I was not a particular fan of Zack Snyder’s WATCHMEN. This has nothing really to do with Snyder’s direction of the film. As I said at the time, I think this was likely the best WATCHMEN film we’d ever get; it’s just that I don’t think Alan Moore’s graphic novel translates all that well into film.
So I don’t know that any other director could’ve done any better with the material than Snyder but that’s not to say that others didn’t try. Most famously, Paul Greengrass (GREEN ZONE, UNITED 93) was set to direct an adaptation of the film for Paramount, a version that even had its own official website. Obviously the film was put into turnaround where Warner Bros. picked it up and brought Snyder aboard. But what of Greengrass’ version?
Dominic Watkins, who was Greengrass’ production designer for the BOURNE films and was set to work with him again on WATCHMEN, opened up to Comic Book Resources and shared some concept art from the failed production and their plans for the film.
“The difference between Zack Snyder’s ‘Watchmen’ and ours would’ve been night and day. He pretty much made the movie page-to-page from the graphic novel. Ours…would’ve drawn on that, but we’d have updated it somewhat…It would’ve been done a little bit documentary-style, with a little news reporting mixed in.”
There’s a lot to look at and read (including some concepts from Greengrass that made it into Snyder’s version) so you should definitely head over and give it a read.
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