Watchmen (comics)/Trivia

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The Comic Book

• Approval of God: Alan Moore has said that Harry Partridge's Saturday Morning Watchmen is the only adaptation of his work which he approves of. Dave Gibbons loved it, too.
• Creator Backlash: Alan Moore does not like the idea of the upcoming Prequel books for Watchmen, and does not want them to happen. Dave Gibbons, on the other hand, was more open to the idea, even wishing the new team of writers and artists well.

The Film Adaptation

• Disowned Adaptation: Zack Snyder once said that the best-case scenario of ever getting Alan Moore to watch his movie was that there might come one odd day where Moore accidentally puts the DVD into his player and turns it off after a second. Moore replied to this by saying Snyder was giving the movie too much credit.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: John Winchester is the Comedian?
  • Mickey from Seinfeld is Big Figure?
  • Kelly Leak from Bad News Bears is Rorschach?
  • Some people initially assumed it was That Guy from Iron Man playing the Comedian.
  • While some others assumed it was That Guy from No Country for Old Men.
  • Seven year old Rorschach was seven year old Leonidas in a previous life.
  • In a rather ironic casting decision, one of Nixon's military advisers is the Russian general from Stargate SG-1.
    • Athena's hand just exploded. Serves her right for breaking Vala's brain.
  • Lt. Gaeta has a cameo to say "He's on Mars."
  • On the Retroactive Recognition side of the trope, it's rather weird watching something fluffy like Chasing Liberty or Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" and realizing that Ozymandias is the romantic lead in both.
    • Don't forget his more recent project
  • Rorschach's former partner is the pedophile from Hard Candy.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: In the Mexican Spanish dub, Snape (or Tony Montana) is Rorschach, Doraemon is Nite Owl II, Hermione (or Cure Bloom) is Silk Spectre II, Rambo is Dr. Manhattan, Luke Skywalker (or Rick Hunter) is Ozymandias, Indiana Jones is The Comedian, Pumbaa is Nite Owl I, and Belle is Sally Jupiter.
  • In the Italian one, Char Aznable is Rorschach, Dexter is Nite Owl II, Haruhi Suzumiya is Silk Spectre II, Kenshiro is Dr. Manhattan, Fred Jones is Ozymandias, Iron Man is The Comedian, Bender is Nite Owl I, and Bart Simpson is Sally Jupiter.
  • It gets even more complicated with the seiyuu from the Japanese dub: Rorschach is Cid Highwind, Silk Specter I is Maria Tachibana and her daughter and successor is Marida Cruz. The Comedian is Toki, Ozymandias is Kamille Bidan and Dr. Manhattan is Ali al-Saachez.
  • In the Brazillian dub, Rorscharch is Vash, Nite Owl II is Jerry and Dr. Manhattan is Cosmo.
• What Could Have Been: Jude Law was cast as Ozymandias, and was attached to the role late enough in preproduction that his likeness is clearly recognizable in the character's costume sketch. Law's reasons for dropping out remain unknown, and he was replaced by the then-relatively unknown Matthew Goode instead, in keeping with the idea that the story should be a bigger star than the actors involved.
  • Jude Law had also expressed interest in playing Rorschach.
  • Tom Cruise as Dr. Manhattan, Ron Perlman as the Comedian, Terry Gilliam directing...the list goes on and on.
    • An early script had Robin Williams attached as Rorschach, Kevin Costner as Ozymandias, and Gary Busey as the Comedian. Then again, this script also featured an almost gratuitous Gainax Ending, and was played for comedy, so it's probably a good thing this never happened...
  • Aside from Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Greengrass and David Hayter were all attached to direct at various points. Gilliam had a screenplay written by Sam Hamm (writer of Tim Burton's Batman) to work with, while the others had one by Hayter himself. Much like the final film and more so than Hamm's, Hayter's treatment was pretty faithful, more prone to simplifying or cutting things out rather than changing them. However, it was set in the then-present day (2005), Laurie's alias was changed to "Slingshot" (Dr. Manhattan gives her the power to shoot energy balls), and the ending is changed even further than it was for the final film. The squid is also replaced, this time by a solar energy beam. More importantly, Nite Owl changes his mind about compromising and (barely) defeats and kills Ozymandias, since "that's what Rorschach would've done.". Well, having worked on Metal Gear Solid really makes your mind go places. Though, according to Hayter, he actually managed to get the approval of Alan Moore concerning his version of the screenplay.
  • Sam Hamm's draft changes the ending even more, as instead of attacking New York at all, Ozymandias opens a wormhole back in time and uses it to kill Jon Osterman before he becomes Dr. Manhattan. This somehow has the effect of dumping the main characters into our world, and turning their timeline into a comic book. There's a reason that the fandom talks about the early screenplays not in terms of "It could have been", but in terms of "At least it wasn't."
• 200 sets were used during the filming of the movie.