It’s hard to imagine 2009’sWatchmenbeing directed by anyone other thanZack Snyder. With frame-by-frame moments ripped right from the original comic book, Snyder’s faithfulness to the source material is admirable. Sure,he changed the ending a bit, but it worked within the context of his picture (and if you want something closer to the comic,the new two-part animated film is likely closer). But once upon a time, famedMonty PythonlegendTerry Gilliamnearly directed the film, and his ending would’ve been completely different.
It’s odd to think about now, but back in the 1990s, Terry Gilliam had been courted to directWatchmen. It wasn’t long after the groundbreaking graphic novel —written byAlan Mooreand drawn byDave Gibbons— was first released that the film rights were pounced on by Hollywood producers, but itwouldn’t be made for over 20 years. In that time, Gilliam found his way on the short-list to helm the adaptation of what he considered"theWar and Peaceof graphic novels,“according toDavid Hughes’The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made. Unhappy withBatmanscribeSam Hamm’s originalWatchmenscript, Gilliam and screenwriterCharles McKeowntook over writing duties under the direction of producerJoel Silver. “It’s really dense,” Gilliam later admitted, “and when you try and reduce it down to a couple of hours it’s just like straight comic book heroes again, and it doesn’t have a real meaning.” But what really made Gilliam’s take stand out was the ending.
“What he did was he told the story as-is, but instead of the whole notion of the intergalactic thing which was too hard and too silly, what he did was he maintained that the existence of Doctor Manhattan had changed the whole balance of the world economy,” producer Joel Silver recalled toSlashFilm. Because of this, Gilliam and McKeown decided that Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) had to convince Doctor Manhattan (Billy Crudup) to go back in time and stop himself from ever existing — which resulted in a seriously strange outcome.
“He was the only character with real supernatural powers, he went back and prevented himself from being turned into Doctor Manhattan, and in the vortex that was created after that occurred these characters fromWatchmenonly became characters in a comic book.”
Basically, by going back and changing time,Doctor Manhattan reworked reality even further so that costumed vigilantes no longer existed. It makes sense that this could happen because of Manhattan’s influence though. We’ve seen in the DC Comics universe, particularly in the limited seriesDoomsday Clock, that when Doctor Manhattan changes one thing, that outcome has a domino effect. That’s exactly the way that Gilliam proposedWatchmenshould end, with Doctor Manhattan essentially retconning the entire film itself. “…Rorschach and Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, they’re all of the sudden in Times Square and there’s a kid reading a comic book,” Silver continued. “They become like the people in Times Square dressing up like characters as opposed to really BEING those characters.” Talk about a mind-bending twist.
Terry Gilliam Felt ‘Watchmen’ Was “Unfilmable”
Unfortunately, this strange interpretation ofWatchmenwas not meant to be. Gilliam and Silver were only able to raise about $25 million for what would ultimately have been upwards of a $100 million movie. But the real problem was that Gilliam and McKeown couldn’t crack the script. They struggled to bring theWar and Peaceof comic books to life in a way that didn’t feel like a superhero cash grab, and would’ve cut too many vital parts of Moore’s graphic novel out in order to adapt it (they had planned to cut even the Comedian too).After significant time spent trying to makeWatchmenhappen,Gilliam eventuallyleft the project in 2000.The director reportedly deemedWatchmen"unfilmable” and decided that making a movie more akin toTim Burton’sBatmanwouldsully the reputation of the once great DC work. One might think thatWatchmenought to have been dead in the water after that, but it was only a year later thatX-MenscribeDavid Hayterwas hired onto the project, only to bow out himself.
Alan Moore Doesn’t Think His Work Can Be Truly Adapted—and He’s Very Wrong
Alan Moore’s work is surely one-of-a-kind, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be adapted well.
After Hayter left, a rotating list of directors (and studios) became attached toWatchmen.FromDarren Aronofskyto Paul Greengrass, the project exchanged hands numerous times before finding its way back to Warner Bros., where the studio decided to hire Zack Snyder after being impressed by his work adapting300for the big screen. Hayter’s script — which Alan Moore himself once called “as close as [he] could imagine anyone getting toWatchmen” — was still in play, and though Snyder made some adjustments withAlex Tse(Hayter and Tse are both credited as the film’s screenwriters), it remained the basic blueprint for the film we got in the end. It should be worth noting that the only major factor from Gilliam’s work onWatchmenthat eventually did make it into the final cut of the film was Rorschach’s (played by the heavily underratedJackie Earle Hailey) journal entries, which acted as a voice-over in the finished film.
But what did Gilliam think of howWatchmenturned out? Well, he wasn’t the biggest fan. Ina 2009 interview with Collider, Gilliam made it clear that he was impressed with Snyder’s attention to detail in making the film feel just like the graphic novel (especially considering the Rorschach plotline), but that was about it. “But I think it was too reverential to the book,” the filmmaker noted, explaining that his idea vision for the story would’ve been through a five-part TV miniseries rather than a two and a half hour movie. “[It]started so well and then it just was, ‘Come on…it’s not moving anymore…’ But I thought technically it was a good job.” Whether you enjoyed the finished 2009 film or prefer the current animated adaptations,Watchmenremains a triumph of comic book artistry and socio-political commentarythat we can still fall back on, no matter how “dated” it may seem.
In a version of 1985 where superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach on the trail of a conspiracy that will change the course of history.
Watchmenis available to watch on Max in the U.S.
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