From Zack Snyder, the director (touted as visionary) of ‘300’ and the forthcoming visual action orgasm ‘Watchmen’ comes an animated movie… yeah, I know. Seems odd, but hey… what the Hell? Who are we to judge? Snyder has pleased us so far, so hooray for him. The project is called ‘Guardians of Ga’Hoole’ and it’s beginning to assemble it’s voice cast. Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean) heads the lineup so far, joined by Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe), Rachel Taylor (See No Evil) and David Wenhem (Australia).
Based on the children’s book series by Kathryn Lasky, the film, which is shooting in Australia, follows a young barn owl and his friends as they join forces with the mythical Guardians of Ga’hoole, owl protectors, to save the owl kingdom from rogue elements. — HR
MTV snagged the poster that they will be promoting ‘Watchmen’ on the IMAX with. You can see it above, nothing really new but I wanted to show it to you guys.
Not that I don’t love all of the ‘Watchmen’ posters but its getting down to the end kind of like ‘The Dark Knight’ a month before it came out.
This poster however seems like it was made before they had a release date, since it says “Coming Soon” on it. Either way, we can thank Firstshowing.net for the poster. Thanks to our homies at Trailer Addict for the poster!
62,389 posters and production stills later, give or take, and we’re still over a month away from the most anticipated film of 2009. Â Above you’ll find the “final” poster for the film as presented by Yahoo! Movies.
It’s pretty much the same as the cover for the film’s soundtrack:
…and here’s the cover of the film’s score:
Just because you asked, here’s the soundtrack listing:
Desolation Row – My Chemical Romance
Unforgettable – Nat King Cole
The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan
The Sound of Silence – Simon & Garfunkle
Me & Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin
I’m Your Boogie Man – KC & the Sunshine Band
You’re My Thrill – Billie Holiday
Pruit Igoe & Prophecies – Philip Glass
Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
Ride of the Valkyries – Budapest Symphony Orchestra
Pirate Jenny – Nina Simone
…and here is the track listing for Tyler Bates’ score. Â Note, there may be potential spoilers within some of the titles.
The Tuesday court conference between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. attorneys has been canceled, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Â This raises questions as to whether or not there has been a settlement in the case or whether or not one is imminent.
Talks of a settlement began over the weekend, and they just keep getting more and more realistic.
Thinking about this recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that, when all is said and done, this is going to be a whole of worry over nothing. Â There will be a settlement. Â ‘Watchmen’ will be released on March 6th as planned. Â This will basically be the movie geek equivalent of Y2K. Â Fox may get some of, or a whole lot of, the gross for the film, but Zack Snyder’s vision of ‘Watchmen’ will be released intact.
What do you think? Â Will there be a settlement? Â Is the fan outcry over ‘Watchmen’ never getting released a whole bunch ado about nothing? Â Isn’t it about time the viral marketing for this thing really kicked it into high gear? Â Let us know by commenting below!
Zack Snyder, who might be fearful that his version of ‘Watchmen’ may never see the light of day, is jumping onto the bandwagon of adapting a series of children’s books to the big screen. Â ‘Guardians of Ga’Hoole’ will be his next project, and it is an animated film about a war between two factions of owls.
The film will be voiced by Hugh Jackman, Hugo Weaving, and Ryan Kwanten, the last of which is enjoying success from his performance in HBO’s “True Blood”.
‘Guardians of Ga’Hoole’ is scheduled for release in 2010.
What do you think? Â Are you excited to see an animated film from Snyder? Â Are you bummed he’s going the way of adapting children’s novels? Â Is Jason Stackhouse the most loveable idiot on TV? Â Let us know by commenting below!
I know it’s Christmas and all, and you’re all probably having the hap-hap-happiest time since Bing Crosby tapdanced with Danny F’ing Kaye, but this news just couldn’t go unannounced, even for 24 hours. Â Be prepared to start sucking down the eggnog.
Apparently, a Los Angeles federal judge has ruled that 20th Century Fox, not Warner Bros., owns the distribution rights to ‘Watchmen’.
“Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,†the ruling said.
Judge Gary Allen Feess issued the surprise ruling Wednesday — a week after setting a Jan. 20 trial date for Fox’s suit — and indicated he would issue a more detailed ruling soon. Warner spokesman Scott Rowe declined to comment. Â
Fox filed the suit in February, contending it retains distribution rights to the graphic novel.  The suit asserts that producer Lawrence Gordon’s option to acquire Fox’s remaining interest in ‘Watchmen’ was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under a 1994 turnaround agreement. Warner Bros. has denied Fox’s assertions and contended Fox doesn’t hold the copyright.
Fox originally acquired the rights to ‘Watchmen’ in the late 1980s and spent more than $1 million developing the project, which later went to Universal and then Paramount before landing at Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures.
‘Watchmen’ was scheduled to come out on March 6th, but who knows what this ruling will do to that release date.
What do you think? Â Will Warner and Fox come to an agreement and keep the release date intact? Â Will Fox try to take over the film altogether leaving Warner blowing in the wind? Â Do you think there is even the slightest chance we will never see the ‘Watchmen’ movie Zack Snyder has made? Â Did Fox just ruin your Christmas? Â Let us know by commenting below!
Fans are getting up and arms about the Watchmen ending that is being prognosticated by early screening attendees and the man of the fanboy hour, Zack Snyder. I’m assuming that those who have any vested interest in this post have presumably read the graphic novel, so technically I’m not spoiling anything here.
I have posted an array of angry rants peppered with valid points from all across the blogosphere :
“No squid. Manhattan and Ozy build a device that mimics Manhattan’s power and Ozy uses it to blow up a bunch of cities and frames Manhattan. Manhattan realizes that this is best for the world and so when Rorschach storms out†¦ well we know what happens to him. Dan’s scream in the snow is a reaction to that. After that it wasn’t too clear on the final shots. They did not mention a kid going for a journal or disguised Dan and Laurie visiting Silk Spectre I.â€
The jury says†¦
Second, I think the last bit in this article, which postulates that this ending may be a fake one, meant to mislead audiences might be accurate, because contradictory information HAS been released in the past few months. Patrick Wilson (the actor who plays Nite Owl II) has said that the ending is entirely faithful to the book, so there actually be a giant squid in this film after all.
One more thing: Ozymandias destroying various cities all over the world using ATOMIC ENERGY goes against his goal of PREVENTING nuclear holocaust. This ending sounds like a fake-out in my opinion.
But, if it looks like Manhattan’s doing, the US would be blamed for it, and WWIII would break out anyway. And that’s just the most obvious problem with this ending†¦
I must be one the few “hardcore old-school†fans who doesn’t care a bit about the squid and might actually prefer it be left out, provided the spirit of a “uniting threat†(which is the really important part, as far as the theme and plot go) is left in. But was there really, truly any indication that the New Frontiersman possibly publishing Rorschach’s journal, thereby undoing everything that Veidt has worked so hard to accomplish is getting left out, too? This last thing is a major deal breaker for me. The “cliffhanger†ending is, IMO, one of the greatest endings to any story/piece of literature. It was really powerful for me to be left eternally hanging, not knowing what might happen. I could have sworn that there was earlier confirmation that this was in. Also, why include the journal at all (I’ve seen it in shots from the movie} if you’re not going to do this? Does anyone have any idea what the deal is with this?
For those of you that care and actually read through this entire post – what do you think about all of this? Do you give a shit if the squid is in the film?
You can't win 'em all Zacky
Personally, I never really liked the squid, felt it came out of left field within the context of the story, being so grounded in reality and all. I understand that developing science is a major component in the story, but the squid is a stretch and may be jarring to a modern day movie-goers. I don’t care how advance our CGI is, a squid is a fuckin’ squid, it’s going to look like something out of a cheesey b-rated sci-fi flick. No matter what the early indication, via trailer, is showing I still won’t judge the film until I see the end product myself. We must all bear in mind that this is still another artist’s interpretation of a graphic novel, situations might and could be altered for a smoother transition to film.
My opinion, fuck the squid, Rorschach’s journal is a hundred times more integral to the novel, if this element is missing, then fans should start swinging fists.
The onslaught for ‘Watchmen’ started months ago, but I get the feeling we are in the middle of the hurricane right here. Â Six, new character posters were released today on various websites. Â Including the sweet one above depicting Rorschach, there are the five below. Check ’em out!
These are all pretty nice, but are we really expecting less from anything that comes from this movie? Â I don’t think so. Â Let us know what you think below!
‘Heavy Metal’ publisher Kevin Eastman says the new film anthology is back on track and David Fincher is still involved as the executive producer, but now we actually have a lineup of directors who will be offering their stylistic interpretations including Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen), Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Blade 2) and Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean).
According to Comics2Film.com, production on the film is set to begin at Sony in the fall of 2008, with Blur Studios providing the animation. The movie is scheduled for an August 2010 release date.