I finally read “Watchmen”. I had to see what all the fuss was about, and while I think it must have been ten-times better when it was originally released it is still an impressive piece of work and is actually only the second comic I have ever read (the other being “Sin City: The Hard Goodbye”) and I am quite anxious to see just how Zack Snyder plans on turning it into a feature film.
One thing we already knew was that the story-within-the-story, “The Tale of the Black Freighter”, were not actually going to make it into the feature film, but today the “New York Times” has an impressive article discussing Warner Home Video’s plans for the DVD release of not only “Tale of the Black Freighter” but Watchmen as well.
First off, “Tale of the Black Freighter” is going to be a 100-percent animated feature that will hit DVD shelves five days following Watchmen‘s March 6, 2009 release. Snyder told the “Times” he originally planned on shooting the story much in the same way he did with 300, but the budget balooned to $20 million and a decision was made to go with animation. However, don’t go thinking that means this is going to be made on the cheap. While Diane Nelson, president of Warner Premiere, would not reveal the actual budget for “Tale of the Black Freighter” but it was 30 percent to 50 percent higher than a typical direct-to-DVD effort.
The story of the Black Freighter is a comic being read inside of Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” and much of it reflects the story that is being told at the same time. It centers on a stranded sailor who ends up strapping his dead shipmates together to construct a raft to sail home and save his family from the treacherous crew aboard the Black Freighter.
The move to release the animated film on DVD virtually day-and-date with the feature film is an attempt to bolster DVD sales which fell 3.2 percent last year to $15.9 billion, according to Adams Media Research. It was the first time the DVD market actually showed a down turn. The “Black Freigher” DVD will also include a documentary-style film called “Under the Hood” that will delve into the characters’ backstories, which is also inside the Moore graphic novel in a short abridged version written by one of the story’s characters.
Warner realizes the risk of confusing audiences with the DVD release as well as the potential that a dislike of the DVD will dissuade audiences from going to the movie as the DVD is seen as basically having an ad on store shelves. This is the main reason they have thrown millions into the production and it is not going to be the last time “Black Freighter” hits shelves.
Watchmen is expected to generate at least three separate DVD releases: “Tales of the Black Freighter,” the release of Watchmen speculated to be sometime in July 2009 followed by an “ultimate” edition presumably around holiday 2009, which will have both Watchmen and “Tales of the Black Freighter” edited together into one megamovie, which should be absolutely amazing and Snyder knows it. Snyder is quoted by the “Times” saying, “The überfans of this property are going to go crazy for that.”
How “mega” will this megamovie be? Well, Snyder said the film “is nearing three hours long” so this “ultimate” edition has the potential to be well over four hours.
On top of everything else mentioned we also learn the DVD releases will include a dozen 22- to 26-minute Webisodes to help make the complex story easier for the uninitiated to digest. Called “The Watchmen Motion Comic,” it will be a panel-by-panel slide show of the graphic novel narrated by an actor.
Stay tuned as this is not the last time I plan to discuss Watchmen and my thoughts on the graphic novel making its way to the big screen. I have prepared a feature looking at several aspects of the novel and hope to have that online soon.
