Zack Snyder In The Editing Room With Watchmen

Got this from Sci-Fi Wire this morning.  I hope this means that the DVD will be loaded with extras. – JR

Zack Snyder, director of the upcoming Watchmen, told SCI FI Wire that he is currently in the process of editing down the first director’s cut of the film, which currently runs about three hours long.

“It’s impossible,” Snyder said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Universal City, Calif., on June 24, where he was honored as best director for his film 300.

Snyder added: “The balancing act for me is, you want the movie as tight as possible for, I don’t know why, I guess so people can enjoy it. But for me, the hardest part is just, when is it not Watchmen anymore? I don’t think that’s a danger, but it’s a thing that I am trying to be the gatekeeper of while other forces conspire to say, ‘No. Length, length, length. Playability.’ Whatever the hell that means.”

Based on the seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen is a faithful film adaptation that reproduces many of the original panels in exacting detail. Snyder said that he has been going back and forth with the studio, Warner Brothers, about which scenes should be cut and which ones should remain.

“I’ve lost perspective on that now, because to me, the honest truth is I geek out on little stuff now as much as anybody,” Snyder said. “Like, people will go, ‘We’ve got to cut. You don’t need that shot of Hollis Mason’s garage sign.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? Of course you do. Are you crazy? How will people enjoy the movie without s–t like that in it?’ So it’s hard for me. I think it’s probably good, because I think we’re going to end up with that stuff in the movie.”

Snyder also said that he’s looking forward to showing the film to true comic-book fans at Comic-Con International in San Diego this July.

“Everyone who [made] the movie, loves the movie,” he said. “I’ve never been around so many people that just took the book [so seriously]. It’s like a yearbook. Like, on the set, at the end of the shoot, we all would sign each other’s Watchmen copies. And we had Dave Gibbons in there, too, and he would draw on our books, and it was just sick cool. And so then you come back from that experience, and you go to the studio, and the studio’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t love it like we do. Right? It’s like just a movie, like, ‘Oh, we have this movie, Watchmen, and it’s f–king long.’ Like, ‘What are these superheroes? They look crazy.’ So you have that experience. So for me, right now, I’m in the middle of that. So for me to go to Comic-Con is to get a chance to go back to people that love it.”

Watchmen is scheduled for release on March 6, 2009. –Cindy White

Source: Sci Fi Wire