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Zack Snyder Confirms Watchmen Director's Cut Still Coming

by Alex Billington
April 3, 2009
Source: Cinema Blend, SlashFilm

Also receiving an award at ShoWest yesterday was Zack Snyder, who was obviously asked about all things Watchmen and nothing Sucker Punch. One important question, however, was in regards to whether or not Warner Brothers will still re-release the extended director's cut of Watchmen back in theaters in July as originally planned, since it didn't perform well at the box office. But wait - before Snyder answered that, he made sure to compare the opening box office of Monsters vs. Aliens ($59.3 million) to his own movie ($55.2 million), then ask why people were saying that Watchmen wasn't being called a big hit as well?

Anyway, Snyder went on to say, "I think that's still happening. I think they're still going to do a limited run of it, or they're still talking about it anyway." When the news first hit that it would be coming back to the theaters in July, Snyder hinted that it might be very limited, like only in New York and Los Angeles. He added: "If you didn't have enough in 2 hours and 40 minutes, you'll have 3 hours and 10 minutes, and I think there is 3 hours and 30 minutes coming, so there'll be a lot more Watchmen to come, regardless of how people feel about it." Even if you're not up for seeing Watchmen again now, you might be by summer.

Even though I loved Watchmen, there are plenty of people who didn't and yet are still excited to see the director's cut, just to see how much more depth Snyder actually added. I'm also looking forward to certain scenes like Hollis Mason's death (which was cut from the original release). Obviously we'll let you know whether this actually happens closer to July. Thanks to both Cinema Blend and SlashFilm for the updates.

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Xerxex

Good thing the theartical cut was brilliant who knows how much better the Directors cut will be!
Al

i was thinking the same thing in reguards to Watchmen not being considered a hit. I mean especially when Box Office Mojo said Race To Witch Mountain had a phenomenal opener, of less then half of Watchmens....just cause it was highly anticipated doesn't mean 55 as an opening is bad. But i digress, i really hope (yet really doubt) Directors Cut will come to a theater near me...hopefully i live 35 minutes from NYC
DoomCanoe

OH GOD PLEASE NOOOO! the last thing this movie needs is length. Monsters vs Aliens sucked and its good to know it beat out Watchman. Even though it had a spring break release and all the parents took there children to see it which would most definitely pull in more on an opening week so i guess the timing was a little unfair but still both films blew! Only way ill watch this movie again is if they add a new sound track, placing in tunes that fit the feel of the movie instead of the time period of the scenes. and if they make it shorter! for fucks sake
nelson

cant wait watchmen is still my fav film of 09 so far
Hey Ya

Seen it 4 times and I'm waiting for the Director's Cut in theaters!
Al

#3, im guessing you havent read the source material. the only thing holding watchmen back was that it didn't include the minor characters it needed to make the ending as powerful as it was. Basically, adding about an hour to the film will greatly improve the film.
sc

Obviously, MvA is a hit and Watchmen is a failure even though they had similar openings, because MvA will hold much better than Watchmen. MvA is a crowd-pleasing family film, while Watchmen is nerd film with poor word-of-mouth. All the nerds rushed out to see Watchmen opening weekend, but families are in no hurry and plenty will see MvA in later weeks. So at the end of their theatrical runs, MvA will have about double the gross of Watchmen, and the disparity will be even greater for international.
http://Movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

While WATCHMEN's opening weekend of 70M+ was unrealistic, the opening weekend drops of 60+% is what made it a flop. Also it cost a lot more than it cost for MONSTERS VS AlIENS to make and I think we can agree that MONSTERS won't burn out like WATCHMEN did either for a gross of close to 200M.
http://rtgmediaphiles.blogspot.com Dan W

I am yearning for the directors cut. I felt that not having the small characters in the film took away from the whole feeling and life of the story. I am excited to see what else Snyder has done because he has done a great job at least at filming the novel so the more the better
http://entertainmenttodayandbeyond.com entertainmenttodayandbeyond.com

WB will not release a directors cut in wide release. It will probably play in 400 theaters across the country at most. Also Monsters VS Aliens will have some legs at the box-office, Watchmen had none. Watchmen was really good in my opinion. chuck
Dan

Somebody once said that watchmen was doomed to be a cult classic and full agree with that statement. It doesnt have the wide appeal that MvA would have, it's tiered mostly to the people who read the book. For my brother who hasnt read it, for example, it took him 2 viewings to fully get the story. With my other friends, this seemed to be the case also. Apparently the jumping around and such really confused them? i dunno.
Eric

Al, I agree with you. I have read the graphic novel and I think that adding material would be awesome. As far as the people who saw the movie and didn't like it......um what where you expecting? This never said that this was anything but a nerd flick ment to satisfy comic fans. And while I do agree with the MvA comment it's not a really fair to compare a KID movie to an ADULT movie. Of course parents wil take their kids to see a kid movie. I can't wait for the DVD release of that movie
J. Jonah Hexas Texas

Add more length can only improve the overall product. Anyone who has read the limited comic series, and it IS a limited comic series, not a graphic novel, not a book, not a novel, but a 12 issue comic series, and anyone who has read it knows why more length will do justice to the story and flesh everything out more. If you haven't read the 12 issue limited comic series, then why are we even having this conversation? Because you know not what you speak of.
Eric

Well J.J., I wasn't born when it made it's run so I picked it up after it had been put into graphic novel form. But I agree with you what do you think about the MvA comments?
werdnafaz

bring on the pirates aggghhrrr
Fisherr

"If you didn't have enough in 2 hours and 40 minutes, you'll have 3 hours and 10 minutes, and I think there is 3 hours and 30 minutes coming, so there'll be a lot more Watchmen to come, regardless of how people feel about it" I believe you Zack,it looks like there is still alot to watch in the movie.
Joseph S.

I'll wait for the DVD.
Squiggly

I liked Watchmen, but the pace of the film compared to the book - even with all of the cut scenes and sub-plots - was frenetic as hell. I dunno why people were saying that film was slow or boring, cause I personally was extremely annoyed with the lack of breathing room in the film. There was this constant sense that every new scene was stepping on the toes of the previous scene. The Manhattan backstory stuff was just... He gets atomized and the VERY NEXT SHOT is the floating circulatory system. It doesn't even fade into the shot or anything, you just cut right to the image of a glowing blue circulatory system. And then another cut to a screaming, partially muscled skeleton. The whole Manhattan thing was rushed as fuck. He pops onto Mars and just immediately starts narrating. They skip over some of the most important bits of that scene, and I don't think the time aspect is really played up. The fact that that scene ISN'T a series of flashbacks, but the fact that all of them are all happening at once for him. The photo - one of the key elements of the scene in the book - is all but ignored. "The photo is falling. It's in my hand. It waits for me in the ruins of the base." or however the hell that scene went. They don't even do the simplest scene, which is also possibly the most important, visually, of his father throwing the watch parts away. I dunno... I would be happy if they would NOT add anything, and just re-edit the film as it is now to pad things out properly and apply maybe an extra ten or so minutes just from that alone. Adding more scenes or extending the more truncated versions to a more complete state would be great, but give the shit some elbow room for fuck's sake.
Brad

Meh, the biggest problem I had with Snyder's take on Watchmen is his immature direction. He turned a couple of mild murder scenes into blatent gorefests and a sex scene into softporn. Bloody hope he grows up a bit before his next film hits. Blood, tits and slowmotion is all he knows how to do, and it's ridiculous.
Bezelbub

Yes Watchmen had a big opening the first week because that was all the fans of the comics and the huge buzz around it. Once the second week came around and all the fans have already seen the film couldnt hold it weight and sank big time. It was hurt by the length of the film as well as non-fans of the comics coming out not really caring for it. They were hoping to reach Batman number and in order for that to happen you have to make a film as good as that. If you cut out the foreign box office the film has only made about 105 million dollars and the budget for the film is around 150 million. It grossed around 55-70 the first weekend and then fell to 17 million the second week. Monsters vs Aliens took in about 59 million first weekend and held to around 33 million the second weekend. It's not really fair to but these two together because Monsters is a kids movie and of course the box office would be better. BTW Fast and the Furious re-boot made 72 million over the weekend so that beats watchmen and Monsters for first weekend. Wow I spent to much time on this!!LOL
Roy

I welcome the extended cut, because "Watchmen" is a damn, brilliant film. Anyone who doesn't like that is a coward and a half.
EricInWisconsin

'Watchmen' is destined to become a cult classic. That's sad, but should have been expected. It was made from the viewpoint of someone who has read the graphic novel. If you haven't read it, you probably won't like 'Watchmen'. Having said that, I think Warner Brothers plans to write the film off as a tax loss... with a little creative accounting. If it made $105 million domestically, chances are it will more than break even when the International take and DVD sales are calculated in. It won't make as much as 'Dark Knight' but someone will still be turning a tidy profit; just not all that they wanted.
wm

MvA wasn't really expected to make the amount of money Watchmen was predicted to make, that's why MvA was considered a success and Watchmen wasn't??
lando

I dont know...I liked it less the second time around! a third time might just put a spotlight on some of the large holes in this movie. Still, props to Zack for giving it the respect it deserved..I read these monthly for the year they came out and felt no one could ever come close to getting it right! yes, i hated the ending. I hated the reworking...that story had to be told 100% accurately or not at all.