THE NEXT LEVEL

The downloadable game “Watchmen: The End is Nigh” is a strong indication of the high-end of graphics that can be delivered in the downloadable format, but ultimately the game doesn’t live up to its visuals or its source material. Furthermore, the game only offers about three hours of play for around $20.

Spinning off from the movie “Watchmen,” itself based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, “End is Nigh” takes place in the 1970s, when superheroes Nite Owl and Rorschach worked as a team.

The gamer can play as either Rorschach or Nite Owl in a single player or cooperative multiplayer game.

The game takes place in 1972, as Nite Owl and Rorschach attempt to shut down a prison riot in Sing Sing.

As it turns out, the riot was only a cover so that crime lord the Underboss could escape. On each level, Nite Owl and Rorschach must bash their way through a phalanx of thugs as they seek the Underboss. Eventually they uncover a planned assassination attempt, which the gamer will see as a twist from the actual history of 1972. Gibbons was an art consultant on the game, and it’s written by original “Watchmen” editor Len Wein. The story is decent, and the look is brilliant. But the gameplay isn’t there.

Rorschach and Nite Owl have different fighting styles and power-ups. Rorschach is a brawler, taking on multiple enemies at once. Nite Owl is a more strategic fighter who also has an electrical weapon in his suit. The combat is similar to other beat-’em-up games.

While “Watchmen” the graphic novel is a brilliant deconstruction of the superhero, “The End is Nigh” is a by-the-numbers fighter that’s graphically impressive, but doesn’t offer anything new.

The game is rated M for mature and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The sales of “Watchmen” collected editions have topped 1 million units since the trailer was released with the “Dark Knight” film in July 2008, DC Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne announced at the ComicsPRO Annual Meeting.

In addition, DC Comics offered a fourth consignment program for retailers to help keep “Watchmen” stocked deeply on store shelves.

“We think there will still be people coming in looking for this book,” Wayne said, citing anticipated continued demand projected by DC Comics.

– Matt Price

According to Box Office Mojo, “Watchmen” dropped by two-thirds in its second weekend for a weekend total of $18.1 million.  According to Box Office Mojo, only “Hellboy II” and “Hulk” had stiffer second-week drops among major comic-book movies.

While I think “Watchmen” was a success creatively, for the most part, there is the question of the film’s intended audience. Comic-book fans came out in droves and packed the IMAX theaters, but this wasn’t a movie that tracked well among women, and it wasn’t the kind of film that parents could take their children to see.

Still, the graphic novel has long been fiercely admired among its fans, and it’s possible the film will find a similar success in the longer term.  While cinema-goers have accepted Spider-Man and Batman films, there is apparently still some resistance to or confusion over a very mature superhero tale like “Watchmen.”

Still, I’d like to pass on some thoughtful words from someone else, who, like the characters in “Watchmen,” is a denizen of 1985:

“I guess you guys aren’t ready for that, yet. But your kids are gonna love it.”

– Matt Price

According to Box Office Mojo, “Watchmen” made $55.7 million in its opening weekend.  That’s behind the blistering pace of director Zack Snyder’s previous film, “300,” but double the openings of two previous  adaptations of Alan Moore graphic novels, “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “V for Vendetta.”

WEEKEND TOP 5 STUDIO ESTIMATES, MARCH 6-8, 2009

Rank. Movie Title (Distributor)
Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #

1. Watchmen (Warner Bros.)
$55.7 million | 3,611 | $55.7 million | 1

2. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (Lionsgate)
$8.8 million | 2,151 | $76.5 million | 3

3. Taken (Fox)
$7.5 million | 3,016 | $118.0 million | 6

4. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight)
$6.9 million | 2,890 | $125.4 million | 17

5. Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony / Columbia)
$4.2 million | 2,558 | $133.6 million | 8

Source: Box Office Mojo
(www.boxofficemojo.com)

- Matt Price

It’s higher than both “Hulk” and “Fantastic Four” openings, and both of those movies were shorter than “Watchmen,” and PG-13 to boot.  On Box Office Mojo’s all-time opening days list, it’s between Lord of the Rings: Two Towers and Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

– Matt Price

Set in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war, “Watchmen” is a mature and complex adaptation that could be considered too close to its source material.

The film is based on possibly the most acclaimed graphic novel of all time, “Watchmen,” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The series was first released in 12 issues in 1986-1987. You won’t see Moore’s name anywhere in the credits, though, as he’s forsworn all film adaptations of his work.

At its simplest, “Watchmen” is a superhero murder mystery. When superhero-turned-government agent The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is murdered, his former colleague Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) goes into action. Rorschach suspects someone is targeting the now-outlawed masked vigilantes for extinction.

Rorschach warns former colleague Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), the only superhero who has superpowers. Caught in a scientific accident, Jon Osterman transformed into the bright blue Dr. Manhattan, a superbeing who can manipulate material and see into his own future.

His connection to humanity is Laurie Juspeczyk (Malin Akerman), the second Silk Spectre. Her mother, Sally Jupiter (Carla Gugino), had been at the heart of the first group of costumed crimefighters in the 1940s.

Both Rorschach and Laurie have a connection to Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson), the second hero to call himself Nite Owl. After meeting with Rorschach, Dreiberg warns Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), the world’s smartest man, of the assumed conspiracy to kill the former “Watchmen.”

Ozymandias, aka Adrian Veidt, had retired prior to the passage of the Keene Act, which outlawed masked superheroes. Veidt parlayed his fame and intelligence into a multibillion-dollar enterprise with a focus on alternate forms of energy.

As more heroes are targeted, Rorschach continues his investigation. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Soviet Union draw even closer to nuclear war.

“Watchmen” investigates the motives behind those who would put on a mask to fight the world’s evils, and asks “Who Watches the Watchmen?” in its examination of who controls those who claim to protect the innocent.

While director Zack Snyder amps up the blood, sex and violence beyond what was present in the graphic novel, and while there is no way to capture all the layers of same, he has managed to create an intriguing adaptation of a work long considered unfilmable. The costume design, sets and visuals are rich and dense; the performances of Haley and Wilson stand out.

There are flaws, and the movie will be a lot to take in for those unfamiliar with the source material. But Snyder deserves credit for taking on a massive, complex project and trying to capture its essence.

- Matthew Price

MOVIE REVIEW

“Watchmen”

R -2:41 – 3 stars

Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson.

(Strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language)

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Patrick Wilson has a deep laugh and a movie-star charm. As such, he wasn’t necessarily online fans’ first choice to play Dan Dreiberg, the nerdy nebbish who is secretly Nite Owl, one of the superheroes at the heart of “Watchmen,” the Zack Snyder adaptation of the graphic novel.

“I remember being cast pretty early on, even though the deal wasn’t known,” Wilson said at the recent press junket for the film. “So I remember when I’d be … hearing randomly about people want this person cast, I would just sort of laugh and I thought, ‘Aw man, but I already have the part!’ There was no chance for these other actors and I felt like I just wanted to put it in an e-mail: Guys, I got news for you. I’m nowhere in your wish list, but, I’m going to be him.”

Wilson put on weight and donned 1980s-style glasses to play Dreiberg, who’s floundering after the government-mandated superhero shutdown. The hero has gadgets and accessories like Batman, but his motivations are different.

“Dan was so far from Bruce Wayne; it’s more Clark Kent than anything,” Wilson said. “I think you don’t run from that, that’s the point, really. The similarities.”

Wilson said he grew up watching Batmans from Adam West on through Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney, and even loves Christian Bale’s current incarnation. Wilson said the similarities with Batman, and Blue Beetle, and “Moon Knight, a couple of other characters thrown in there” didn’t detract from his performance as Nite Owl.

“I don’t know what it’s like to play Batman, but knowing Nite Owl now, it was exciting to act like what Dan would think playing Nite Owl,” Wilson said. “That’s sort of the point of this, is how Dan feels in the suit, not just how Patrick does.”

Dan’s need to be Nite Owl even plays into the film’s romance between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman), which culminates in a graphic-for-superhero-movies sex scene.

“You wanted all the passion, the weird fetish-ness, every bit of that was intentional, on purpose,” Wilson said. “And when you have those parameters of what you set out to do, then it gives you a freedom to just go, OK, let’s go for it.”

Wilson re-unites with his “Little Children” co-star, Jackie Earle Haley, in “Watchmen.” The two play former superhero partners. Wilson said he and Haley hung out together more than worked together on “Little Children,” because Haley’s Ronnie, a suspected child molester, had only a couple of scenes with Wilson’s Brad, a stay-at-home dad who falls into a short-term love affair.

“When I heard (Haley) was being considered, I got so excited, and I just kept crossing my fingers that he was going to get it,” Wilson said. The first day of filming together on “Watchmen,” the pair were breaking into an office in full superhero gear, seeking evidence as to who is trying to kill the former Watchmen.

“It was really funny between takes,” Wilson said. “Before we started, we were sort of looking at each other, saying ‘Here we go again.’ It’s Brad and Ronnie in some very weird sequel to ‘Little Children.’”

Despite the trappings, Wilson developed a reverence for the source material. When he told a friend who was a comics fan about being cast in “Watchmen,” Wilson realized that he was on “hallowed ground” for comic-book fans.

“So for not growing up within that world, I always admired it, if that’s odd to say,” Wilson said. “I felt like vicariously through my friend I knew their importance. Funny thing was, I’ve actually gotten more into it the past year. The problem is, (my friend would) give me other comics and graphic novels, and I’d say, ‘It’s not that great,’ and he’d say, ‘Yeah, you started with “Watchmen.” Most of them will pale in comparison.’”

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Dave Gibbons illustrated “Watchmen,” the comic-book series that is the basis of the film opening today. He said he and collaborator Alan Moore – who isn’t involved and doesn’t want his name on the movie – never anticipated the series would become a film.

“It was never the pinnacle of my ambition or Alan’s ambition that there be a movie,” Gibbons said at a recent press junket for the film. “They’re two completely different beasts. There was very early on interest in it, I think to make it into some type of action movie, which would have been horrible.”

In fact, Gibbons said, the creators never anticipated “Watchmen” would be in print as a graphic novel for now 24 years. Gibbons said he anticipated it would be 12 issues and then consigned to the back-issue bins of comic-book shops. In 1986 and 1987, when “Watchmen” was being made, there was little in the way of always-in-print graphic novels.

Gibbons said “Watchmen” the comic book is a complete series, and, like the makers of the film, he has no intention of returning for a sequel.

“We’ve got no plans at all to add anything to ‘Watchmen’ the comic book,” he said. “We did at one point toy with the idea of maybe revisiting those early characters and doing it in a really innocent kind of way. The dramatic twist being we all know the terrible things that are going to happen down the line. But we decided not to do that. I think anything that you added to ‘Watchmen’ would probably dilute it rather than enrich it.”

While “Watchmen” led to a host of “grim and gritty” comic books through the late 1980s, Gibbons said that was never his or Moore’s intent.

“We were really sorry about (it),” Gibbons said. “We love superheroes … and what we were trying to do was get to know them better, as it were. And we went down some dark pathways with it.”

Had he and Moore teamed again, they likely would have taken a crack at a lighter character. “In fact, if Alan and I talked about doing anything after ‘Watchmen,’ apart from going back, it would be to do a character like Captain Marvel, who’s light and fantastic, something for the kids almost.”

Gibbons says his favorite character from the series is Nite Owl.

“Nite Owl was a character that I came up with the name, and the costume of the earlier version of him, when I was a kid, when I used to make up my own comics,” Gibbons said. “When Alan and I were creating ‘Watchmen,’ we knew we had to have kind of a Batman equivalent, and I suggested that. … And probably if I was a superhero, I’m probably Nite Owl; I’d be the guy set in the basement with all the gadgets rather than the psychopath out stalking the alleyways.”

Questions and answers with artist Dave Gibbons, from the “Watchmen” junket in Beverly Hills, Calif.  Gibbons created the comic-book series “Watchmen” with writer Alan Moore, who declined to be involved with the movie.

Q: Will Alan Moore ever see the movie? 

Dave Gibbons: I really don’t know. I hesitate to speak at all for Alan.

I certainly… Because he’s asked me not to talk to him about the movie. He’s happy to talk to me, but don’t talk about the movie. I’m unlikely to phone him up and say, hey Alan, it’s really great, why don’t you see it?

Even in the backwoods of England where I come from it’s inescapable. In my little corner store are all the movie mags with Watchmen and Dr. Manhattan, so I suppose he won’t be able to escape it completely.

Q: How do you think the film came out?  The book has been called been called “unfilmable” before.

Gibbons: I think it came out really well.

I think to (director) Zack (Snyder), unfilmable is a challenge rather than an, ‘oh, well let’s not bother.’  I think to say anything is undoable shows a lack of vision.

Clearly the movie is a different beast than the comic book. The story in its purest primal form is the comic book. But I Think the movie has a lot of the virtues of the comic book and is an exciting translation of it.

Do you think it was faithful to the book? 

Gibbons: I did. In a way, I’m the worst person in the world to ask. Because when I was drawing the comic book, I would sit in my room and close my eyes  and see a little movie, and then think, oh yeah, that’s the one -  and then draw that. And seeing the movie was to see that for real. …

Certainly a lot of my favorite scenes are there more or less intact.   A lot of Alan’s wonderful dialogue is more or less intact. Many of the compositions and set ups that I did are there.

I thought it had an incredible emotional weight as well. The scenes with Rorschach toward the end, you can’t believe it’s going to happen, really.

On every level, the amount of detail, the moral ambiguity, I couldn’t imagine being happier.

Q: What did you think of Rorschach’s inkblots moving on the screen? 

Gibbons: That was chilling; we always had an idea that that would be a really scary thing to see in real life.  In the comic book of course we could only approximate that by showing it changing.  I have met people at comic book convention masquerades with a static mask, and that’s unsettling enough. It’s like running into somebody with really dark glasses, you can’t see what they’re thinking.  So to have it moving as well is really eerie and unsettling.

– Matt Price

Former model Malin Akerman, who plays the Silk Spectre in Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen,” said her form-fitting costume, while easy on the eyes, wasn’t easy to wear.

“It was so uncomfortable,” Akerman said at the press junket for “Watchmen.” “I am not going to develop a latex fetish at all. It was beautiful and the design was incredible. But if I were a superhero, I’d wear sweats and a T-shirt.”

Akerman had two months of training prior to filming with a former Navy SEAL to take the role of the Silk Spectre, a second-generation superhero in this film, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. While she called that training “excruciating,” that wasn’t all the pain she went through to be part of this superhero adaptation. She also had to have a full-body cast made for costuming purposes.

“It’s a strange thing to have straws up your nose and try to breathe through that,” she said. “And also I had to do it in heels.”

A previous operation in her foot means Akerman’s bones aren’t at full strength, she said, and when the body cast began to dry, it also got heavier.

“It started weighing down and I said, ‘Guys, we have to take it off.’ I endured it as long as possible. But luckily it’s not an everyday thing, it’s a one-time situation. But it’s not the most comfortable process.”

Even love was rough on Akerman in “Watchmen.” To play Dr. Manhattan, the superpowered scientist, Billy Crudup was covered in LED lights that would later be covered by CGI work. In the love scene between the pair, Crudup had to keep a distance.

“That love scene was really interesting, because he couldn’t actually touch me,” Akerman said. “Because you had all these LED lights that are scratchy, they’d scrape you. And also the worry about being electrocuted, putting his finger in your mouth.”

Akerman says the end result of all the discomfort was worth it, and she’s proud of the final product in “Watchmen.” Also, director Snyder was constantly keeping the actors motivated.

“When we were all dying down in the 16th hour, he was ready to go … and making sound effects, and getting you into it,” Akerman said. “He was this monster machine. It couldn’t have been any other director.”

by Matthew Price
From Tuesday’s The Oklahoman

Encouraged by fan chatter online that he’d make a good Rorschach, Haley made his own costume, and acted out scenes from the screenplay. He sent the tape to the producers of “Watchmen.”

After impressing the producers and director Zack Snyder, Haley became Rorschach – and in the process was reunited with his “Little Children” co-star Patrick Wilson. Wilson had already been cast as Nite Owl, Rorschach’s former crime-fighting partner.

“For me it was kind of interesting, to show up on the set and to basically, at least at the start, to know one guy, to only really have one friend there,” Haley said in a recent press interview. “And I did internally focus on that, because Rorschach only has one friend. And it happens to be the same guy. So there’s a neat parallel there.”

Rorschach is the most obsessive of this group of obsessives; when the superheroes in “Watchmen” are forced to retire by an act of Congress, Rorschach presses on in violation of the law. When one of their own is murdered, it’s Rorschach who believes someone is out to get the masks, and won’t let the investigation stop.

“This guy’s so lost in this world,” Haley said. “The cops don’t like him, the pedestrians don’t like him, his own masked vigilante partners don’t like him. If it wasn’t for Nite Owl, this guy would be absolutely, completely alone. And really, Nite Owl doesn’t even like the guy! If you really look at it, he puts up with him! But he does care.”

Rorschach’s drive results from his neglected upbringing, Haley said.

“He’s a victim of his mom’s own self-centeredness. … He ended up in a home at age 11 only to discover they weren’t much better at raising him than his mom was,” he said. “And I think he finally reached this point in life where he needed this black and white sense of the world. Because he was such a victim of the grey complexities.

“His whole life was falling through the cracks. And if it weren’t for becoming a masked vigilante, this guy would have no purpose in life.”

That focus on what would motivate a character to wear a mask and fight crime was part of what made the graphic novel “Watchmen,” which was the basis for the film, so successful, Haley said.

“People never thought to challenge the assumptions of the comic-book genre,” Haley said. “Watchmen” creators Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons took this medium that was more of a childlike entertainment medium, and decided to take that template and use it in more of a thought-provoking, grown-up manner to examine humanity. And it’s kind of fascinating when you take those two worlds and put them together,” he said.

That world was translated to film through the expertise of Snyder and the hundreds of craftspeople and technicians working on the film. Working on the heavily designed sets aided in the performance, Haley said.

“Zack created this incredible world,” he said. “Walking onto these beautiful sets was … incredibly motivating. You take the wardrobe design department, the makeup design department, all these departments that came together to create each character and these sets – it was total immersion.”

From Friday’s The Oklahoman
By Matthew Price

THE NEXT LEVEL

Can’t wait for “The Watchmen”? “The Minutemen” provides a retro look at the kind of game you might have played in the game’s alternate 1985 world.

While fans wait the Zack Snyder film adaptation of “Watchmen” – and the Xbox Live downloadable game “The End is Nigh” – www.minutemenarcade.com/uk has a 2-D sidescrolling fight game in the tradition of “Double Dragon.”

After the site loads, the viewer is taken to a nostalgic, slightly run-down diner. In the corner is a well-worn “Minutemen” arcade game. Insert “coins” and enter an 8-bit world of sound and graphics.

Gamers can play as either the original Nite Owl or original Silk Spectre as they try to take out Moloch and his henchmen in 1942 New York.

There are several Easter eggs for Watchmen fans in the game – from the game’s “Veidt Enterprises” logo, referring to the alter ego of the masked hero Ozymandias to a poster for Rolf Muller’s Park Circus, Rolf Muller being the presumed secret identity of one of the 1940s Minutemen.

The game is simple, and short – Nite Owl and Silk Spectre can walk, punch, kick and jump, though I don’t know that they ever have the need to jump in the game. There are three levels, a street level, subway level, then a second street level ending at Moloch’s theater. Defeat Moloch, and the gamer is rewarded with an HD version of the “Watchmen” trailer.

– Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

He comes off bitter but brilliant, for the most part, with a different opinion on current comics than the one I have, anyway. (That said, he admits to not particularly following mainstream comics anymore.)

A funny comment from Moore about ending up working for DC after WildStorm was purchased:

When I returned to work for—well, I didn’t return. I was kind of press-ganged. I had DC buying the company I had just signed contracts with, which is flattering in one way and very creepy in another. It’s like being stalked by a very rich demented girlfriend who can just buy your entire street in order to be close to you. 

– Matt Price

WORD BALLOONS

“Watchmen,” the Zack Snyder adaptation of the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, hits theaters next month. In the meantime, DC Comics and Titan Books have created books and merchandise to take fans into the alternate 1980s world of “Watchmen.”

First, the story itself. Named one of Time magazine’s 100 greatest novels, the “Watchmen” graphic novel is available in a variety of formats.

Most impressively, the oversized “Absolute Watchmen” ($75) features 48 pages of supplemental material beyond the 12-issue series. It contains the series proposal, pages from the original script, and additional art. The art was remastered and recolored for the original printing of “Absolute Watchmen,” and it’s now used for all of the “Watchmen” reprints.

Also available are a “Watchmen” hardcover ($39.99), a “Watchmen” trade paperback collection ($19.99) and a single-issue reprint of “Watchmen” issue No. 1 ($1.50).

In addition to the book, DC’s toy division, DC Direct, has created action figures, busts and props of the “Watchmen” characters.

Titan Books, meanwhile, has released four tie-in books surrounding the “Watchmen” film.

“Watching the Watchmen,” written by Dave Gibbons, comes in two editions. The comic-store exclusive edition has a cover featuring the character “The Comedian” and additional pages. It’s also signed by Gibbons and comes with exclusive prints. This edition retails for $50. The standard edition retails for $39.95 and has a cover featuring Dr. Manhattan.

“Watchmen: Portraits” ($50) features black-and-white portrait shots of people in the film, ranging from stars to extras, and was shot by official movie photographer Clay Enos.

“Watchmen: The Film Companion” ($29.95 hardcover, $19.95 softcover) was written by Peter Aperlo and explores the behind-the-scenes making of the film. Aperlo also writes “Watchmen: The Art of the Film,” ($40), which features storyboards, photography and preproduction art. Possibly most intriguing for comic-book fans will be the new art created by Gibbons, as well as alternate takes on the characters by comic-book artists John Cassaday, David Finch and Adam Hughes.

All of the Titan Books releases contain spoilers for the film and graphic novel, so read the book or see the film prior to reading the ancillary material.

Judging from the books, Snyder and company look to have created a rich alternate world, and tried to respect the graphic novel, which has engrossed readers for more than 20 years.

– Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

Gene Triplett, Brandy McDonnell and Matt Price discuss the upcoming “Weekend Look,” including a sneak peek at the Jackie Earle Haley interview from “Watchmen.”

Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss the “Watchmen” graphic novel in this week’s Comics Q&A.

Working on a lot of “Watchmen” content for the coming weeks.  Here’s a short tease for Nerdage readers.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays The Comedian, talked about the importance and quality of the practical sets on “Watchmen.”  He was asked if he was worried the film would heavily use green screen technology.
“The only green screen really was used for Mars and Antarctica, and that was just budgetary reasons, or we would have gone there,” Morgan answered, laughing.
“The sets that they built, they were amazing. For me, it all really sunk in what the hell we were doing during the shooting of the Keene riots, and seeing this New York set with Archie (the Owl Ship) floating above, and 500 extras, and fires burning out of control. You just got the impression that things were really out of control!  Are we shooting here, or is this just going to burn down? It was pretty phenomenal.
“Everybody from the top down was so invested in this film, and the sets they built absolutely helped take you into this alternate reality.”

– Matt Price

IGN shares a look at Nite Owl and Silk Spectre’s rooftop rescue from Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen.”

- Matt Price

Among the clips hitting the Internet from Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen” is this short clip with Nite Owl and the Comedian on the night of the riots in New York during the police strike, just prior to the enacting of the Keene Act.

– Matt Price

– Matt Price

Check out the trailer for the animated companion DVD for “Watchmen,” “Tales of the Black Freighter.” It will also include an animated adaptation of the “Under the Hood” portions of the “Watchmen” graphic novel.

– Matt Price

A recent press release from G4 indicates tonight’s X-Play will feature seven minutes of gameplay footage from “Watchmen: The End is Nigh.”

Adam Sessler and Warner Brothers Interactive game programmer Jerry Pritchard will take an inside look at two game levels and co-op play.

“Watchmen: The End is Nigh” is a prequel to the events of the film and graphic novel.

X-Play airs tonight, at 8:00PM ET/PT.

For more information, visit g4tv.com/xplay

– Matt Price

This viral video promoting “Watchmen” is a newscast taking place on March 11, 1970, the 10th anniversary of Dr. Manhattan’s “birth.”

Fox and Warner Bros. have settled their “Watchmen” dispute, which threatened the release of the film.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox will not be a co-distributor of the film, but will receive a percentage of the film’s box office and a cash payment.  They will not own any of the “Watchmen” rights going forward.   The settlement is expected to be presented to Judge Gary Feess on Friday morning with a request for the case’s dismissal, said the Reporter.

– Matt Price