Joel Silver on Gilliam's version of 'Watchmen'

[cclark]

Joel Silver Says Zack Snyder's 'Watchmen' A "Slave" To Comic, Terry Gilliam's Version Had No Dr. Manhattan

What Terry had done, and it was a Sam Hamm script--who had written a script that everybody loved for the first "Batman"--and then he brought in a guy who'd worked for him to do work on it [Charles McKeown, co-writer of "Brazil"].

It was very smart, it was very articulate, and it really gave a very satisfying resolution to the story, but it just didn't happen. Lost to time.

I still wouldn't mind seeing Gilliam do his own original take on the superhero genre, especially if it was built on the bones of this old Watchmen script. Shame it won't happen.

[phildreams]

I really enjoyed this interview. Well done Max.

[bruttenholm]

Actually, Silver is speaking essentially about Sam Hamm's script here. It can easily be found with google. But I don't think we have information about the way Gilliam and McKeown would have re-written it.

[cclark]

Bruttenholm, you'll definitely find this interesting: The wiki about Sam Hamm's Watchmen script gives a little insight on the differences between Gilliam's & Hamm's respective scripts.

Terry Gilliam was unhappy with Hamm's draft, because, according to Gilliam, the first draft was "just a bunch of superheroes." With his collaborators Warren Skarren and Charles McKeown, Gilliam wrote a new draft that restored the original comics' narration of Rorschach's journal and additional scenes that were cut. Although it has never been released, it has been rumoured to be closer in tone to the comic series.

In a related story, Zack Snyder defends his own Watchmen movie.

[Packer]

In a related story, Zack Snyder defends his own Watchmen movie.

This is what Gilliam had to say about that on his Facebook page:

For all of you who are not in London searching for the elusive Zero Theorem bus, here's a puzzle: Who are "The Terry Gilliam's of the world"? Apparently the film of The Watchmen was made to save it from them. Who are they? What threat to the world do they pose? Can we stop them before they destroy other films of graphic novels?

[Donald McKinney]

Apologies in advance for the outburst I'm about to make, but Zach Snyder is a FUCKING CUNT!! How dare he slag off our Terry!! He should be thankful that we have directors like Terry Gilliam making films!! For that, I hope his Batman Vs. Superman film has enough production problems that would makes the troubles Gilliam has faced on his films look like a drop in the ocean by comparison!! True he's entitled to his opinion about Gilliam's abandoned take, but there was no need to be so rude about Gilliam!! I have a feeling this will backfire on Snyder, and seeing as Gilliam has a knack for slagging off Hollywood great and mighty, when Gilliam goes around promoting Zero Theorem, I'm sure he'll be putting Snyder to rights!!

[Ogg82]

Donald, BRAVO! I agree.

[TlatoSMD]

The only thing I ever really liked about Zack Snyder's Watchmen were the start credits set to Bobby Dylan's The times, they are a-changin', and the rest, as Terry said, is "just some buncha superheroes" that only seemed like lame jokes and that I never cared about throughout the whole film. I wish Terry woulda saved the film from him by making it a short TV series instead. Also, it makes Snyder more of a pathetic than an ironic director if in hindsight he realizes he only created what looks like a (bad) video game.

[dktd]

Synder's film are always wafer-thin. They look great, but lacks any depth whatsoever. None of his films have any depth. How you remove depth from an Alan Moore story like Watchmen, I haven't a clue. He removed any semblance of intelligence from Dawn of the Dead, too. The man's a tool - why did Morrissey and Paul Westerberg let them near their songs? Dear, oh dear. Oh, and he did Sucker Punch - one of the worst films I have ever seen, and feel that watching it is akin to self-harm.