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Watchmen's Minutemen Revealed Plus Running Time Talk

by Alex Billington
May 27, 2008
Source: AICN, NY Times

Although we've still got around 10 months to go until Zack Snyder's Watchmen hits the big screen, the hype continues to build. The guys over at AICN have revealed the first photo from 1940 of the Minutemen from the Watchmen universe. The Minutemen were a group of costumed avengers that was formed before the events of Watchmen, between 1939 and disbanded ten years later in 1949. Any fans of the comic will definitely appreciate the attention to detail in this photo. In addition to this new photo, Zack Snyder talks in a separate interview about how the film itself is nearing three hours in length. Much of the scope of the graphic novel is finally starting to come together with this adaptation.

From left to right in the photo below: Silhouette, Mothman, Dollar Bill, Nite Owl, Captain Metropolis, The Comedian (kneeling), Silk Spectre, and Hooded Justice.

Seeing this photo gives fans a chance to finally realize that Zack Snyder is keeping the real depth and complexity of the entire story and universe contained within Watchmen. Instead of opting for a simpler story focusing on just what's mainly presented in the comic, Zack's implementing every last detail, including going as far as actually creating an entire Tales of the Black Freighter animated film based on the graphic novel within the graphic novel.

If you're curious to learn more about the significance of all of these old characters in relation to the current Watchmen story, you can read up on all of them over at Wikipedia. Zack has mentioned that a few of them will appear in the film over various time periods, including Carla Gugino as Silk Spectre, Niall Matter as Mothman, Dan Payne as Dollar Bill, and so on.

As for talk of the running time, Zack Snyder mentioned to the NY Times while discussing Tales of the Black Freighter that "the main picture is nearing three hours long and I know I have a fight on my hands just with that." While normally three hours might troublesome, I actually don't think it's a problem with Watchmen. I think I actually recall people saying that if the film isn't three hours, it wouldn't be good anyway. However, it's unlikely Warner Brothers will let Zack keep it that long, simply for the fact that this still needs to sell and long running times are proven box office poison. However, this all ties back in with the fact that he has consistently paid close attention to detail and it's likely that he's probably not leaving out anything - which is all for the better.

Watchmen is directed by Zack Snyder (of Dawn of the Dead and 300) and written by David Hayter (The Scorpion King, X-Men, X-Men 2) and Alex Tse. The movie arrives in theaters everywhere on March 6th, 2009. Stay tuned for even more Watchmen coverage, photos, and more exclusives right here at FS.net!

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