Dude, that blue guy is in f***ing Vietnam

[spatch]

And in other news, the film adaptation of Watchmen currently in production appears to have, in the director's chair, a hyperactive 15-year-old who has just discovered whoa holy cow man, those graphic novel things, they're, like, serious and stuff:

"The thing about Watchmen is that I'm looking to make a movie that looks more like 'Taxi Driver' than Dick Tracy [laughs]. People bring that up to me 'Is it like 'Dick Tracy?'' because that's colorful. Watchmen as a printed medium references comic books itself. It goes 'Look, I'm a comic book' and you read it, you're like 'You're f***ing blowing my mind!' But that's what it tries to do, it draws you in by being a comic book. I think my responsibility is to draw the audience in by saying 'Look I'm just a movie' and then you get in there and it f***s you up. That's my hope anyway. It is a weird movie. When you see the trailer and you go 'Okay that looks like Richard Nixon. Dude that blue guy is in f***ing Vietnam, what is this?' There's a song you can not put in a Vietnam war movie and it's 'Ride Of the Valkyries' which should not be put it in any movie because of 'Apocalypse Now.' But in 'Watchmen,' you can imagine a sequence in 'Watchmen' where Dr. Manhattan is 100 feet tall stomping through the jungles of Vietnam with Hueys all over him, zapping the Vietcong while 'Ride of the Valkyries' is playing. It is transcendent of itself so you can reference 'Apocalypse Now' and that's okay. It is pop culture."

Ok, so you can't put Ride of the Valkryies in a Vietnam movie because it's connected to Apocalypse Now, but if you put Ride of the Valkryies in a movie with a Vietnam scene that's cool cause you're dropping a mad crazy Apocalypse Now ref that is just soooooooooooooooooooooo clever, you have to hug yourself?

Suuuuure. And maybe you can have Dr. Manhattan say something like "Had I retained my emotional core and olfactory sense, I would be able to remark at this point that I enjoy the smell of napalm at this particular time of day, for it resembles the scent exuded by victory."

This director's attitude does not make me feel confident at all about this project. He goes "Look, I'm an actual movie director!" and I'm like "You're f***ing kidding me!" And IMDB tells me this is the guy behind "THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA 300". Oh, boy.

Yeah, I have absolutely zero confidence in this project now. This is going to be Yet Another Alan Moore Project Turned To Shit On The Silver Screen. Listen, when even Terry Gilliam decides he can't turn a particular story into a film and still do it justice, maybe it's time to just stop trying.

Comments

[spatch]

I have yet to see 300 but I'm definitely getting an interesting vibe off the picture.

I do appreciate that Zack Snyder realizes that this project can't -- and won't -- be a Comic Book Movie. It is a very important distinction to make and critical in the film's development. But there was just something about his remarks that rubbed me the wrong way, and I think androidqueen notes it perfectly. He's inarticulate. I'm not sure how much I can trust him when he uses big, important-sounding phrases such as "transcendent of itself" after engaging in that "You're All 'Dude!' and I'm Like 'Sweet!'" nonsense first.

Perhaps that's just semantics, but then again, appearance and presentation is everything. I wonder how 2001 would have been received if Stanley Kubrick had gone around on the press circuit saying things like "And then there's this part in space where you go to Jupiter, and you're like 'This is f***ing blowing my mind! There's that black stone thing again! Dude, that guy turned into a f***ing space baby! What's up with that?"

I mean, it's one thing for the audience to say it, especially if they're watching under, er, Optimum Late 60s Conditions, but for the director to do so? Doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Perhaps further reading is required. I do admit I'll have to give Snyder some benefit of the doubt if he's got enough respect for the source material, and maybe he does (the rights to 300 anecdote seems to be a good example) but the quote above certainly doesn't help reinforce that.

As far as any Watchmen project goes, however, I know any attempt is going to have its fans and its detractors, no matter how good or awful it is, no matter what it includes or omits. Just hope there's more good than awful.