July 27, 2007

Watchmen Cast Revealed: Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley,

By Shawn Adler (MTV.com)

For months now, the question hasn't been who watches the Watchmen but rather who will we watch in Watchmen?

Well, now we know. On the eve of Comic-Con, where the cast is expected to be present, the Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Malin Akerman would be joining the cast of the eagerly anticipated flick to be directed by Zack Snyder (300).

Match Point star Goode was confirmed as Adrian Veidt/ Ozymandias, the former costumed crime fighter turned entrepreneur whose plan to end international tension sets the plot of Watchmen in motion. Wilson, meanwhile, whose participation in the film was confirmed by MTV on Tuesday, will play Dan Dreiberg/ Nite Owl, a technical wiz who relies heavily on gadgetry and know-how.

Akerman, best known perhaps for her role in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, will add some much-needed estrogen to the cast as Laurie Juspeczyk/ Silk Spectre. The long-rumored casting of Crudup as the mysterious blue-skinned Dr. Manhattan was finally confirmed as well.

The name most likely to catch many by surprise is the casting of Morgan of Grey's Anatomy fame. Morgan will play the Comedian, a small but pivotal role in the story of the Watchmen and a character far darker than his beloved Denny Duquette on the ABC hit series.

Finally there is Haley, long rumored but finally set to play Walter Kovacs/ Rorschach, the de facto lead in Watchmen. Rorschach is an uncompromising, psychopathic vigilante ... and maybe the only sane man in an insane world.

Often called the Citizen Kane of graphic novels, and the only comic book to be named as one of Time magazine's 100 greatest English-language novels, Snyder's Watchmen adaptation comes to theaters next year.