Way to the Greenlight (Part 1)
JCVD
Banned
Joel Silver (Producer; Executive Producer): When you hear the name Watchmen nowadays, the common citizen quickly recognizes it: One of the biggest name on the Pop Culture, characters that teenagers and adults can identify even if they didn't read the comics or watched the movie... But before the movie, talk about Watchmen it was like talking about the Blue Box to anyone who wasn't interested in computing.
Lawrence Gordon (Producer; Executive Producer): It was a bet where we have everything to lose, where ironically Fox became our biggest rival, where the author didn't want to know anything about us, and everything looked like a problem.
James Cameron (Director; Producer): The Abyss was a nightmare of shooting because it required a level of shooting that it hadn't been done ever. It was a nightmare because it was the first kind of its genre... For that reason, I'm still saying that Watchmen was the hardest shooting I've ever done: Because we fought the same problems I had on The Abyss on what should've been a peaceful and easy production.
Lawrence Gordon: There were days where I just regretted having bought the rights of that comic.
James Cameron: It was like if God had decided don't make it easy the production of this movie.
Joel Silver: It was... the oddest years on my career.
In 1986, the comic book publisher DC Comics published the first number of one of the most famous comics on the Contemporary history, Watchmen. The work to adapt a 338-pages story on a full-length film would take 8 years, and continuous problems would try to delay or cancel the project. This is how this adaptation was able to exist.
Between 1986 and 1987, the writer Alan Moore (Collaborating with the artist Dave Gibbons and John Higgins) would publish a 12-issue series narrating a story that was different from all the options it was available in those days.
Robert C. Harvey (Author, Cartoonist): Since the times of Popeye the Sailor, all the cartoonists and writers had tried to create an answer to a simple question: What would happen if the heroes were real?. There have been some attempts to do it, like Captain America or Popeye fighting during World War II. But there was always have been a factor which nobody had thought until Alan Moore did it: What effects could have their presence on the world? Not like "Fewer criminals on the streets", but like on politics, on the society...
Richard Reynolds (Author, "Superheroes: A Modern Mythology"): Watchmen can be seen at the beginning as just the story of superheroes living in a real-like society. But when deeper we get into the story, bigger are the issues and reflections that it offers to us. It asks us if there is a good reason to have heroes in the society, it asks us if those who wear a suit and calls itself "hero" can be one don't care what moves it; it asks us if a hero must risk lives for something bigger and better...
It is not just the story about what would happen if the heroes were real, it is also about what would happen if the heroes had lost all the reasons to be heroes. Think in which are the only heroes those days: The Comedian, a nihilist man who resolves everything with punches and weapons; Rorschach, a person who shares the ideology of fascism, clearly has some mental issues and thinks that justice is everything, even if innocents must die; and Dr. Manhattan, who once was a human but now he doesn't see any reason to be with them. Before this story, all the main characters on the comics were always the heroes, those who we defended their idea about justice and we always wanted to see them win. This was the first big story that the main heroes were... were despicable. We didn't want to see them win for once.
Robert C. Harvey: For the first time, the readers found themselves with doubts about the main characters. This was like taken of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita or Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange: Humbert and Alex share things with the former three-character, one is that we can be fascinated about the character, but we can be aware of never share their point of views because they're getting further of our moral. This was the first time that Superman won't appear to give the readers a happy ending and hopes about the well on the world. And ironically, this series is by far the closest to be a perfect representation of "The Greek Mythology" nowadays: The main heroes on the stories aren't good people, it can be more despicable than the monsters the mythology can offer us.
But for those who investigated everything before the adaption was something real, the bought for the film rights was realized a month prior to the official release of the first issue.
Joel Silver: The main reason why Gordon bought the rights was because of me. I discovered the work of Moore on 1985 when a friend sent me some issues of a British comics anthology called "Warrior" and, on the package, there was a message when he told me about reading the story called V for Vendetta, telling me "It is a story different I've read or see before". And he was right. I've read some comics on my youth, but was mainly Flash, Shazam! and Fantastic Four. I never thought before a comic, which I saw all my life as something for kids, could tell such a serious story. But again, when the Lumière brothers made the Cinematograph, it was seen as a curiosity. But when Melies saw all the potential behind it, he created the cinema as we know it today.
Lawrence Gordon: Early on the august of 1986, Silver came to my office with an article of The Hollywood Reporter where DC Comics announced the sale to acquire the film rights of a comic series they were producing. The announcement had a little resume about the plot, which was very lazy comparing it with the story. It also showed the name of the writer and the cartoonists behind it. Silver talked about the writer, Alan Moore, and one of the previous stories he made, V for Vendetta; how he doesn't write comics or heroes as we could know. But something else called my attention: Warner, when they bought on the 70s DC Comics, they tried to keep the film rights for themselves. Rarely was the occasion where Warner did that, like happened on '82 with the film Swamp Thing, which Warner doesn't have the rights about distribution. But before discussing it, I share my doubts with Silver.
Joel Silver: So after talking like... I don't know, I think I talked for like almost an hour just for convincing him about the bought, he looked at me and tell me "I'm worried that the audience isn't interested in films about superheroes nowadays". And I couldn't blame him: the last movie of DC had been Supergirl, which was a box office bomb, and the news about the budget-cutting of the future Superman IV wasn't a quiet secret; and for the other side, days ago Howard the Duck was released, just to be quickly marked as "one of the worst movies of the year". Maybe it was because producers couldn't understand the new generation, or because they couldn’t make a convincing story, but, till 1989, make a film about a comic book wasn't the best bet to generate money.
But I had faith, and the reason was that this wasn't like Superman or similar. This has just a plot, it has a start, a crux, and an end. I ended convincing him when I said to him that we could buy it and wait to observe the reception. If it was good, then a film about it could be easily a hit on the market; if it was a fail, we would return the rights to DC, with a slight loss. Fox has a lot of films right for books, series, and foreign movies, and lots of them had never been even remembered after years.
Lawrence Gordon: We could accord a meeting with the executives to work on a contract for the end of August. And for when we ended the meeting, I was the owner of the films right of Watchmen. I agreed to pay DC Comics had to pay 185.000$ each year (Including a first payment for the year of 1986) till the production started (Starting with the pre-production), plus a percentage of the film's revenues. So, until the first day of pre-production, Joel Silver and I had invested 1.110.000$ to keep the rights.
Joel Silver: Now, with the rights under Lawrence's property, we decided to investigate how it was going to be the project. After closing the deal and realize the payment, DC Comics sent us the drafts of the first 4 issues. The first two were practically the same that everyone watched when they bought it, with maybe some last-minute changes, but nothing big; the last two were still on B&W, on waiting for the coloring. But during the reading, we realized a basic thing: This wasn't going to be a cheap production. But for the people who don't understand what we're trying to say, by then, the most expensive film had been Superman with a budget of 55 million. And we knew this story was going to need even more.
Lawrence Gordon: I read the four issues and, out of know the fact that the story was going to be a success because it really was something else, I was ready to kill Silver *Laughs*. When I saw Dr. Manhattan, I thought he was going to be the hardest part to do... But then, I read the fourth issue... And I was ready to make Silver swallow the draft on his throat.
It wasn't just Mars, it wasn't just Manhattan, it was also that glass structure he created. Stopmotion? It would take animate it YEARS. Build a real glass structure? That would eat the entire budget. Practical Effects using a miniature? It was glass, it would reflect everything on each angle, and erase it was impossible.
Joel Silver: I remember him putting the draft over the table and tell me "Joel, we can't do that. Fox would never accept to create something like that!". We haven't even started the pre-production, and we found the obstacle of the visuals. We tried to discuss ways to produce it, but he was already regretting the bought.
Lawrence Gordon: I decided to leave the comic to a side, forget it till the release of the official comic, and focus on other projects we were making. And by then, I was praying that nobody got interested in the comic and was a failure, so we could return the rights back to DC and Alan Moore. Pray to God for once on my life and get free of this.
But luckily enough, that pray wasn’t listened. In 1986, to help to promote Watchmen it was released a limited-edition of a badge display card set. That promotion helped when the limited edition quickly sold out around the country. The sales of the limited series were considered by those days one of the biggest commercial success for DC Comics, selling tens of thousands for issue, sometimes even approaching a hundred thousand issues sold. For a year, DC Comics could surpass Marvel Comics on sales thanks to the new story. Acclaimed by fans, professional critic both inside and outside of the comic industry, and even receiving the honor of being the first comic to receive a Hugo Award, fans received with joy and hope the news about 20th Century Fox had bought the rights of Watchmen, waiting with no patience a film adaptation.
Lawrence Gordon: The numbers don't lie. The comic was successful, so the movie had to be it too. But as long we read the other issues, my desperation was getting bigger. Veidt's Antarctic base, the Squid, the ship, more scenes on Mars with the glass structure... Even the simple detail of Bubastis, the genetically modified Lynx, was enough to generate stress. The thing is, for the story, we knew we could adapt it, visually... We were scared. Obviously, lots of them could easily be adapted, but others couldn't.
Joel Silver: After the series ended, Gordon and I decided to contact Alan Moore, the creator, and writer of the series, to contract him as the screenwriter of the official script. The call was short, quick, and that day we learned that Alan Moore was never interested in a film. When we present us and explained what we wanted, he simply said something like "I'm not interested in write the story of a shitty movie"...
Lawrence Gordon: We haven't started to adapt the story, and we knew the creator hated us even with no script. But we could live with it, lots of creators reject their adaptations soon or later. So, while we were working on other projects, we started contacting with screenwriters who wanted to realize a draft.
While they were working on different productions, 20th Century Studios contacted with different writers who could reduce a 338-pages comic book into a script which could be used. Writers like William Goldman, Phil Alden Robinson, Andrew Bergman, and Jeb Stuart rejected the project, being the main reason "Impossible to adapt".
Finally, in 1988, a young writer called Sam Hamm, who worked on different drafts for the future film adaptation of the DC Superhero Batman was approached by 20th Century Studios to adapt the film. The first draft was delivered to the studio and the producers in 1989. Publically, the executives didn't find any problem with the script but, privately, it was another story.
Joel Silver: It was a mess!
Lawrence Gordon: It was something like made by an amateur for a fanzine.
Joel Silver: Things were erased for no reason, things were added for no reason...
Lawrence Gordon: Lots of characters lost a lot of their personality, even with important plot points being erased or just mentioned casually.
Joel Silver: And the end... Oh, God... For a good time, it made me understand the words of Alan Moore!
Lawrence Gordon: The end was basically traveling back to the past, Ozymandias dies on the past, Dr. Manhattan avoids his own existence, breaks all the reality doing that, and Rorschach, Nite Owl, and Silk Spectre being teleported to OUR reality. *Shrugging* Simply, it had stillborn.
Joel Silver: *Sigh* But what the executives found important was something else: It was producible. It could be made with a very normal budget, but we knew what could happen with a poorly written adaptation. Superman IV had been a good example, and we didn't want to recreate something like that. So we had a sword of Damocles: We could make that script knowing that the audience will hate it, making it a box office bomb; or we couldn't make them the script and try to remake it, risking to make that the executives don't want to give green light to the project.
Lawrence Gordon: Sadly, we couldn't start with that job at the moment, we had lots of productions on our hands, so we delayed everything until we could find the time.
But what they ignored those days was that this delay would put the project on risk: After the financial failures of the films Lock Up, Family Business, and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane; the mixed reviews and moderate success of Predator 2, and the infamous over-budgeting for Die Hard 2, their reputation was over thin ice. That would lead to the idea of put the film into turnaround in 1991 after the spent of more than 1 million dollars having just a first draft...
But a tragedy changed everything...
Lawrence Gordon (Producer; Executive Producer): It was a bet where we have everything to lose, where ironically Fox became our biggest rival, where the author didn't want to know anything about us, and everything looked like a problem.
James Cameron (Director; Producer): The Abyss was a nightmare of shooting because it required a level of shooting that it hadn't been done ever. It was a nightmare because it was the first kind of its genre... For that reason, I'm still saying that Watchmen was the hardest shooting I've ever done: Because we fought the same problems I had on The Abyss on what should've been a peaceful and easy production.
Lawrence Gordon: There were days where I just regretted having bought the rights of that comic.
James Cameron: It was like if God had decided don't make it easy the production of this movie.
Joel Silver: It was... the oddest years on my career.
In 1986, the comic book publisher DC Comics published the first number of one of the most famous comics on the Contemporary history, Watchmen. The work to adapt a 338-pages story on a full-length film would take 8 years, and continuous problems would try to delay or cancel the project. This is how this adaptation was able to exist.
Swimming against the current: The Untold Story of Watchmen.
Way to the Greenlight (Part 1)
Way to the Greenlight (Part 1)
Between 1986 and 1987, the writer Alan Moore (Collaborating with the artist Dave Gibbons and John Higgins) would publish a 12-issue series narrating a story that was different from all the options it was available in those days.
Robert C. Harvey (Author, Cartoonist): Since the times of Popeye the Sailor, all the cartoonists and writers had tried to create an answer to a simple question: What would happen if the heroes were real?. There have been some attempts to do it, like Captain America or Popeye fighting during World War II. But there was always have been a factor which nobody had thought until Alan Moore did it: What effects could have their presence on the world? Not like "Fewer criminals on the streets", but like on politics, on the society...
Richard Reynolds (Author, "Superheroes: A Modern Mythology"): Watchmen can be seen at the beginning as just the story of superheroes living in a real-like society. But when deeper we get into the story, bigger are the issues and reflections that it offers to us. It asks us if there is a good reason to have heroes in the society, it asks us if those who wear a suit and calls itself "hero" can be one don't care what moves it; it asks us if a hero must risk lives for something bigger and better...
It is not just the story about what would happen if the heroes were real, it is also about what would happen if the heroes had lost all the reasons to be heroes. Think in which are the only heroes those days: The Comedian, a nihilist man who resolves everything with punches and weapons; Rorschach, a person who shares the ideology of fascism, clearly has some mental issues and thinks that justice is everything, even if innocents must die; and Dr. Manhattan, who once was a human but now he doesn't see any reason to be with them. Before this story, all the main characters on the comics were always the heroes, those who we defended their idea about justice and we always wanted to see them win. This was the first big story that the main heroes were... were despicable. We didn't want to see them win for once.
Robert C. Harvey: For the first time, the readers found themselves with doubts about the main characters. This was like taken of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita or Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange: Humbert and Alex share things with the former three-character, one is that we can be fascinated about the character, but we can be aware of never share their point of views because they're getting further of our moral. This was the first time that Superman won't appear to give the readers a happy ending and hopes about the well on the world. And ironically, this series is by far the closest to be a perfect representation of "The Greek Mythology" nowadays: The main heroes on the stories aren't good people, it can be more despicable than the monsters the mythology can offer us.
But for those who investigated everything before the adaption was something real, the bought for the film rights was realized a month prior to the official release of the first issue.
Joel Silver: The main reason why Gordon bought the rights was because of me. I discovered the work of Moore on 1985 when a friend sent me some issues of a British comics anthology called "Warrior" and, on the package, there was a message when he told me about reading the story called V for Vendetta, telling me "It is a story different I've read or see before". And he was right. I've read some comics on my youth, but was mainly Flash, Shazam! and Fantastic Four. I never thought before a comic, which I saw all my life as something for kids, could tell such a serious story. But again, when the Lumière brothers made the Cinematograph, it was seen as a curiosity. But when Melies saw all the potential behind it, he created the cinema as we know it today.
Lawrence Gordon: Early on the august of 1986, Silver came to my office with an article of The Hollywood Reporter where DC Comics announced the sale to acquire the film rights of a comic series they were producing. The announcement had a little resume about the plot, which was very lazy comparing it with the story. It also showed the name of the writer and the cartoonists behind it. Silver talked about the writer, Alan Moore, and one of the previous stories he made, V for Vendetta; how he doesn't write comics or heroes as we could know. But something else called my attention: Warner, when they bought on the 70s DC Comics, they tried to keep the film rights for themselves. Rarely was the occasion where Warner did that, like happened on '82 with the film Swamp Thing, which Warner doesn't have the rights about distribution. But before discussing it, I share my doubts with Silver.
Joel Silver: So after talking like... I don't know, I think I talked for like almost an hour just for convincing him about the bought, he looked at me and tell me "I'm worried that the audience isn't interested in films about superheroes nowadays". And I couldn't blame him: the last movie of DC had been Supergirl, which was a box office bomb, and the news about the budget-cutting of the future Superman IV wasn't a quiet secret; and for the other side, days ago Howard the Duck was released, just to be quickly marked as "one of the worst movies of the year". Maybe it was because producers couldn't understand the new generation, or because they couldn’t make a convincing story, but, till 1989, make a film about a comic book wasn't the best bet to generate money.
But I had faith, and the reason was that this wasn't like Superman or similar. This has just a plot, it has a start, a crux, and an end. I ended convincing him when I said to him that we could buy it and wait to observe the reception. If it was good, then a film about it could be easily a hit on the market; if it was a fail, we would return the rights to DC, with a slight loss. Fox has a lot of films right for books, series, and foreign movies, and lots of them had never been even remembered after years.
Lawrence Gordon: We could accord a meeting with the executives to work on a contract for the end of August. And for when we ended the meeting, I was the owner of the films right of Watchmen. I agreed to pay DC Comics had to pay 185.000$ each year (Including a first payment for the year of 1986) till the production started (Starting with the pre-production), plus a percentage of the film's revenues. So, until the first day of pre-production, Joel Silver and I had invested 1.110.000$ to keep the rights.
Joel Silver: Now, with the rights under Lawrence's property, we decided to investigate how it was going to be the project. After closing the deal and realize the payment, DC Comics sent us the drafts of the first 4 issues. The first two were practically the same that everyone watched when they bought it, with maybe some last-minute changes, but nothing big; the last two were still on B&W, on waiting for the coloring. But during the reading, we realized a basic thing: This wasn't going to be a cheap production. But for the people who don't understand what we're trying to say, by then, the most expensive film had been Superman with a budget of 55 million. And we knew this story was going to need even more.
Lawrence Gordon: I read the four issues and, out of know the fact that the story was going to be a success because it really was something else, I was ready to kill Silver *Laughs*. When I saw Dr. Manhattan, I thought he was going to be the hardest part to do... But then, I read the fourth issue... And I was ready to make Silver swallow the draft on his throat.
It wasn't just Mars, it wasn't just Manhattan, it was also that glass structure he created. Stopmotion? It would take animate it YEARS. Build a real glass structure? That would eat the entire budget. Practical Effects using a miniature? It was glass, it would reflect everything on each angle, and erase it was impossible.
Joel Silver: I remember him putting the draft over the table and tell me "Joel, we can't do that. Fox would never accept to create something like that!". We haven't even started the pre-production, and we found the obstacle of the visuals. We tried to discuss ways to produce it, but he was already regretting the bought.
Lawrence Gordon: I decided to leave the comic to a side, forget it till the release of the official comic, and focus on other projects we were making. And by then, I was praying that nobody got interested in the comic and was a failure, so we could return the rights back to DC and Alan Moore. Pray to God for once on my life and get free of this.
But luckily enough, that pray wasn’t listened. In 1986, to help to promote Watchmen it was released a limited-edition of a badge display card set. That promotion helped when the limited edition quickly sold out around the country. The sales of the limited series were considered by those days one of the biggest commercial success for DC Comics, selling tens of thousands for issue, sometimes even approaching a hundred thousand issues sold. For a year, DC Comics could surpass Marvel Comics on sales thanks to the new story. Acclaimed by fans, professional critic both inside and outside of the comic industry, and even receiving the honor of being the first comic to receive a Hugo Award, fans received with joy and hope the news about 20th Century Fox had bought the rights of Watchmen, waiting with no patience a film adaptation.
Lawrence Gordon: The numbers don't lie. The comic was successful, so the movie had to be it too. But as long we read the other issues, my desperation was getting bigger. Veidt's Antarctic base, the Squid, the ship, more scenes on Mars with the glass structure... Even the simple detail of Bubastis, the genetically modified Lynx, was enough to generate stress. The thing is, for the story, we knew we could adapt it, visually... We were scared. Obviously, lots of them could easily be adapted, but others couldn't.
Joel Silver: After the series ended, Gordon and I decided to contact Alan Moore, the creator, and writer of the series, to contract him as the screenwriter of the official script. The call was short, quick, and that day we learned that Alan Moore was never interested in a film. When we present us and explained what we wanted, he simply said something like "I'm not interested in write the story of a shitty movie"...
Lawrence Gordon: We haven't started to adapt the story, and we knew the creator hated us even with no script. But we could live with it, lots of creators reject their adaptations soon or later. So, while we were working on other projects, we started contacting with screenwriters who wanted to realize a draft.
While they were working on different productions, 20th Century Studios contacted with different writers who could reduce a 338-pages comic book into a script which could be used. Writers like William Goldman, Phil Alden Robinson, Andrew Bergman, and Jeb Stuart rejected the project, being the main reason "Impossible to adapt".
Finally, in 1988, a young writer called Sam Hamm, who worked on different drafts for the future film adaptation of the DC Superhero Batman was approached by 20th Century Studios to adapt the film. The first draft was delivered to the studio and the producers in 1989. Publically, the executives didn't find any problem with the script but, privately, it was another story.
Joel Silver: It was a mess!
Lawrence Gordon: It was something like made by an amateur for a fanzine.
Joel Silver: Things were erased for no reason, things were added for no reason...
Lawrence Gordon: Lots of characters lost a lot of their personality, even with important plot points being erased or just mentioned casually.
Joel Silver: And the end... Oh, God... For a good time, it made me understand the words of Alan Moore!
Lawrence Gordon: The end was basically traveling back to the past, Ozymandias dies on the past, Dr. Manhattan avoids his own existence, breaks all the reality doing that, and Rorschach, Nite Owl, and Silk Spectre being teleported to OUR reality. *Shrugging* Simply, it had stillborn.
Joel Silver: *Sigh* But what the executives found important was something else: It was producible. It could be made with a very normal budget, but we knew what could happen with a poorly written adaptation. Superman IV had been a good example, and we didn't want to recreate something like that. So we had a sword of Damocles: We could make that script knowing that the audience will hate it, making it a box office bomb; or we couldn't make them the script and try to remake it, risking to make that the executives don't want to give green light to the project.
Lawrence Gordon: Sadly, we couldn't start with that job at the moment, we had lots of productions on our hands, so we delayed everything until we could find the time.
But what they ignored those days was that this delay would put the project on risk: After the financial failures of the films Lock Up, Family Business, and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane; the mixed reviews and moderate success of Predator 2, and the infamous over-budgeting for Die Hard 2, their reputation was over thin ice. That would lead to the idea of put the film into turnaround in 1991 after the spent of more than 1 million dollars having just a first draft...
But a tragedy changed everything...
/#/
So, uhh... Here I am, trying to make a story. But like Jack the Ripper, let's go by pieces.- Yes, I'm sucking the idea of "The Power and the Glitter" by vultan. But this won't be a copy-paste. In fact, of the main cast, just Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mark Hamill, and James Cameron will be there. Out of it, all I'll do will be different (Except one or two ideas that are really good). So, yes. If I'm writing this, is because I love that story and the way vultan wrote it.
- When Lawrence Gordon, Joel Silver, and James Cameron said at the beginning that the shooting was hard... Trust me when I say I'll do everything to make it hard.
- If you find weird this structure, it is because I'm trying to emulate a documentary-like style. It'll change as long as the "documentary" advances.
- I'm open to ideas, reviews, corrections, and all kinds of posts (Except insults. Please, we're mature people here and we don't want hate). If you find weird some elements, please understand that the man behind this isn't a writer or a historian, he is a close-to-be chef.
- I'm also open to grammar corrections. The man behind this loves and understands the English, but he a Spaniard at the end of the day.
- Opinion of Zack Snyder's movie: Visually? Outstanding. Script? A failure!
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