Monday, August 06, 2007

A Visual Guide To The Watchmen Cast

film ick reader Antonello - who often uses a Watchmen-related handle - sent me the image below, which I thought some of you might get a kick out of. It's a comparison chart putting up the announced cast of Zack Snyder's version of Watchmen with Paul Greengrass and Terry Gilliam's supposed selections. Click on it for the full-size, full-effect version.

There are, I believe, some unfounded assumptions at work on this diagram, or at least allegations that I certainly can't substantiate. All the same, for their respective periods, both Greengrass and Gilliam apparently managed to line up a better list of names than the current cast.

I'm rooting for Snyder, I really am (if only because of the first ten minutes of Dawn of the Dead which I absolutely love) but I think that this film appears to be in trouble - and has been since before it was even officially announced, in fact.

7 comments:

Kyle said...

It looks like Greengrass had the best cast in mind.

I mean, Kevin Costner? Robin Williams? Come on.

Rich D said...

That's great. I may just pull out the old Sam Hamm draft from Gilliam's attempt and give it another read with these faces in mind.

(Though who did he send it to you? I don't see your contact info here anymore...)

Anonymous said...

The person who made the chart is me.
The Gilliam cast comes form some trades of the time and various interviews and articles on the movie. On his introduction to a book on Alan Moore, Gilliam revealed that at a certain point Richard Gere stepped in to replace Costner, but I left in the chart the original choice.
The cast for the Greengrass version was partly revealed by AICN Moriarty (Phoenix, Swank, Perlman) with the Hellboy actor later confirming it in some interview.
Jude Law talked with Greengrass for both roles of Ozymandias and Rorschach and Considine met with the director for the inkblotted vigilante too. So I went for the easiest choices.

Mark Kardwell said...

I find that current cast utterly underwhelming. And in some places, down right worrying.

Anonymous said...

Zack Snyder repulses me but his casting seems spot on for the most part. If only Paul Greengrass were directing this. As the lastest Bourne flick shows, he definitely knows what he's doing. If he were directing I'm sure the first thing he'd do would be to get rid of that TV actress playing Silk Spectre.

Oh and here's a link to Gilliam's Watchmen script:
http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/wtchmn.txt

Matias Lara said...

Oh, right, I forgot the part were you need big-name actors to make a great movie. I mean, remember 300, also by Snyder? I couldn't recognize any of the actors! Of course that film, I suppose, also turned out to be a box office bomb!
How coulnd't Snyder figure he needed big name actors, such as Kevin Costner and Robin Willians, to make a good movie?

Brendon said...

It isn't Malin Akerman's lack of fame that makes her a bad choice it's the fact that she's not very good. At all.

And there are serious problems to be cited with Matthew Goode, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Patrick Wilson too.

And as good as Jackie Earle Haley is, he aint no Paddy Considine.