The Watchmen news has begun pouring in since last night’s revelation by Paddy Considine that Jackie Earle Haley has been offered the role of Rorschach. Over at Aint It Cool, Moriarty’s sources told him that Jason Patric is being asked to play Dr. Manhattan (Keanu Reeves balked at the paycheck) while he hints that the actor being considered for The Comedian is a ‘punishing’ choice… could that be Thomas Jane?
Meanwhile, over at Coming Soon, handsome Max Evry was talking to Patrick Wilson at the press day for Evening, and the actor all but confirmed he’s going to be the Nite Owl: ‘I would blab my mouth ’cause I certainly haven’t been told to keep quiet. It’s just out of respect for them trying to get everybody else on board before I go ahead and blab my mouth,’ he said. Wilson himself is familiar with – and excited about – the original material. ‘The material’s phenomenal, let’s put it that way. It’s pretty unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. Just as we were talking about, you know with every huge… and that’s a totally different, when you talk about comic book movies that doesn’t even do an ounce of justice to that script, both the movie script and the original graphic novel is pretty phenomenal writing.’
Like I said last night with the Jackie Earle Haley story, this is just the beginning. The decisions being made behind the scenes on Watchmen are almost all smart choices, not ones that pander to the lowest common denominator… or that will make the marketing department’s jobs any easier. Everything that I am hearing from multiple sources – and will share with you as soon as I can – fills me with the belief that Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is going to be done seriously, correctly and damn well.