Watchmen Final Budget Projections
Initially, Watchmen was greenlit with a budget of $100 million. However, certain factors caused the budget to inflate substantially. Cameron’s decision to replace some of the location shooting with more complicated sets may have made filming easier and faster, but it certainly didn’t make it cheaper. In fact, as aforementioned, it raised the cost of the production by $15 million. Unexpected problems in the rendering of Doctor Manhattan would also increase the CGI budget by nearly $7 million. All in all, unforeseen ancillary expenses in addition to all of this would bring the budget of Watchmen closer to $130 million than $100 million, making it, unadjusted for inflation, the most expensive film ever put produced up to that point.
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Music and Marketing for Watchmen
Originally, James Cameron had intended on working with prolific movie composer Brad Fiedel, who had previously worked with on the
Terminator series, to create the score for
Watchmen. However, Fiedel surprisingly refused, suggesting Philip Glass as a better fit for the material. His contention was that the heavily minimalist influences in Glass’ work were a better fit for the chronic tone of much of the film, especially with regards to Doctor Manhattan and his relation to time and fate [1]. Cameron was initially taken aback by such a move on Fiedel’s part, and skeptical from what he knew about Glass that the composer would sign on. “’I can't shake the idea that no matter how good the script is, no matter how good the production values are, no matter how timely the message and complicated the moral dilemma... I can't shake the idea that Glass would score for what's, at its most basic level, an action movie based on a comic book. He seems too highbrow’”, Cameron said when relating then the story later. “Then Brad smiled and said “Hey man, the guy scored fucking
Candyman. You can get him”. Glass would indeed sign on.
However, it was estimated by producer Joel Silver that maybe a little less than half of all the music onscreen would be credited to whoever the film’s composer would be. The idea was, to help make the film relatable as a cultural touchstone and a dark parody of the 20th century, lots of popular music would be used. Many songs from the past several decades would be used in the soundtrack, with the “ending point” being the 1980’s. In the end, the rights were bought to fourteen different songs, though only twelve of them would make it to the screen (the unused tracks, “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House and “Sugar, Sugar” [1] by the Archies, would be included on the
Music of Watchmen CD). Some critics would actually complain about the overuse of the popular songs in the soundtrack, saying they were distracting in some parts. Roger Ebert would opine in an otherwise positive review that he found the score by Glass more interesting anyway. However, the placing of “Where Is My Mind?” by The Pixies over the ending with Seymour at The New Frontiersman possibly deciding the fate of the world, leading into the credits, was regarded as a strong decision, creating one of the most iconic single movie scenes of the 1990’s.
In fact, another song was essentially created for
Watchmen. The Smashing Pumpkins, an indie band, were asked to make a song to play over Rorschach’s opening monologue and the opening credits. The product, “End of the Beginning” [3], was a weird combination of metal and electronica influences, which was unusual among the band’s discography at the time. When released as a single in March of 1994, it did surprisingly well, reaching a peak position of #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. A music video was released the next month, directed by fledgling Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, portrayed a fed-up urban, blue collar worker (Ron Perlman), fed up with the violence and degradation on the news, donning his own custom leather mask and engaging in acts of vigilantism, interspersed with clips of the Smashing Pumpkins playing at a seedy, smoke-filled club. The video ended with Perlman’s character being shot from behind, then falling down slowly… revealing his killer as The Comedian from
Watchmen, as portrayed by Bruce Campbell. An advertisement for
Watchmen followed its initial broadcast. The video became controversial, as the much-watched MTV premiere of “End of the Beginning” was criticized by moral guardians as extremely violent, and many liberal activists claimed the video endorsed vigilantism. However, the debate created much buzz for Watchmen, slated to come out on July 1st, 1994.
The music video and early release of the single, of course, were just one part of the marketing campaign for the film. The first teaser actually appeared at the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s
Jurassic Park one June 11, 1993. However, as filming had not yet completed, it was a very simple trailer- some narration from Rorschach on a black screen, interspersed with very short, almost subliminal clips from the film, with Philip Glass’ “Prophecies" playing in the background.. Also thrown into the mix was, in bolded white letters, the text “
From Director James Cameron- Based on the Graphic Novel by Alan Moore and David Gibbons- Arnold Schwarzenegger- Kurt Russell- Sharon Stone- WATCHMEN- Summer 1994”. A more complete trailer was ready by the winter of 1993, but for what it was, the original teaser was very effective. It was so confusing, it got people asking questions- leading them to the comic for answers [4]. DC would note that sales of the graphic novel spiked throughout 1993 and 1994.
Which led to the question of secrecy on the project. Studio executives wanted everything to be previewed for the trailers to be released in early 1994. This included the actor playing Rorschach, Mark Hamill, and the appearance of the Squid. While Cameron allowed Mark Hamill’s identity to be known prior to
Watchmen’s release, he was adamant that the Squid not appear. He knew that the comic was becoming more popular, so more people would be aware of the nature of the climax, but he wanted the revamped design of the giant monster to be a surprise, along with its rampage in New York. Cameron eventually won out on this matter.
As the film was geared for a mature audience, no toys would be produced in the wake of its original release. However, Capcom did develop a beat ‘em up game based on
Watchmen for the Sega Genesis video game console, which was released in July of 1994 to a mixed reaction. Marketing was accomplished in other, more unique ways. Posters were made for each of the main characters, with the Rorschach poster in particular, featuring the masked vigilante walking out of the shadows with a huge smear of blood across his chest, with the words "
This city fears me. I have seen it's true face, becoming very popular on it's own in the mid-1990's, especially on college campuses. Blood-stained smiley pins became ubiquitous in comic shops. In many theaters, the poster for the film was simply a paper replica of the Doomsday Clock from the graphic novel behind glass. Each day closer to
Watchmen's premiere, it was moved just a smidge closer to midnight. However, the biggest tie-in ploy was DC reaching out to Moore and Gibbons to write more comics set in the
Watchmen universe, which led to a surprising eventual outcome.
All of the signs going into July 1st were good, and the studio was optimistic about
Watchmen’s prospects…
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[1] Glass is a very interesting and prolific composer. One of his compositions was in fact used for the historical
Watchmen adaptation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsOPR9659Ww
[2] The in-universe reason it wasn’t used in the final film is that test audiences reacted in horror to the context. It was supposed to play over the Vietnam battle sequence, a particularly violent scene, which ended with The Comedian killing an injured Vietcong with his flame thrower whilst laughing. The song was changed to “We Gotta Get Out of this Place”, by the Animals.
[3] Essentially an earlier version of “The End Is the Beginning Is the End”, created for
Batman Forever. The song was used, though, in some spots for historical Watchmen. I can see why- it’s very effective. But again, it’s not exactly the same song.
[4] Similar to the original
Inception teaser, which was notoriously confusing as all hell, but without any comic for people to fall back on for initial answers.
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Thoughts? Comments? Critiques?
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