always, it looks gorgeous and sounds exciting. Hellboy is such a great property that, to me, it does well in all mediums. Well, all appropriate mediums, anyway.
• Ghost Rider director Mark Steven Johnson dropped by the Superhero Hype boards to note AMC theaters will be playing a few minute "first look" at his Marvel flick with their PG-13 and R rated movies throughout December. Wonder what we'd have to do to get him commenting on one of our posts? Probably stop criticizing his film, for a start. Although in my defense, I continue to be really hopeful.
• IGN offers an interview with Frank Miller and Zach Snyder for your consideration. Naturally, it is all about 300, which we at Cinematical continue to lavish praise upon. This probably makes our scoffing at Ghost Rider seem even more mean by comparison.
• Sci Fi Wire talks to Lucy Lawless about her upcoming film The Darkroom. I'm not interested in such things, but if you are, you can check it out.
• If you missed the Spidey event of the year, a spoiler trailer was obtained displaying ... Venom. Check out our own Monika Bartyzel's coverage of the piece.

Director Zach Snyder, who basically came out of nowhere in 2004 to direct the terrific remake of Dawn of the Dead , is now making quite a name for himself lately in the comic book/graphic novel-to-big-screen adaptation world. Snyder is currently finished directing the much-anticipated (and reported) film version of Frank Miller's epic graphic novel about the battle of Thermopylae 300 , and has also been signed to direct the big-screen adaptation of Alan Moore's classic graphic novel Watchmen.

As of this week, Snyder can now add yet another film like these to his growing resume. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder has been attached to direct the big-screen version of the cult comic book Cobalt 60 for Universal. Snyder is also set to produce the film with Debbie Snyder (any relation, I wonder?) but he won't be handling the writing chores as he did with 300. Instead, a search for a writer to adapt the story of masked hero Cobalt 60's thirst for revenge in a post-apocalyptic world full of mutants, on the evil Strontium 90 who murdered his parents, is currently underway.

It's a good thing Snyder picked up Cobalt 60 now that 300 has wrapped and his big-screen adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel Rainbow Six is probably not going to happen for awhile, or ever, because I want him to have a job after he finishes Watchmen. Plus, from what I've seen of 300 it looks to be a fantastic film, so Snyder is smart to stick to the kind of material he knows and can obviously make something great out of. No word yet on potential casting or a start date for Cobalt 60.

Yesterday, we shared with you some thoughts from Zach Snyder, director of 300, specifically relating to Frank Miller's involvement with the project. Snyder said Miller was not particularly concerned with being involved in the day-to-day, because he fully trusted Snyder's vision and was consistently impressed with the work he saw. Snyder promised he was being absolutely faithful to Miller's work, and said he had Miller's full stamp of approval. Today, we hear from Miller himself -- you can swing by Comics2Film for their full interview with the writer.

Essentially, Miller said he is indeed quite pleased with the work, and with Zach Snyder in general. He admitted the movie version of 300 will have some small deviations from his novel, but promised they were well done and keeping well with the feel of the story. While the film may not be quite as frame-for-frame perfect in transition as Sin City, Miller is completely sold on it being an accurate and wonderful adaption. And really, his endorsement is more than good enough for me.

This is just a quickie, but seeing as how it is about Watchmen it merits a good post. As fans know, Watchmen has had a devil of a time finding its way to the silver screen. We've been teased, but nobody has delivered. Ergo, when a new round of Watchmen movie rumors started popping up, it was rather hard to have any faith in them. We wanted to believe, but our hearts had been broken too many times with Watchmen's false promises. We've got Zack Snyder attached to direct this time around, and as of this weekend we've got a writer as well -- one Alex Tse. Tse hasn't had much screen writing experience to date; according to IMDB the only real work he has done in the field thus far is a Showtime drama film with Spike Lee.

So does the attachment of a writer give you any further confidence in the film's chances of actually existing? It seems like this studio is serious about the project, so maybe we'll get some action this time. Interesting to choose such an unknown for the writer, but I suppose he's got most of the primary themes already taken care of for him. He does have pretty solid source material, after all.

The fourth installment of the 300 video diary is now up and, though these are never going to be as enjoyable as the (much, much shorter) missives that issue from the set of Hot Fuzz, they remain fairly informative - if you're interested in the movie, I mean. So far we've learn how director Zack Snyder feels about the Spartans (they're "badass"), about the film's look (basically, it's a big fake rock with a whole lot of CGI), and about the training they put the actors through in order to make them comic-book buff (it sucks sucks sucks). The new piece is about costume design, and it's sort of fascinating - we rarely hear about this aspect of filmmaking, and it's cool if you're a dork like me to hear about all the consideration that goes into, say, deciding what color the Greeks are going to wear.

Even though shooting really seems to be moving along, since the movie's being shot against a blue screen, 300 is going to spend about 500 years in post-production; it's not due out in until 2007.

[via Movies Online]