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The Internet is filling up with chatter here and here about how Dan DiDio, the SVP/Executive Editor for DC Comics, is determined to push not only a sequel to the Watchmen graphic novel, but a multiple prequel comic book miniseries and other spin-offs to his new bosses. And how he’s already looking for creators to do them. This is because of — what else? — money: Watchmen has become DC’s bestselling comic book of all time. Naturally, everyone’s now speculating about a sequel to Zack Snyder’s underperforming Watchmen movie from Warner Bros/20th Century Fox/Paramount, especially because there’s contract language for that possibility. (No matter how impossible storywise.) But a well-placed insider tells me: “There is no truth to anything related to a movie sequel. Not a chance by a longshot. With regards to the comics, well, I guess anything is possible. I’ll keep my opinion to myself as to whether it’s a smart idea to do so.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Thank God!
Unfortunately they’ll just “reboot” the franchise in a couple years — only now they’re all in high school and still fucking lame.
Bwahaha. Hilarious.
In Freshman PE, Rorschach’s lockermate says: “Dude, did you know that when you dry off your face with the white towel, you totally have black splotchy things that move around?”
Yeah they’re gonna use the technique they used for Nutty Professor and have Robert Pattinson play every on-screen character.
I read Watchmen over 20 years ago, when Terry Gilliam was in talks to make the film. This was around the time Tim Burton was half-ruining Batman by casting Keaton and Basinger (and generally not knowing how to make a superhero film) but half-helping it by doing the “what year is it/Streets of Fire” design treatment.
I thought the “Watchmen” Snyder made was very true to the source, and about as good a film as you can make from Moore’s comic.
Did no one actually read the book? It is not a “good vs. evil” story. EVERYONE in the comic is mentally ill on some level, from anxiety and mid-life crisis to flat out psychosis. There is no joy, no triumph, no genuine hope. It’s just a miserable tale of miserable people.
People loved the COMIC because it deconstructed comic book mythos and treated the characters as one would if they were real, as totally fucked up losers. It is the OPPOSITE of a good time. It is an intellectual comic book.
WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO SEE A MOVIE ABOUT DEPRESSED, EMOTIONALLY CHALLENGED SUPERBEINGS WHO WHINE TO EACH IN COSTUME?
Given that, I was amazed at how successful the film actually was.
You say “under-performing” and yes, from a “movie business” perspective, that is actually a generous description.
The graphic novel is dense, dull and introspective. Oh yeah, someone pass me the popcorn! That would make a great movie!
Given what he had to work with, Zack Snyder did a great job. I don’t think there is any way, in any alternate universe, on Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-S or Earth-X, that you could make a crowd-pleasing blockbuster film from that material.
Ever notice that NONE of Moore’s comics make good films? NOT ONE.
I can hear Blake Snyder (no relation to Zack that I know of) calling from the beyond, telling me why. He’s right, too.
My point (finally, I know) is that people seem to think the movie is disappointing, even though it captures the graphic novel very well.
The problem is that the Watchmen, the graphic novel by Alan Moore, is terrible source material for a film, especially one that needs to turn a profit. Stop blaming the movie and blame the book.
Wow. There’s an understood, not-often-discussed edict understood by both comics fans and comics creators:
Thou Shalt Not Do Any Continuation of Watchmen.
So Dan Didio appears to be bound and determined to get himself fired for what would instantly become the biggest debacle in *modern* comics history. It would be the Lenogate of comics.
I don’t think alienating the entire industry and its consumers is a good way for Didio to try to impress his new bosses at DC/Warner.
— Rob
The Watchmen did lackluster box office, so what’s the point of a film sequel.
As for any comic sequel, Watchmen author Alan Moore won’t pick up the phone for DC comics. They’ll need a new writer. Alan Moore is a hard guy to follow. Most writers with any common sense won’t try.
A major theme of the Watchmen film’s promotion was the prestige the original comic series had in fan circles. Any new cash-in on the name will not share such reverence among the convention crowd. In fact, it will most likely be the target of hostility much as Frank Miller’s Dark Knight 2 series was. Comic book fans will find the idea of a Watchmen sequel (comic or film) about as dumb as ‘Hamlet: The Early Years’ or ‘Gone with the Wind Part II’.
Biggest piece of crap movie I have ever seen!
The dirty little secret, as I’ve blogged extensively, is that today’s comic books DO NOT MAKE MONEY, and are not intended to make money. DC, Marvel, basically act as holding operations for intellectual property. Wonder Woman comics, for example, sell in the area of 20K copies or so the last few years, and probably cost more to produce than they take in. But by keeping the title running, DC/Warners keeps the character, instead of the rights reverting to the estate of the creator.
Facts about comic books: almost all titles are sold, weekly, at dedicated comic book shops (instead of supermarkets and drug stores as in decades past). Distributor Diamond has a lock on distributing the comics to comic book shops, and there are only about 2,000 in the US. The comics are pricey, around $5 a copy, and oriented explicitly to adult men ages 35-45. The comics themselves have a hard leftist bent, and are for mature readers.
There is nothing in the current writing to appeal to 9-12 year old boys, the way the Golden, Silver, and even early 1990′s comic bubble age did.
The comic book movies that MADE MONEY: Spider-Man, Iron Man, Batman, etc. followed work done in the mid 1960′s (Stan Lee) or early 1980′s (Batman as “Dark Knight” by first Denny O’Neil and THEN Frank Miller). This was stuff designed to appeal to BOTH young boys and be appreciated as an adventure tale by the men writing it. The movies that LOST MONEY were based on either flawed conceptions of what made the characters, in many cases, 40+ year favorites (Superman Returns, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, the Punisher), or comics that NEVER HAD MUCH APPEAL TO A BROAD AUDIENCE in the first place: Watchmen, Wanted, etc.
Watchmen IS the best-selling comic book now, but compared to say, the early 1990′s comic bubble of 2 million copies sold of “Adventures of Superman” or the mid 1940′s when Superman’s titles sold about 4 million a piece (with far less people) that’s not saying much. Superman’s titles now sell about 100K copies or so.
Comic book characters are pretty simple. They are about basic emotions and situations that young boys/men feel, in fantastic situations. Revenge in a “moral” format (Batman, the Punisher, Daredevil), responsibility at a young age (Superman, Spider-Man), and so on. Putting them in HS is NOT a fix for failing to reach and evoke these basic feelings in a satisfactory manner.
Watchmen failed at the box office because it was a 1980′s political diatribe against Reagan and Thatcher, long gone from the scene and irrelevant to the basic emotional concerns of the young male target audience: “how will I become a man, what sort of man, will I get the girl, etc.”
None of the male audience found a superhero they wanted to be, so they just didn’t buy tickets (or buy the DVDs). Just because its a comic book doesn’t mean it will sell movie tickets or DVDs.
Watchmen failed at the box office because the hardcore fans of the comic book knew that there’s no way the intricately written story could possibly be condensed to two and a half hours without making some serious changes. Once word leaked out that the ending of the comic had been completely changed, the fans bailed.
Additionally, the marketing of the movie was abysmal. It weirdly focused on Zach Snyder and gave no indication to the uninitiated just what the heck the story was supposed to be about. Compare Watchmen trailers to the two Christopher Nolan Batman films and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Last, the movie was poorly cast, and lacked any name that would attract the uninitiated. Malin Ackerman didn’t help either.
completely disagree with Ghost Rider not making money. I was one of many who greatly enjoyed it. And the sequel will be better (for all those who “hated” the first).
$228,738,393 gross $110 million budget. seems to me a decent profit. also a 2 movie in the works.
further more I dont know where you get your statistics but you dont need to make things up to make a point. Average cost for comic books is 2.99 to 3.99. I pay even less then that on ebay.
there are also kids titles in both DC & Marvel.
so I realize what you are saying, and personally if Watchman had followed the book, and not had the explicit sex scene it would have made more money. the comic didnt have that sex scene scene portrayed that way, if any at all. Moore had alot more class than that in his series. True there was violence and innuendo and suggestion and alot more mature scenes than your average early 1980s comic BUT really Watchmen didnt perform that bad considering the overall characters & subject matter. I just think Warner was flying high off of Batman and thought they had a big win streak.
You know if folks ever remember the 1960s movie Oliver! ? well it had everything..sex, violence, you name it, it had it, yet you could take a kid to it and the adults could appreciate too. in one sense adults had a stake in it, and the kids in another. its ashame that it has become a lost art to be able to do a picture like that these days. Look at Psycho. one of the creepiest and deadliest movies ever made, yet, for all of the knife killing, you never really see a knife go into a body.
secondly, FF series was very enjoyable too. We will get a 3rd one. albeit a reboot one.
all super movies cant be Dark Knight or SPIDY 2. even spidy is being rebooted and it has nothing to do with the quality of the plot of the first 3 being not up to stan lee’s 1960s standards.
cheers.
Amen, Whiskey. Amen.
Whiskey,
Yours obvious biases and frustrations – some that I share myself – are leading you to twist facts.
If they didn’t make money, new comics would not need to be published by the big 2.
Wonder Woman’s publishing arrangements are rare and do not apply to Superman, Batman, X-Men, FF, Spider-Man etc. If they are no longer published, the rights do not revert. This is, however, true of V for Vendetta and Watchmen.
A direct market for comics does exist, but increasing numbers of titles are sold in collections, available at Borders, B&N, Amazon etc.
Most titles cost $3-$4 and are published monthly, although new titles are released once a week.
“Hard leftist bent” is your baggage,
They are marketed increasingly to a smaller audience that buys more product, but the publishers are desperate for anyone to buy them – although men aged 35-45 do have more disposable income than most other groups. Most superhero titles are avowedly not “mature readers”.
Conversely, Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen both are “mature readers”.
None of those films cited lost money. Wanted grossed $350m. Watchmen took $185m – both figures excluding DVD sales.
I don’t recall Iron Man being a fun drunk who enjoyed stripping air hostesses in Stan Lee’s 1960 comics.
Top sales figures: Superman 75 (the death issue) sold about two million and is the highest selling verified Superman issue. Sales figures from pre-1980 are dubious. Superman currently sells 30k. Wonder Woman sells 27k.
Watchmen – individual issues sold about 35k. The collected version sold over one million copies despite retailing at about 10 times the cost of a regular comic. It has been the top selling trade paperback for three years in a row.
Comics are a format for telling a story. The desire for simplicity and unsophisticated story telling, and hearkening back to the 1960s are anachronistic and a view that I suspect you a are minority in holding.
I would say that Watchmen failed at the box office because it was a bad film, and attempted to adapt something unadaptable – the exact same reasons that adaptations of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Catch-22 have failed. I would also say that anyone viewing the target audience of Watchmen as 9-12 year old males needs their head examined.
“None of the male audience found a hero they wanted to be” – I don’t think this stopped Buffy.
The movie was a muddled mess that failed to properly capture the comics. It’s difficult to condense a complex storyline into a 2 hour movie, especially when not everyone in the audience is familiar with the characters. Things like Batman, Spiderman, etc are much easier to do because everyone already is familiar with the universe. The story they were trying to tell in the first movie might have worked better over two films rather than one.
When a movie doesn’t make money, it isn’t news that there won’t be a sequel. With the Rorschach stuff they cut out, I could see him in a solo film. That could be worth doing.
Nope – nothing about this movie was, is, or will be worth doing. Snyder is a one-trick, slow-mo hack who can’t make a film unless someone has already literally drawn out every shot for him. Moore wanted nothing to do with this (or any other project based on his work), and rightly so.
Yeah, like Moore said, it was never a period piece. It was set in 1985 because that’s when it came out. Why didn’t they update it for the movie? Do we have less apocalyptic scenarios on the horizon?
I never read the graphic novel but Jackie Earle Harley’s depiction of Rorschach was the only bright point of The Watchmen for me. I left the film wanting more of Rorschach so I think a solo prequel film based on his character would definetly work. Rorschach’s character has a great anti-hero story that is very riveting and works with all viewing demographics. Plus, Harley has serious martial arts skills so the action can be cranked waaaay up. A good script wouldn’t hurt either.
In retrospect, they should have rewritten the comic story (which has always been overrated) and made Rorshach the (surviving) hero, because that was the only character who had potential and audience appeal, plus Moore’s original ending was totally moronic.
Is there really a demand for new Watchmen comic books? I would think the clamor would have been the loudest back in 1987. Alan Moore isn’t going to write them. Even though Comics still try new and interesting projects, but this feels so Hollywood –recycling hits from yesteryear because the suits need that safety net, “It worked once before so…blah, blah..”
Thank you Nikki. I was talking about the comic book in my original report. Some people seem to have taken that and made it all about a movie sequel. Appreciate the common sense here.
Whiskey, DC I can’t speak for, but for Marvel, their comic publishing business makes money. Not as much as their licensing or movies, but it does make money. It’s one of Marvel’s things. As for Watchmen, it is DC’s best selling comic book of all time – it has sold many millions of copies now. 2 million in the last year in North American sales alone was reported.
Watchmen broke my heart. I spent months geeking out about the film, praying to the god of fandom that Snyder would be Dawn of the Dead Snyder and not 300 Snyder. And then we got the chunk of shit that is Watchmen. And now DC is going to prove Moore right and shit all over the compelling story of Watchmen with bullshit “prequel” stories. The point of Watchmen is that all of the “heroes” were a sort of realistic analogues to contemporary characters, so Nightowl- Blue Beetle, Rorschach=Batman, Manhattan=Superman, etc. They are all complex individuals who didn’t so much fight for justice but rather put on costumes and beat the crap out of criminals. No real super villains, no real super powers, no real adventures. But, hey, keep milking the cash cow and turn them into “superheroes” who we can idolize and emulate. Give them Good Ol’ Days and kill everything that was good about the fucking comic. Hell, give the Ernies a prequel comic. They were the best characters in the books.
NightOwl = Batman
Rorschach = The Question
Captain Manhattan = Captain Atom
Looking at the movie it was better than the childlike comic that people overly praise. Most of the problems in the movie is when Snyder stuck too closley to the terrible book, such as the sex scene in Archimedes after the rescue of the people from the building. I’m just glad he improved the ending, no one wants to see Silk Spectre and NightOwl having sex in Ozymandis’s basement after Captain Manhattan killed Rorschach.
i really hope they don’t try to ruin watchmen for me
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Might be worth pointing out that Alan Moore has talked about DC’s recent attempts to kick off a Watchmen sequel, confirming their intentions.