Jude Law wants to be in Watchmen!

[andrewducker]

Jude Law told the Empire Online Web site that he is interested in playing Ozymandias in Darren Aronofsky's upcoming film version of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen. Law told the site that he is an avid comic-book collector. "I still go to comic shops, Forbidden Planet, and look through back issues of the ones I love," he said. "I was a big fan of Johnny Nemo and Strange Days, Parallax, you know those? But I haven't gotten into anything recently, not like I did with [Moore's] From Hell and Watchmen."

In Watchmen, Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, is a former superhero and the smartest and richest man in the world. When informed of Aronofsky's film, Law reportedly said, "Darren Aronofsky? I'm on the phone now! Adrian Veidt, king of kings!" And then, as if to show off his Watchmen fanboy credentials, he whispered conspiratorially, "I'm tattooed with Rorschach, did you know that?" Empire reported.

Watchmen is considered one of the greatest comic books of all time. X-Men screenwriter David Hayter wrote the script for Watchmen, the site reported. Filming is tentatively scheduled for late 2005, allowing Aronofsky time to finish The Fountain, his SF epic starring Hugh Jackman.

Comments

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Chud.com had something on the same story, but it was less hopeful. I don't have a link (I'm at work and shouldn't even be looking at LJ), but it was from last day or so.

[drjon.livejournal.com]

Law could pull that masturbating weasel Veidt off. Well, I think.

[mb2u]

I'd love to see an adaptation of Watchmen, but...

* None of Alan Moore's comics has come of well being adapted to the screen.

* Moore himself said he thinks Watchmen was presented in the best format possible already.

* (spoiler alert)








A movie that has half of Manhattan being destroyed is probably not going to go over too well in a post 9-11 America. And without the entire plotline involving Veidt and his plans to create a greater enemy to unite the world, what's left?

You know, there's an interesting bit here about parallels between Watchmen and now, and I think I need to think about it more...

[jerrykaufman.livejournal.com]

Go ahead, destroy Manhattan! The Day After Tomorrow did so, and I think it performed acceptably at the box office. (I haven't seen it yet, so won't comment on any "artistic" merits.)

[mb2u]

I think there's a difference here. In The Day After Tomorrow, it's a natural disaster (predicated on man's actions but still...); in Watchmen, it's the act of one man's planning and desire to cause havoc.

Remember when just after 9-11 producers were urged to cut out references to the WTC? There was, and is, a certain sensativity to the percieved destruction of NYC because of what happened that day. I think it's being overly PC, but I am a realist and know that people in this country sometimes are not very rational.

[andrewducker]

I agree that it won't be as good as the comic.

But the review I've seen of the script at
http://linux10985.dn.net/display.cgi?id=13607
seemed largely positive, so I can look forward to that.

An Aaronofsky is one of my favourite directors (albeit after 2 films).