I did it thirty-five minutes ago...

[khaosworks]

Bits and pieces from Sci-Fi Wire.

Law Eager For Watchmen

Jude Law told the Empire Online Web site that he is interested in playing Ozymandias in Darren Aronofsky's upcoming film version of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen. Law told the site that he is an avid comic-book collector. "I still go to comic shops, Forbidden Planet, and look through back issues of the ones I love," he said. "I was a big fan of Johnny Nemo and Strange Days, Parallax, you know those? But I haven't gotten into anything recently, not like I did with [Moore's] From Hell and Watchmen."

In Watchmen, Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, is a former superhero and the smartest and richest man in the world. When informed of Aronofsky's film, Law reportedly said, "Darren Aronofsky? I'm on the phone now! Adrian Veidt, king of kings!" And then, as if to show off his Watchmen fanboy credentials, he whispered conspiratorially, "I'm tattooed with Rorschach, did you know that?" Empire reported.

Watchmen is considered one of the greatest comic books of all time. X-Men screenwriter David Hayter wrote the script for Watchmen, the site reported. Filming is tentatively scheduled for late 2005, allowing Aronofsky time to finish The Fountain, his SF epic starring Hugh Jackman.

You know, if he bulked up a little, he'd actually make a pretty good Adrian Veidt. Still, after the Sam Hamm script debacle, I'm pretty wary of how a film could be made... I still contend that Watchmen needs a big-budget mini series to be told properly, but still.

In other welcome news...

Roofworld Readied

Fine Line Features has hired Charley Stadler to direct the SF thriller movie Roofworld, with Dave Mitchell on board to write the screenplay adaptation of Christopher Fowler's 1988 novel, Variety reported. Roofworld deals with a group of disenfranchised people who flock to London's rooftops to form alternative communities, the trade paper reported.

Peter Samuelson, Marc Samuelson, Pippa Cross and Janette Day are producing. Commercial director Stadler makes his feature-film helming debut with the upcoming action comedy Dead Fish, starring Gary Oldman and Robert Carlyle, the trade paper reported.

Roofworld was the first Christopher Fowler novel I picked up, and I was blown away not only by the concept of having an entire society living on London's rooftops, swooping from roof to roof by means of cable routes known as "runs", but also Fowler's intimate knowledge of London's geography, the streets and turns and descriptions vividly bringing visions of the city I grew to love so much later. It's not a great book, but a good read, and Fowler has a sense of the horrific which I enjoy.

logam will confirm my infatuation with the book, to the point where I used to call our circuit of the second-hand book stores in Singapore "runs" as well.

Other tidbits from Sci-Fi Wire that might be of interest: Bart Allen to show up in Smallville; Joss Whedon wants to direct X3 and ILM to do special effects for Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds.

Comments

[osj.livejournal.com]

A miniseries probably can't happen, but in the wake of LOTR, perhaps we can hope that someone smart has enough faith in Moore's material to greenlight (at least) two pictures for WATCHMEN.

Haven't read it in a long time...probably should go and dig it up.

[acrobatty.livejournal.com]

Big budget? Maybe not -- thinking it over, there's not a lot of indispensable SFX stuff in there. The owlship is easy, the giant Dr. Manhattan not much harder, and Mars is dispensable. This show is all in the script, acting, & spatter cinematography. The latter two, I admit, could cost $$. But you'd still be way below the average summer blockbuster.

It might be doable in a 2 1/2+ hour feature film: cut the shark story, cut a lot of the detail about the past (maybe do a starting montage w/ VO from the opening chapter of Under the Hood (which could segue nicely into either Hollis or the Comedian getting beaten to death), and occasional flashbacks if needed).

You'd probably need to cut at least one major character, which would suck. Possibly, tho I hate to say it, the Comedian. Merge him with Hollis and lose a lot of Laurie's backstory? Can't see making the Laurie/Comedian subplot work on film, really -- too soap-opera. Trim to the thematic heart of it: Veidt/Rorschach/Manhattan all trying to bring Order to the world in bizarrely different ways. MUST keep the ending untouched.

Does Dreiberg play in a film like that, or will he look like he wandered in from Mystery Men? Need to either make him comic relief or give him some chops.