Boy, it seems like forever since we've had any Watchmen news, doesn't it? Well, don't worry, fellow slavering comic book fans: we fully intend to completely suck every tiny bit of magic out of the movie by relentlessly cramming every bit of Watchmen-related insider gossip down your gullets until, by the time the movie finally comes out sometime around the crack of doom, you will feel like you have already seen it eighteen times and be utterly sick of it. You're welcome.
Let's take the bad news first: it was announced this week that the movie will be scored by Tyler Bates, whose bombastic work has failed to impress us in everything from (surprise, surprise) 300 to exploitation fare aplenty like Half Past Dead and Alien Avengers II. Zack Snyder's latest blog post from the set brings us a look at some of the film's storyboards, allowing us to imagine what the comic might look like if it was drawn by our rather untalented fourteen-year-old cousin instead of by Dave Gibbons. And in news that should surprise no one but disappoint everyone, Alan Moore has made it official that he will continue his policy of having absolutely nothing to do with any motion picture made using his material as a source. "They must’ve learned something from the V for Vendetta debacle," he tells Wizard magazine. "I got a piece of paper a couple of months ago saying, 'I, the undersigned, hereby give you permission to take my name off of the film and to send my money to Dave Gibbons.' So I sent that back to them all signed and sealed, which means that now I don’t have to rant and spew about the film."
Still, there's a few reasons to be pleased: set designer Dawn Brown reports that while substantial liberties will be taken, at least a few of the costumes in the Watchmen film will be completely faithful to Gibbons' orginal design. And, in the best — and most shocking — Watchmen news of all, sales of the original graphic novel, widely considered the greatest superhero story ever written, have risen dramatically since the film adaptation was announced, so much so that it actually became the best-selling graphic novel of 2007. This is unexpectedly good news; the more people who read the original work, the better, and comic book movies often are predicted to cause a swell in sales of their source material, but up until now, it's generally never happened. And, by the way, it ensures that Alan Moore is going to make some money off of the Watchmen movie, whether he wants to or not. . .