Holy Sh*t, Batman... I love this.
I came for the glitter (I'm in a glam-funk, disco-punk, dance-rock band) and I stayed for the rich and engaging content. Being born in '87 this is pretty much dictating how I am going to see the world in an immediate and forceful way. You are reinventing my life.
First of all, a gritty, '90's Watchmen is going to fundamentally change the course of superhero films up to the present day. It will (it would appear) succeed where Batman Forever failed and the comic book adaptation craze may trigger early. I can see Marvel countering by riding on the familiarity of the animated X-Men series and releasing an equally as gritty, if not more-so X-Men film series early. Spider-man butterflies can be expected as well...
Then again, there's always an earlier Avengers attempt...
Secondly, Boss N*gger as Governor of Indiana is beautiful. Love it.
M. Night being killed in the riots is bittersweet for me. I'm sad that he had to die to save us all from his movies, but I'm glad we won't be subjected to them.
The way the election went, I was expecting a 2000-esque recount situation. Such turmoil would increase the "art imitates life" aspect of what you're doing here with Watchmen.
Also, I can see a major party realignment opportunity here, one that was narrowly missed IOTL. The Republicans, reeling from defeat and anxious to avoid associations with Duke, now find themselves a close third in a two-party system. With the successes of the libertarian wing and the displaced Perot followers (who are fiscally conservative, like Republicans, but socially liberal - unlike Duke) A long, difficult merger or at least a healthy dialog/alliance between the two is not unlikely - and would be preferable, imho.
Call it returning to the party of the Great Emancipator and the Bullmoose, but with a Libertarian slant. If successful (and with Duke in office, I can't see it being anything else) American party politics by the new millennium may be centered around a strictly more government or less approach.
Fascinating stuff.
On the cultural side:
Brent Spiner will have a significant (compared to OTL) boost in name from Watchmen, leading to perhaps a more significant role in Independence Day. I'm hoping butterflies lead to development hell for Wild Wild West, making Spiner's co-star Will Smith available for The Matrix... which could butterfly Sean Connery into accepting the role of Morpheus.
That's just me.
Edward Norton getting an early boost combined with sci-fi cred has butterfly sanctuaries worth of changes in his career. Looking forward to this, as he is among my favorite modern actors.
Richard Dean Anderson will be able to pull off the wit and grit that masks the Col.'s recent loss, but his name will have little effect on box office gross, excepting maybe the slightly older MacGyver fan crowd, which is significant. I'm for Spader staying but including another big name somewhere, perhaps a bigger name young actor as Ra, and perhaps a more famous actress as Sha'Uri.
Of course, the film being less successful doesn't mean the show will necessarily suffer, and RDA will be more seamless in the role, leading to earlier talk of a sequel which ties into both the film and tv franchises once the film shows strong video sales. The sequel could be the blockbuster the first film was not.
One last request: Can you provide a rather detailed synopses of your Watchmen film? Also, who plays Nixon?
