What Could Have Been: The rights to Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel were originally purchased way back in 1986 with Sam Hamm, writer of Tim Burton's Batman, turning in a script two years later that differed greatly from the source material. Terry Gilliam signed on to direct in 1991 and the project went through extensive rewrites to remain more faithful to the original, and even began storyboarding, but couldn't find a way to successfully reduce the script to an acceptable length without losing the power of the original book. Due to a reputation for going over-budget, Gilliam and producer Joel Silver couldn't raise anywhere near the $100m necessary to bring the project to the big screen and the director ultimately decided that a Watchmen movie was unfilmable and pitched a five-hour miniseries instead, before abandoning the project altogether. What We Got Instead: After decades in development hell that saw numerous writers and directors pass through the project, and a complicated battle over the rights, Zack Snyder signed on in 2006 and the 'unfilmable' adaptation was finally made with a budget of $130m. One of the most interesting comic book movies ever made, Snyder's effort is almost too faithful to the source material to stand on its own merit, and never recaptures the brilliance of the opening few minutes. The final product greatly divided opinion, and saw disappointing box office returns of $158.3m. The Verdict: Snyder's movie should be applauded for its ambition, and keeps true to the material's darker tone and features some great visuals, but it is far too slavish an adaptation. Changing the ending of the book was a bold move, but delivers a climax that is much more cinematic. Gilliam's take would no doubt have been visually stunning but would also have greatly deviated from the source, and as a director his unique style tends to work much better on smaller projects. It was also rumored that Joel Silver wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger to play Doctor Manhattan; imagine a naked version of Batman and Robin's Mr. Freeze. In fact, on second thought, don't.
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