Zack Snyder’s Watchmen Cast Officially Announced
Ever since it was announced that Zack Snyder would be bringing Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel Watchmen to the big screen, for some reason I just haven’t been all that excited about it. Maybe it’s because I think Zack Snyder is overrated as a director, or maybe it’s just because I’m not convinced this story will work that well as a movie. At any rate, casting rumours have been flying, and I haven’t been paying much attention. Now we finally have official confirmation of the primary cast. They are as follows:
Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children, Maniac Cop 3) — Rorschach
Billy Crudup (Almost Famous) — Dr. Manhattan
Malin Akerman (The Comeback, The Heartbreak Kid) — Laurie Juspeczyk/The Silk Spectre
Matthew Goode (Match Point) — Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias
Patrick Wilson (Little Children) — Nite-Owl
Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Grey’s Anatomy, Supernatural) — The Comedian
Clearly they are trying to avoid working with big names in order to save some money, and I am totally down with that. Unfortunately, I can’t really comment on most of these people and whether or not they’ll work since I don’t know who most of them are! Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan is the most surprising to me, not only is he playing a superhero with near god-like power who becomes completely detached from humanity, but he’s also going to have to lose that wonderful head of hair he’s got. What do all you Watchmen fans out there think of this cast?
Comments (8)
I have said it before, and I’ll say it again, I can’t wait to see what Zack Snyder cooks up. Whether it is good or bad, I will still see it for my own personal satisfaction. But a bad movie will not ruin the experience of a phenomenal book. There is no casting in this film that has me saying “That is brilliant casting!” but to me, the most interesting is Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. I was suitably impressed with his disturbing performance in Little Children.
Posted by Bishop on July 26th, 2007I think it looks like a solid cast. I love that they’re not using big-name actors. It will make the focus be more on the characters. For instance, when recapping a scene for someone else, a person will most likely say “Then, the Owl and Rorschach talk stuff over with Ozy” instead of “Then, Luke Wilson and Ben Stiller talk stuff over with Owen Wilson”. Also, a lot of these actors have similar faces to the characters in the book, which is a huge bonus.
Posted by Ryan R on July 26th, 2007I just finished reading this book and though I had my problems with it I certainly can’t argue that it is a seminal comic. For me the biggest problem with this cast is that they are all young. One of the biggest points about the comic is that everybody (with the exception of a few) is burned out and over the hill in their 40’s.
Posted by Ian on July 26th, 2007For me patrick wilson as nite owl looks the most difficult to reconcile with the comic, he looks to o young and fit he should be podgy and old, I have yet to be convinced by this casting that this film is going in the right direction but the casting is a good idea I just hope everyone (especially the comedian) are properly bulked up for this film. But i have to second ians complaint that the cast is much too trendy and young.
Posted by evil homer on July 26th, 2007Yeah, that is a very good point about the cast being too young. The whole idea behind the comic is that they are middle-aged and washed up and whatnot.
I think I like Ryan R’s idea of casting Luke and Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller better.
Posted by Sean on July 26th, 2007Yeah in many ways Watchmen could be done as a spoof on the comic movie genre. Ironic enough since in many ways Watchmen is supposed to be the anti-comicbook or something like that. If it were funny and self aware (“meta” cringe also ironic ’cause of the comic in the comic) that would be fun to watch.
Posted by Ian on July 26th, 2007Thank god we’ll still have the comic. This looks like a cast for a Smallville-version of Watchmen.
Posted by Henrik on July 31st, 2007Leave a Reply