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I'm more concerned with the script. I read the David Hayter script and loved it-- it was a brilliant adaptation that was very faithful to the graphic novel while updating it in ways that I thought were good (and overcame some of the central flaws of adapting the work to film). I don't know what Alex Tse has done with it, so I'm very nervous because I get that way when I think about someone messing about with a good thing.

But I agree the design does look nice, though where are all the electric cars?

[...] Comics Should Be Good, one of the best comic blogs around, has posted several pictures from the set of the film adaptation of Alan Moore’s seminal Watchmen. The most notable element for me is that director Zack Snyder is not attempting to modernize the setting, instead choosing to set the film in a gritty 1980s.  It looks like Watchmen is in good hands. [...]

I'm not a fan of that Gunga diner... Wouldn't it seem too classy to allow someone like Kovacs in?

i still think watchmen is impossible to do justice to through the medium of film, but it appears as though the fidelity to the source is second to none and i’m glad that there are practical sets and not digitally rendered ones. i’m prepared to eat my words with a side of salad should the trailer satisfy. kudos mr. snyder, kudos.

[...] Anyway, the dude what made that sweaty brodown 300 is hard at work on the film adaptation of Watchmen, and although the prospects for a quality movie are thus unlikely, some recent set photos posted over at Comics Can Be Good are reassuring. If the script is as faithful as the set design then maybe the movie will be pretty good after all. comics, movies Share This [?] [...]

They *can't* put the pirate comic bit in. There's no way it can work. Even if Snyder films it, it'll never make it into the final cut.

The pirate comic stuff will be a DVD extra. It won't be in the finished movie. They are also filming some newsreel or documentary style stuff for the appendix stuff like "Under the Hood" by Hollis Mason.

Visually this movie looks amazing so far. Then again the visuals were the best part of 300. Doesn't guarantee the movie will be good (300 wasn't IMO).

Based off my immpressions of his last two films, Snyder's one strength as a director is his eye for visuals. When it comes to working with actors or actual storytelling is where he falls apart.

Dawn of the Dead's "Director's Cut" was far weaker than the theatrical version whenever he tried to focus on characterization instead of visual spectacle, and the choices Snyder made in directing the performances from Dominic West, Rodrigo Santoro and Gerard Butler in 300 were all pretty uniformly awful. After those two, I don't hold much hope for him tackling something with characters as complex as the ones in Watchmen.

It's nice to see this level of attention to detail going into the art direction of film, but as far as I'm concerned at this point, it's still probably going to be a wasted effort.

The swastika they've painted on Nixon is facing the wrong way if it's meant to connect Nixon with Nazism.

chickeninja - Is that something all graffiti artists would know?

Anyway, I like the pictures a lot, but I agree with those (everyone?) who think Snyder probably won't be able to pull the movie off. If there's one thing Watchmen shouldn't be, it's a mindless action picture.

"I’m not a fan of that Gunga diner… Wouldn’t it seem too classy to allow someone like Kovacs in?"

It's a better place than he is.

"The swastika they’ve painted on Nixon is facing the wrong way if it’s meant to connect Nixon with Nazism."

Rob Liefeld must've drawn it.

This will be terrible.
Snyder has shown himself to be all style (not his own style, just stylish in general) and no substance, and everything he's made looks like an ad or a music video.

Or in the case of 300, an extremely homoerotic Xbox 360 game.

I've got no idea how this will turn out, but I would like to say something in defence of '300'. I thought Synder absolutely nailed the substance of the work, which, I think, was about the power of myths and storytellers. From that perspective, the film's stylistic flourishes were actually quite appropriate, as were the fairly two-dimensional- or, better yet, black and white- characters. To me, that's what Synder was going for, and it worked.

those sets are a little too dressed. It's gonna wind up looking like the Dick Tracy movie.

I think an over the top set dressing might actually work really well. A setting that is more real than real could provide the contrast and juxtaposition that the characters need. With Watchmen, the characters are very much archetypes. The main thing that binds them together is the fact that the story is really about exploring those archetypes. So, what kind of setting do you use to put Dr. Manhattan next to The Comedian next to Nite-Owl and not have at least one of them feel out of place? It almost has to be a constructed world.

"those sets are a little too dressed. It’s gonna wind up looking like the Dick Tracy movie."

It'll probably look differnet when it's lit and filmed.

Rorschach's in the last picture in front of the Nixon poster. You can kind of make out his white cloth mask.

I can't wait for the bit where Rorschach starts flying and shooting laser beams out of his eyes.

/ runs away giggling

t’ll probably look differnet when it’s lit and filmed.

They already look over lit as it is.

You can't really judge lighting based on set stills. Unless they tried to match the lighting they are using in the movie.

Also the film will probably go through a color correction process (like most movies).

Well it looks like set shots of V For Vendetta and that was over lit, as is everything else Snyder has directed...

Snyder didn't direct V.

This is nitpicky of me (annotator's syndrome, I guess) but I can't help but notice that the "Who Watches the Watchmen" graffito in the final shot is complete, while it never appears in complete form in the comic itself. (If I let that sort of thing bother me, though, well, that way madness lies. I wonder if the moon will be full for an entire month in the movie? And will it have nuclear bases on it?)

Snyder didn’t direct V.

No he didn't, but it was another film with over lit set shots.
The Moore connection put it in mind, and I remember ,making similar comments at the time.
300 And Dawn Of The Dead were both style over substance, and both over lit, and both by Snyder.

I think this film may be like Daredevil - although the filmmaker has an obvious and true love of the source material, they just don't have the talent to do it justice.

If the movie looks anything like the still of Rorschach from the 300 trailer (wouldn't doubt it, same guy doing both and all), the film will ultimately have a greenish tint to match the look of the comic. So the stills aren't completely representative of the look of the film.

I wouldn't go by that still, was probably just from a camera/costume test.
May still go that way, but that still was taken before production actually began, so a lot could have changed.

"300 And Dawn Of The Dead were both style over substance, and both over lit, and both by Snyder."

I'd agree they were style over substance (well 300 was I never saw Dawn). But I thought the lighting looked fine in 300. Ditto V for Vendetta (which I didn't like either).

It really just comes down to personal taste, but there is a trend of lighting films in a certain, like in V, that really puts me off a film.
It's not so stylized that it's a definite effect that I can appreciate, like say Three Kings, where they washed out all the colours (though most probably done in post), yet it still distances me from the film.

Fair enough. But I think the lighting in those movies wasn't the element that made them suck (at least in my opinion).

Of course it wasn't, but it stopped me from even enjoying it 'for what it was'.
I distrust that style of lighting because I only see it in big budget films by inexperienced work-for-hire directors.

Just found this!

MOVIE SET STILLS VS. COMIC BOOK VERSIONS
http://www.maximonline.com/Entertainment/Treasureisland/slideshow/10131/585.aspx?src=tstwms:Mtd