What's up with Watchmen and Wolverine?

As I'm typing this, principal filming is wrapping up on Watchmen, arguably one of the most ambitious book-to-film adaptations of all time.


Having read the assorted posts on the film's official blog, I'm very nervous but very excited about this project, based on the greatest superhero-focused graphic novel of all time.

On the concerning side, I keep succumbing to doubts about the possibility of faithfully adapting the hefty 334-page tome that is Watchmen. Surely it would work better as a massive-budget TV miniseries? Looking at the other big screen adaptations of comic scripter Alan Moore's work (including From Hell, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta), only V for Vendetta escaped mediocrity to become something worth seeing.

Watchmen is also the granddaddy, the Citizen Kane, of superhero storylines (the graphic novel was first released in the mid-1980s), and it is worrying that the film is only arriving now after the likes of Heroes have stolen, er, borrowed, so many elements from it. Audiences won't necessarily find the plot that fresh as a result.

Fox also seems intent on putting a dampener on things, having recently launched a lawsuit to stop Warner Brothers releasing the film. I'm sure that the Warners' attorneys will steamroll over Fox's ridiculous claim (Fox once owned the rights to Watchmen back in the early 1990s and suddenly want in on the action now). However, this kind of legal wrangling does make me nervous.

On the exciting side, I do believe director Zack Snyder is approaching the material with the right amount of respect and fidelity (Check out his incredibly thorough storyboards). This is the man behind Frank Miller's 300 after all. The casting for Watchmen is also excellent and, regardless of all my worries, this is Watchmen - the only graphic novel to feature on Time Magazine's All-time Top 100 Novels list.

Watchmen is set for release on 3 June 2009.


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Speaking of comic book adaptations, it's full steam ahead with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, currently filming in Australasia. South Africa's own Gavin (Tsotsi) Hood is directing yet another film centred on that most over-exposed of all the Marvel mutants, Wolverine.


Let's face it, apart from the dire X-Men 3, in which Mr Adamantium Claws suddenly adopted a goodie-goodie Cyclops leadership role, the first 2 X-Men films were, for all intents and purposes, Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2 given how central Logan, and his mysterious backstory, was to the plot.

Anyway, the past few days have revealed some interesting casting rumours regarding X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It would appear that several iconic characters from the complex X-Men mythology are appearing in this spin-off project.

The most jaw-dropping announcement has been that Gambit, that smooth-taking, card flicking Southerner, will finally be appearing on the big screen after his noticeable absence in X-Men 1 through 3. Gambit will be played by Taylor Kitsch.


And although I'm not at all familiar with the character, wise-cracking mercenary Deadpool will be played by Van Wilder himself, Ryan Reynolds.


Let's hope that Reynolds' six-pack will be on prominent display in the role.

In other casting news, from Superhero Hype of course, Liev Schreiber is playing Sabretooth, Wolverine's arch nemesis (you can see Schreiber in his mutton chops off-set here). It has yet to be announced who will be playing Silver Fox, Logan's sweetheart, although rumours abound here.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is set for release at the beginning of May 2009.

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