Café de Nuit

Anyone else catch this trailer? I saw it before Dark Knight this weekend, and was encouraged: it looks like they're putting in the effort it deserves.

For those who haven't heard, BTW, they'll be releasing an animated Tales from the Black Freighter on DVD, the week after Watchmen hits theaters.

I'm cautiously excited. It looks like it has a lot of potential, but I don't want to get my hopes up too high.

Just to show my age (48 today), I had to look up on Wikipedia who & what the Watchmen were after seeing the Batman movie last weekend, I had never heard of them before.

The King of Collectors never heard of Watchmen?

James: go directly to the nearest comic store. Now. Do not delay to go in to work, to feed the cats, or to use the bathroom. That book is to graphic novels what LotR is to fantasy, and JRRT didn't layer in real-world social commentary to boot.

Rotipher of the FoS wrote:The King of Collectors never heard of Watchmen?

James: go directly to the nearest comic store. Now. Do not delay to go in to work, to feed the cats, or to use the bathroom. That book is to graphic novels what LotR is to fantasy, and JRRT didn't layer in real-world social commentary to boot.

I did already look on eBay, as my town doesn't have a comic store. What I saw of the Watchmen was insanely priced.

EDIT: I have since bought the book & read it. It's been re-released and has actually made the best seller list since the trailer came out. I ended up having to read the Wiki on it as well, as on a first read, I thought it was pretty lame & needed to find out what all the fuss has been about. Moore himself said it was not intended to be properly understood with just one reading, perhaps I'll give it another go in a couple months.

You should be able to order the Watchmen trade paperback at a reasonable price from someplace like Amazon. (And there will probably be a new edition with the movie coming out.)

I'm... torn on the new film. I'm not so crazy about this desaturated-color look that some comic films have been sporting post-Sin City (which reminds me: f**k you Frank Miller for turning The Spirit into Sin City Lite).

Try amazon.com then. AFAIK, the compiled graphic novel's never been out of print.

Edit: Just checked Amazon myself, and the Watchmen graphic novel is currently available for $11. Your order might take a little while to arrive, though, as it's apparently shot up to #2 on their book-sales list like a rocket. (Guess a lot of people liked that trailer! ) Not sure how long their supply will keep up with demand.

Brandi wrote:I'm... torn on the new film. I'm not so crazy about this desaturated-color look that some comic films have been sporting post-Sin City

Well, the trailer didn't look anything like that. Far as I could tell, it looked like they were sticking pretty close to the original color-scheme and style, with a few exceptions (e.g. Dr. M really does resemble living blue energy, not just a blue naked dude).

JinnTolser wrote:I'm cautiously excited.

Perfect choice of words, Jinn. I love the graphic novel. It could be a great movie. But it could also get meddled with until it's crap, like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I've already heard they may have changed the ending drastically, which is crazy-talk. The trailer did look great, though, (as opposed to the Spirit trailer. ugh, I agree with Brandi, there.) So "cautiously excited," it is.

Jim, I'm tempted to mail you my copy, but the postage would be almost as much as buying it from Amazon. <-- wrong smiley for this topic.

I have never read the comic book. I did go see the Dark Knight this weekend by the way. I really enjoyed the trailer for the Watchmen. As I've no previous experience with the Watchmen(Though my DM Jonathan Winters raves about the comic book) I think I am sold by the preview of it and will go see it when it comes out! Ok I am opening a thread for the Dark Knight movie as it was much better than I expected!

Here´s a link to a Trailer.

It'd be hard to pull off the ending. It'd bring back alot of nasty feelings for Americans. And it's not as contemporary now, given it's now twenty years since the original publication. The politics of 1985/6 are a little fuzzy and the nuclear threat long since gone.

I'm more worried by how badass everyone looks. Especially Nite-owl. It was meant to be more real-world heroes and comics with a gritty, dark realism. Much like the new Batman and such. Having them being slightly fantastic and the movie more, well, Hollywood, detracts from that realism.

I'm not sure how well it will translate, to be honest. Having recently read the story, I just don't think it will work well on screen (even Alan Moore said it wouldn't and wasn't meant to). But of course, the story was so good that I'm going to go watch it. Absolutely outstanding.

gonzoron wrote:

JinnTolser wrote:I'm cautiously excited.

Perfect choice of words, Jinn. I love the graphic novel. It could be a great movie. But it could also get meddled with until it's crap, like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I've already heard they may have changed the ending drastically, which is crazy-talk. The trailer did look great, though, (as opposed to the Spirit trailer. ugh, I agree with Brandi, there.) So "cautiously excited," it is.

See, I'm the opposite with regards to LXG. I didn't care for Moore's original at all, but found the movie a lot more exciting. Certainly cheesy, but not just flat-out boring like the graphic novels were to me.

Jester of the FoS wrote:It'd be hard to pull off the ending. It'd bring back alot of nasty feelings for Americans. And it's not as contemporary now, given it's now twenty years since the original publication. The politics of 1985/6 are a little fuzzy and the nuclear threat long since gone.

And that's what worries me. Because Watchmen is more than 20 years old now, Hollywood might treat it like they would a remake of an old movie, and decide to mess with the events of the store to make it more "relevant" to our times. And that never turns out well IMO.

If it's more contemporary like the Iron Man movie was, I think something can be done.

After Spider-Man 1, 2 (3 was ok) and Batman Begins and Dark Knight, there are no more excuses to make bad comic book movies.

It looked very good.

About Nite-Owl, maybe it was a flashback to when he was slimmer?

Apparently it will be something like three hours long. Which they will need every minute of. Still not sure why this is not two or three movies like LotR.

Patrick