February 20, 2009

'Watchmen' Director's Cut To Hit Theaters In July, Zack Snyder Reveals On MTV 'Spoilers'

By Larry Carroll (MTV.com)

To quote the immortal words that serve as inspiration for Watchmen super-genius Adrian Veidt: "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

The works unveiled Wednesday night at the Pacific Design Center for a taping of MTV Spoilers (airing this Saturday at 8pm) included sneak peeks of the new Transformers and Harry Potter sequels, Star Trek and the entirety of Watchmen. Despair, however, was the last thing on anybody's mind.

The crowd of more than 300 guys, girls and geeks that packed the design center - many wearing T-shirts and pins bearing the graphic novel's blood-stained smiley-face logo - were greeted by My Chemical Romance and Watchmen stars Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley and Jeffrey Dean Morgan and saw the eagerly anticipated flick weeks before its release. Afterwards, Watchmen director Zack Snyder took to the stage with MTV's Tim Kash for a Q&A filled with revelations, riotous laughter and references to Dr. Manhattan's crotch.

"When I originally got the script, Adrian died at the end," the 300 filmmaker said, recalling one particularly sacrilegious rewrite that scared him into realizing he'd better direct Watchmen if he wanted Hollywood to stay true to the 1986 graphic novel. "That was the biggest fight for me."

Based on the response from the Spoilers crowd, Snyder's battles are well appreciated.

On the sexy nude scenes between Akerman and Wilson: "They're not too hard to look at," Snyder grinned. "It's not like they're big, fat people."

On his most beloved directorial tool: "Slow-motion helps me to enjoy the face-smashing even more."

And on his gutsy decision to tweak the graphic novel's conclusion: "The reason why the squid was taken out of the movie was so there'd be more Rorschach, and a little more Manhattan."

As fans lined up in the aisles to ask questions of the affable filmmaker, he revealed new details about his various cuts of the film, eliciting oohs and aahs of anticipation.

"The director's cut is three hours and 10 minutes and comes out in July," Snyder revealed, calling his original edit "considerably more violent than this ... and sexier" and explaining that if the movie does well, the director's cut will get a theatrical release in Los Angeles and New York.

Following that, of course, will be the Watchmen DVD in the fall - which will include what he dubbed a "Crazy Ultimate Freaky Edition" boasting such time-omitted extras as Tales of the Black Freighter, Hollis Mason's death, more Manhattan moments on Mars and dialogue-heavy scenes with the newsstand-bonding Bernies.

But first comes the March 6 theatrical cut of Watchmen, a hard-R flick that rocked the Spoilers crowd. "I have been waiting to see this movie for 20 years," one heartfelt fan told Snyder during the Q&A. "And I just wanted to say thank you for totally making it worth the wait."

The fans did much more than merely watch the Watchmen on Wednesday. Star Trek actor Zachary Quinto recorded a special greeting that unspooled on the big screen for the cheering Spoilers crowd, followed by some new footage focusing on the skills of director J.J. Abrams. There was also a hilarious, never-before-seen clip of "Land of the Lost" that had Will Ferrell performing the classic show's cheesy theme on a ukulele. And Messieurs Harry Potter and Optimus Prime also came to the party bearing gifts.