News

Live from Hall H: Watchmen Footage Brings the House Down

Comic-Con attendees knew that the Watchmen panel in Hall H was going to be the main event of the Con — what they didn’t know is that the footage shown would stun them to silence.
By  · Published on July 25th, 2008

First it was the “surprise guest” Dave Gibbons joining Zack Snyder and the cast of Watchmen on stage in the famed Hall H, then it was hearing the cast wax intellectual about Alan Moore’s book, then it was an extended set of clips that caused every die hard comic book fan in the room to melt at the hands of Warner Brothers’ upcoming adaptation. If you didn’t gather this from the recently released teaser trailer, I will be happy to remind you: Watchmen appears to be every bit the movie we want it to be.

Of course, while our own Cole Abaius will have a full report for you in a little while complete with interview quotes from the entire cast, I did want to run down for you what we saw this afternoon in Hall H.

The clip began with a close-up of Rorschach, played by Jackie Earl Haley, and it was beautiful. Fans should be delighted in the way he looks up close and in action. The footage progressed into a series of shots that included our first look at Carla Gugino in action as the first Silk Spectre, and a shady glance from Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s The Comedian.

As well, the clip included a bigger shot of Dr. Manhattan in Vietnam, absolutely obliterating a row of soldiers. At that point, it became aparent to any doubters that this film was going to skew very adult, as many fans would have it. Also skewing adult was a very sexy flash of Malin Ackerman as Silk Spectre about to remove her comic hero garb. To say the least, not only is Watchmen looking as if it will be a very faithful adaptation, it will also be a very sexy, sleek and visually compelling experience — we would expect nothing less from Zack Snyder.

We will have more from Watchmen as our coverage of Comic-Con 2008 continues…

Stay tuned all this week as we bring you coverage from Comic-Con International. Not only will we be roaming the floor in search of love, but we will have the latest news Live from Hall H, great interviews with some of Hollywood’s hottest stars and random convention shenanigans, courtesy of our Comic-Con Attack Squad! To keep tabs on all of the happenings, just head over to our Comic-Con 2008 Homepage.

Related Topics: , ,

Neil Miller is the persistently-bearded Publisher of Film School Rejects, Nonfics, and One Perfect Shot. He's also the Executive Producer of the One Perfect Shot TV show (currently streaming on HBO Max) and the co-host of Trial By Content on The Ringer Podcast Network. He can be found on Twitter here: @rejects (He/Him)