Director Zack Snyder has succeeded in doing the impossible: he has adapted the “unfilmable” graphic novel, Watchmen, to the screen. While there’s no doubt that he has made the movie with surprisingly little deviation from the source material, that doesn’t mean he has made a good film. In many ways, Watchmen is a case study in the inherent differences between the comic page and the screen. Success on screen, even if the adaptation is faithful, is not guaranteed.

The story (in case you didn’t piece it together from the constant barrage of trailers and posters clogging the internet since last summer) revolves around a group of costumed super heroes whose fates intertwine with the events of the twentieth century. Set in an alternate 1985, the world is on the brink of nuclear holocaust. The action is set in motion by the murder of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a retired hero with dubious morals. The outlawed heroes fight to avert impending doom, and spur to action the only one among them with the power to single-handedly save the world, Dr. Manhattan. Played by a blue CGI mock-up of a naked, impossibly ripped Billy Crudup, Dr. Manhattan is the result of an experiment gone wrong. He is the only hero with supernatural powers, which are inconceivably vast, and has become the lynchpin in the United States’ defense strategy against the Soviets. His powers have gradually separated him from the plight of humanity, illustrated by his failing relationship with Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), a sexy, second-generation heroine.

There’s a concern that the web of back-stories and sizable cast of characters could render the film inaccessible to those who haven’t read the graphic novel. On the contrary, I think the Watchmen virgins are at an advantage going into the film. Snyder covers a dizzying amount of material, staying true to the core of the original story even while making some significant cuts. For Watchmen fans, I think the problem is not the cuts, but rather the treatment of some of the material that’s left in. Hollywood seems to assume that comic books are ready-made storyboards, in need only of several million dollars of CGI to come to life. In many ways, Watchmen is a collection of examples which show why the formula is much more complicated than that.

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Kevin Kelly covered the Watchmen press preview in Los Angeles last week, and the same footage was shown when the preview came to Manhattan yesterday. Kevin’s piece has all the nuts and bolts of what happened in the footage, so check that out if you haven’t, but since I’m fundamentally incapable of fanboy enthusiasm, I thought I ought to weigh in with just a few additional thoughts, from my ignorant/cynical perspective.

With that said… OMGITSFUCKINGAWESOME!!!!!

Just kidding. But not completely. More after the jump.

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We were invited to a Warner Bros. event tonight to see 26 minutes worth of footage from the Watchmen film that’s due out on 03.06.09 next year, and it was pretty impressive stuff. Even the ice cold comic book fan inside of me enjoyed it, and I didn’t think The Dark Knight was worth all the hype everyone was laying on it. As far as a graphic novel turned into a film goes, Watchmen looks like it’ll set the bar for future adaptations.

Director Zack Snyder was on-hand to setup the footage and talk about what’s been done so far, and he was joined by costume designer Michael Wilkinson and production designer Alex McDowell. Interestingly enough, it took place in the same place where they held a similar event for 300. Head after the break to get a full rundown on the footage we saw, and what Snyder and company had to say about the film that’s still six months away. Forgive me if I slip into a bit of fanboyism, because this is one of my favorite comic book properties.

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When the trailer for Watchmen hit the web a few weeks ago, I was as pumped as anyone. I’ve always been a fan of comics, but when I finished reading Alan Moore’s opus for the first time, I closed the back cover, starred into space, and solemnly said, “This changes everything.” Seriously, it’s that good. And the trailer looks good, it appears to be a faithful adaptation of the source material.

The key word here is appears. The visuals are stunning, some sites even took the time to do shot by shot comparisons with the book. But I’m not worried at all about that, I’m more concerned with how the film will be edited. Like most comics/graphic novels, Watchmen is practically a story board waiting to be transformed into a film. But what made the book so revolutionary was not the art, it was the story, and the way the story was told. Watchmen is a dense web of complicated interconnected stories. Multiple generations of characters deal with epic personal, philosophical, and political struggles, all woven into one masterwork.

Watchmen, the book, excels at the graphic novel version of cross-cutting. Several pages contain nine panels that are set up like a checkerboard, alternating between two separate stories that intimately inform one another, albeit across expanses of space and time. On the one hand, this seems like source material for a final-scene-of-The Godfather level of powerhouse editing. But on the other hand, it could just be a huge mess.

After the jump, Snyder says why he feels up to the challenge…

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Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons seems to have no trouble riding the wave of popularity his work has received thanks to Watch-Mania here at Comic-Con. In a press conference immediately following the panel discussion where clips of the film were shown, Gibbons and the cast seemed awestruck after seeing many of the images for the first time. One figure is notably absent from the frenzy surrounding the forthcoming film, the graphic novel’s author Alan Moore.

When asked about the apparent schism between Moore and Hollywood, Gibbons said, “It is very simple. Alan doesn’t take the moral high ground on this at all. There’s been some implication that [Alan has said], ‘Hollywood is impure, you really shouldn’t go there, Dave.’ No, it’s nothing to do with that at all. The fact is that Alan has had some very bad experiences with Hollywood, and he doesn’t care to repeat them. Now Alan is not a man who does things in halves. You or I might go, ‘Oh, well, if they want to make a film, that’s alright.’ Alan said, ‘No, I don’t want my name on it, and I don’t want any income from it. I don’t want anything to do with it at all.’ So, consequently he asked me to ask the movie company to send him a piece of paper that he could sign that would make both of those things happen. Which I was happy to do. …That’s what he wanted. He was extremely happy, he said, ‘Now I’ve had the piece of paper signed, I don’t care, I’m indifferent.’ I do speak to him from time to time, and occasionally I’d start to talk about Watchmen, and he’d say, ‘Well, I’m pleased you’re enthusiastic Dave, but I can’t really share it.’”

If Watchmen turns out to be as good as it seems to be (or as good as its source material), it would be a shame for Moore to not be a part of its success. Gibbons went on to say, “My personal feeling, and this is my first real involvement with Hollywood, [is that] it’s bad timing, because I think this is the one where they are going to do Alan justice, where they are going to give his work the respect and the reverence it deserves. And so I think that’s unfortunate. He may well have a change of heart about it. He’s a man of principle, and I admire him for that.”

Previous Alan Moore graphic novels that have been adapted to the screen include From Hell, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

We knew the Watchmen panel was going to be insane, but this is … insane. Packed house, hordes of people in costume, the first panel this year where masses of people were turned away.

Highlights:

–Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen, addresses the Alan Moore “elephant.”
–The extended trailer is way more hard-R than the trailer that appeared before Dark Knight. Includes a glimps of Richard Nixon and the obliteration of the Viet Cong. Shot-by-shot sum-up inside.
–There will be stuff in the film that wasn’t in the comic book.
–Real women, according to Malin Akerman, can neither kick ass nor fight crime.
–Hearing C-list stars describe what it “feels” like to make a comic book character “come to life” is exactly as boring as it sounds.

Full live blog transcript after the jump.

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• Above: a detail of the special edition Julian Schnabel-designed Diving Bell poster that we’re giving away. The deadline to enter our giveaway was supposed to be earlier this week, but whilst at Sundance we got too busy to promote it. So, we’re extending the deadline to Wednesday, February 6. Full details on how to enter here.
• David Pescovitz at BoingBoing links to The Mindscape of Alan Moore, a documentary about the creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, which you can watch online.
• Amelie Gilette at The Onion A.V. Club “always thought that Jamie Foxx’s natural career progression would be Booty Call, Ray, Oscar win, release of the R&B album Unpredictable, release of the R&B album Hot Tub, Academy Award (These Are The Words I’m Sayin’ To You), followed by the launch of Academy Award Winner: The Fragrance (musky ego with notes of ugh).” She was wrong.
• “In 1993 Justin Timberlake joined the Mickey Mouse Club. In 1993 I officially joined the Mrs Doubtfire Fan Club. While membership is small, we all still share a love of vaccuming to Aerosmith’s ‘Dude Looks Like a Lady.’” Paul Scheer breaks down what sets him apart from the superstar with whom he shares a birthday.
• “It’s all in there,” James Toback tells Michael Musto of his upcoming Mike Tyson documentary. “The ear biting, the rape charge, which was indeed a setup, and the solitary confinement. Mike’s survived, but he’s not sure into what future. He talks about being 40 as if it were 105 because a lot of people around him are drugged out or dead. Where does he go now?”