We feared it. The smart online contingent has been behind Zack Snyder’s take on Watchmen ever since it became apparent he was doing his best to do it right. But we’re not the ones making the big corporate decisions; Warner Bros suits may not look at this film and have the same kind of geekgasm we do. Especially with a running time of nearly three hours.
A couple of months ago Zack seemed to think that his cut was going to clock in at two forty five or so, and he seemed – to me – confident. Well, things have changed a bit; in an interview with SciFi Wire Deborah Snyder says that the film is down to 2:35… and possibly still being cut.
Zack says, “The movie’s pretty long … compared to 300, which was an hour and 58 minutes. The director’s cut [of Watchmen]
is about three hours and 10 minutes long. It has even more than the
theatrical version, as far as the detail that gets even closer to the
graphic novel.”
Ugh. Warner Bros needs to step the fuck back and leave this film alone at 2:35. Period. I can see this being another goddamned Kingdom of Heaven situation, where a fine film is flayed within an inch of its life and fails. Sure, we’ll see the director’s cut on DVD, but that’s not the same as the movie doing well in theaters in March. They were being so ballsy up until now.