Zack Snyder knew what he was getting into when he went to the Saturn Awards. He was up for, and won, Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film for 300. In a room full of genre press though, all the talk was Watchmen. He was ready to talk all night.
CraveOnline: How does it feel to beat Meet the Spartans for the Saturn award?
Zack Snyder: You know, it feels good because their movie looked certainly as good as ours. Maybe we should have thought of getting Brittany Spears possibly or a lookalike to put it over the top.
CraveOnline: How trippy was it to see that they did it on a soundstage and got pretty close?
Zack Snyder: I thought it was cool. I thought it was hilariously awesome.
CraveOnline: So where exactly are you in Watchmen?
Zack Snyder: Director’s cut stage. Like I showed a cut to the studio and I'm working on it now.
CraveOnline: How long is it?
Zack Snyder: Yeah, it was three hours.
CraveOnline: How much of that has finished effects?
Zack Snyder: I think the version I have right now has maybe two real Dr. Manhattan shots in it and they're not even done. There's two shots that don't look like Billy in the light suit in the movie.
CraveOnline: How do those two Dr. Manhattan shots look?
Zack Snyder: What we did with Billy is basically, because Dr. Manhattan glows and has all sorts of light, we built him this suit that has LEDs all over it because he's going to be a CG guy. They film his face with two HD cameras and that performance goes onto the CG guy so it's Billy's face.
CraveOnline: Can we be sure that at least the DVD will have that full three hour cut?
Zack Snyder: Yeah, that's my hope. Who knows what they do to me but the hope is to do this crazy epic DVD that's a freakshow. That seems like a no brainer to me. A freakshow of length and extras and fan fetish.
CraveOnline: Isn't it already fan fetish?
Zack Snyder: Absolutely. It's the king of fan fetish. You know, it's funny because I've lost perspective on that now because to me, the honest truth is I geek out on little stuff now as much as anybody. People will go, "Oh, we've got to cut. You don't need that shot of the Hollis Mason Garage sign." And I'm like, "What are you talking about? Of course you do. Are you crazy? How will people enjoy the movie without sh*t like that?" It's hard for me and I think it's probably good because we're going to end up with that stuff in the movie.
CraveOnline: Who is your favorite Watchman?
Zack Snyder: Of the characters? It's hard to say. Look, I like them all for different reasons. There's two way to look at them. One says like, oh, it's like a dysfunctional family. It's like a Thanksgiving. Then you could also say they're all personality traits of a single person, which is also a really cool way to look at it. I love Manhattan. I think to me it's Manhattan's movie in a lot of ways, because it's his influence on the world but it's also The Comedian's movie in a way because it's his influence on all of them. So those two really for me. I mean, Rorschach is seminal and he's everyone's favorite so I never say him because it's too on the nose. And Jackie's a frickin' rock star in the movie.
CraveOnline: Do you get attached to every minute of the three hour cut?
Zack Snyder: It’s impossible. That's the balancing act for me is you want the movie as tight as possible, I don't know why, I guess so people can enjoy it. For me the hardest part is when is it not Watchmen anymore? I don't think that's a danger but it's a thing that I'm trying to be the gatekeeper of while other forces conspire to say, "No, length, length, length, playability." Whatever the hell that means.
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